More Discussions for this daf
1. Hava Amina Of R. Zeira 2. Standing or sitting for Havdalah 3. Wiping hands on the waiter's head
4. When eating together can one Bench for all? 5. Can people make a Mezuman when starting at different times 6. Birchas ha'Ilanos
7. אל יסב בחבורה של עמי הארץ 8. הני חלפי דימא מברכין עלייהו בורא עצי בשמים
DAF DISCUSSIONS - BERACHOS 43

ARI STERN asks:

Kvod Harav,

Birchos Hailonos , Berachos 43, RH 11, Shulchan Aruch 226,

1-In all 3 locations it says Ilanos TOVOS, most Siddurim have TOVIM, why?

2- If Ilan is Lashon Zachor then why indeed is it Ilanos and not Ilanim?

3-Why did Chazal use an Aramaic word for tree (Ilan only appears in Tanach in Sefer Daniel in Aramic pesukim), and not the Lashon Kodesh ETZ?

Yasher Koach.

Ari Stern

The Kollel replies:

Regarding your first question, Ilan is male and therefore it should read Ilanos Tovim. The common mistake made by people is to think that male should end Ilanim like amany other male things but there are exceptions: many male items which end in Os, for example Peiros, Shulchanos, Kikaros, chalonos (windows) but they are all male and in the plural they are Im.

As for why Chazal use Aramaic, they want people to use language which they were comfortable with. In the time of Chazal, Etz referred to the trunk of the tree and all the wood on it while Ilan referred to the entire tree with foliage and fruit. Thus it would not have made sense to people to use the term Etz at that point in reference to blossom and this is why they preferred the term Ilan.

Yoel Domb