More Discussions for this daf
1. Prophets to the nations 2. Job Marrying Dinah 3. Queen of Sheba
4. Moshe's Name 5. Last Eight Lines 6. Last eight verses of Torah and Ibn Ezra
7. Reading from a Sefer Torah
DAF DISCUSSIONS - BAVA BASRA 15

Boruch Kahan asked:

The Gemoro in Daf 15A goes into detail about Moshe Rabeynu's name and suggests that Heyman is Moshe and then the Gemoro says that there were 2 Heymons and 1 was Takke Moshe Rabeynu.If that is so then why is it not in the list in the Medrash on Vayikro of 1 of the 10 names of Moshe Rabeynu or put another way why is the list not 11.

A Terutz I came up with was possibly those 10 names such as Avigdor etc. were only Meyuchos to Moshe Rabeynu in other words there is no one else out there with those names Mah She Eyn Kayn with Heymon the fact the Gemoro has to say there were 2 Heymons means that Heymon is not an exclusive name to Moshe Rabeynu.What does the Kollel think of this

Boruch Kahan, London,England

The Kollel replies:

Hello Boruch.

Good to hear from you again.

Your answer is a nice idea, but I am not sure if it is the correct one, as some of the other names mentioned are also common to other people, such as Yered (Bereishis 5:26) and Chever (Shoftim 4:17 also see Rashi Shemos 18).

The simple (although perhaps slightly unappealing) answer would be that the Medrash disagrees with Rav of our Gemara.

Alternatively, we may suggest that the name Heiman is not included because it is a replica of the name Moshe, in that it has the same connotations. This is implied by a number of connections we find between the two names.

Firstly, as the Ben Ye'hoyada points out on our Gemara, the "Nistar" of the word Moshe is Heiman. In other words, each individual letter when spelt out by itself has a Nigleh (the part of the letter that is written in any word that contains the said letter) and a Nistar (the part of the letter that is not written in a word that contains the said letter). Hence, the letter Mem, which when spelt out as a word by itself is written Mem Mem, has Nigleh of Mem and Nistar of Mem. The letter Shin has Nigleh of Shin and Nistar of Yud, Nun, and the letter Heh has a Nigleh of Heh and a Nistar of Heh. Thus, the Nistar of the letters that make up the word Moshe give us the word Heiman.

Secondly, the word Heiman is made up of four letters, two of which (Mem and Heh) are the same as the word Moshe (and in fact the main part of his name as we find Moshe said about himself v'Nachnu Mah (Shemos 15:8)). The other two letters (Yud and Nun) have a Gematria of sixty, equivalent to the letter Samech, which is transposable with Shin, as we often find in Tefilos, for example in Kel Adon the verse that should start with Samech begins Semeichim, with a Shin.

Finally, we find the name alluded to in the same Pasuk that Moshe was given the name Moshe (Shemos 2:10), in the explanation of his name. Bas Paroh said that she called him Moshe: "Ki Min ha'Ma'im mi'Shisihu", "because I pulled him from the water". The last letter of the word Min together with the the first three letters of the word ha'Ma'im spell Heiman.

And the explanation of all this? As follows. The name Moshe was given to represent the fact that Moshe was pulled or drawn from the water. It is no coincidence that Moshe is indefatigably referred to by the Torah with this name. It is a sign that this name represents Moshe's fundamental nature. Rav Chaim Vital (in Sha'arei Kedushah 1:2) explains that water is the element (of the four basic elements, air fire, water, earth) that represents Ta'avah, desire. When the Torah quotes to us that Bas Paroh said Min ha'Ma'im mi'Shisihu, the Torah is telling us that Moshe was removed from Ta'avah as far as is possible for a human in this world. For this reason the Torah tells us that Moshe was Anav Me'od, (Bamidbar 12:3), because his own interests and desires did not play a role in his actions. For this reason Moshe is called Ne'eman (Bamidbar 12:7), meaning true, straight and reliable. This is the same as the name Heiman that Rav conferred upon him. Those who do not count Heiman do not disagree, perhaps, with the fact that he was called this, rather they say that it is already included in the name Moshe. Or they hold that there was actually no need for him to be called this name since he was already called Moshe by Bas Paroh, and they argue with Rav as suggested at the outset.

Please let me know if you have any comments.

Kesivah v'Chasimah Tovah,

Dov Freedman