Does anyone say why his mother is Amatlay? Is this not a word meaning a concept in Gemara? Does anyone drush on this?
HG Schild, ny usa
The word Amasla or Amaslay indeed is a word mentioned in the Gemara. An Amasla means someone has a reasonable interpretation of his previous statements or actions which shed on them a new light. This definitely seems to lend itself to Avraham Avinu, who was able to shed new light on the the world's existence by showing everyone that there was plan and purpose in creation.
However, I haven't found anyone who speaks about this. I did see a Chasam Sofer who mentions that this Gemara is telling us a powerful message: the Torah is not a history book. This is evident by the abundant amount of names mentioned in the Torah, while the mother of one of the most important people in Yiddishkeit, Avraham Avinu, is not mentioned, though it was known to Moshe Rabeinu (since if it was known by the Gemara through tradition, it was certainly known to Moshe Rabeinu).
All the best,
Yaakov Montrose
This is great. Did u notice that on the same daf it also mentions Haman's mother with the same 1st name?
According to the enclosed drash, what "light" did haman's mother shed, if any?
Let me clarify. Amasla does not intrinsically mean light. It means giving an explanation which could fit circumstances, though it is not necessarily true or false. This would actually work very well with the Gemara, which states that Avraham and Haman's mothers had the same first name, but Avraham's mother had a last name which was that of a Tahor animal, while Haman's was that of a Tamei bird (as the Gemara points out). This could symbolize that while Avraham shed a Tahor light on creation by showing the plan and purpose of Hashem, Haman tried to spin the old Tamei tale of Amalek, denying that the Jews (or Hashem) were anything special and trying to show that they were the parasites of society.
All the best,
Yaakov Montrose