More Discussions for this daf
1. Rebbi Yishmael Kohen Gadol 2. Age of Avraham Avinu 3. Accountabity for a father's misdeeds
4. Hash-m's anger 5. Acasriel ...Hash-m Tsevakos 6. Tosfos on Avraham Avinu
7. Gezeirah Shavah 8. Chronology 9. your response to Berachos 7
10. What the Kohen Gadol saw 11. The duration of G-d's anger 12. Reuvain -- now you see him...
13. The age of Avraham at Bris Bein ha'Besarim 14. G-ds anger 15. The Shechinah resting on the other nations
16. Recalling a prophecy 17. Dealing with the wicked
DAF DISCUSSIONS - BERACHOS 7

Reuven Kasierer asked:

the note on the side of the gmora by hashems anger of 58,888 of an hour says

its really 5,888 like the number of the psukim in the torah. whats the connection between the psukim in the torah and hashems anger?

Reuven Kasierer, silver spring, USA

The Kollel replies:

It doesn't seem that Hash-m's anger has to do with the Pesukim, since Hash-m's anger is only 1, not 5,888. Rather I would suggest that just as we see that the Torah is separated into 5,888 significant parts, so, too, an hour.

D. Zupnik

The Kollel adds:

Actually, the Girsa in the margin is not based on Midrashic sources, but conjecture. Nevertheless, the Girsa of our Gemara itself is not at all certain. Besides the Girsa'os in our Sugya (88,888, 58,888, and according to DIKDUKEI SOFRIM 56,880 or 56,888), the YEFEH EINAYIM cites the following Girsa'os:

Avodah Zarah 4a: 53,848 (56,848 - Tosfos Rabeinu Elchanan; 56,888 - RACH, Dikdukei Sofrim in Avodah Zarah)

Eichah Rabah: 56,548 (and in the Yerushalmi, mistakenly, 56,048)

Tanchuma P. Ki Sisa: 58,650

Midrash Shmuel: 65,048

Yalkut 2:300, 2:555: 88,844

I am not aware of sources for any of the above numbers.

Rabeinu Tam in SEFER HA'YASHER (#691) suggests that the best Girsa might be 13,824, which is 24x24x24 (since there are 24 Onos/hour, and 24 Itim/Onah and 24 Rega'im/Es, see Tosefta Berachos 1:3). However, the TOSFOS RABEINU ELCHANAN in Avodah Zarah (and Piskei Tosfos there #4) argues that there are numerous types of Rega and the one of the Tosefta is not the same as the one in our Gemara, as the Yotzer of Parashas Shekalim implies.

The Yefeh Einayim suggests that perhaps the Girsa should be 82,080, since there are 60 mins./hr. and 18 Chalakim/min. and 76 Rega'im/Chelek, according to the timetables that we use for calculating Kidush ha'Chodesh.

M. Kornfeld