Today is the 20th of Tevet, the Yom Hillula of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira, and in his merit all the soldiers currently fighting [in Operation Cast Lead – מִבְצָע עוֹפֶרֶת יְצוּקָה] should return home safely, and all the injured – soldiers and civilians alike – should receive a refuah shleima. It is known that in the month of Tevet, there were supposed to be three fasts. Aside from the tenth of Tevet, which we continue to fast today, there were supposed to be two more fasts that people fasted on; except we are a weak generation, so they combined all three into one fast that starts at five in the morning and ends at five in the afternoon. On the tenth of Tevet, the siege on Yerushalayim began. On the ninth of Tevet, our Selichot say Ezra HaSofer died, but Chazal also say: לֹא נוֹדַע אֵיזֶה הִיא הַצָרָה שֶׁאֵרַע בּוֹ – an unknown trouble happened on that day (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 580:2). Commentators point out that it is actually well known what took place on that day, but they could not print it, so the best thing was to write “an unknown event,” because that would surely lead to everyone wanting to know, asking, and being told verbally.
What event was it? One of the commentators on Megillat Ta’anit writes: I heard in the name of a great one that on that day ‘אוֹתוֹ הָאִישׁ’, ‘that man’ – ‘זִכְרוֹ וְשְׁמוֹ מַּח יִ’ – was born. In that Year, 3761, the Tekufat Tevet (winter solstice) occurred on a Friday, four and a half hours into the day, on the eighth day of the month of Tevet. It follows that December 25, the birthdate of that man, fell on Shabbat Kodesh, the ninth of Tevet. From this, one can understand what is written in Megillat Ta’anit: “On the ninth of Tevet, our Rabbis did not record what occurred on this day because they feared to write that a fast was decreed for this reason.”
On the eighth of Tevet, the Torah was translated into Greek and there was darkness in the world for three days. Chazal say (Masechet Sofrim 1:7), and the Gemara recounts (Megillah 9a), seventy-two elders were summoned by king Talmai and they were placed in 72 separated rooms where they were then commanded to translate the Torah into Greek. This was a day as difficult for Am Yisrael like the day on which the Golden Calf was made. Despite being isolated from one another and not having had the chance to collaborate, there were 13 places in which they all, intentionally, made the exact same deviation in translation. The Gemara (Megillah 9a) lists these spots along with their reasons, and one of them is pertinent to our shiur. The eighth intentional change listed is:
Instead of וַיַּרְכִּבֵם עַל־הַחֲמוֹר, they all wrote: “And Moshe took his wife and his sons and set them upon a carrier of people.”
Unlike a previous change – where אֶת הָאַרְנֶבֶת (the hare) was replaced with אֶת צְעִירַת הָרַגְלַיִם (short-legged beast) because Talmai’s wife was named Arnevet and they did not want to be seen as calling her an impure animal – Rashi says there is another reason for this change and the omission of ‘donkey’. They changed it because it would not be appropriate in the eyes of Talmai for Moshe Rabbeinu, the king of Bnei Yisrael, to be riding in on a donkey! He’d surely ask, “Did Moshe not have a horse? Or a camel? The King of Israel drives a Subaru?!? He should be riding in on a stretch Lincoln with a convertible roof! Or a Hummer!” So, instead, they wrote a carrier of people.
The Ibn Ezra writes, the elders had to change the word because Talmai would claim it’s demeaning for the Navi’s wife to ride on one donkey together with her two sons. The whole family on one donkey?! Not appropriate! The Maharsha...
