Question:
Kindly would you be so good as to clarify for me what the phrases noted at the bottom of this message mean. These are out of this webpage:
https://dinonline.org/2013/09/25/rabbi-reisman-parshas-beraishis-5773/
Can I make a polite request and suggestion that gemara phrases such as this are translated the first time that they are used so that learners and readers of the page and site are able to grasp the Dvar Torah in its fullness. Thank you.
Please remember that there are many Tzaddikim Gemurim and also a great many outstanding and also ‘ordinary’ (who might be no less great because of
this) men who, because of the generation and circumstances which they were born into, did not have the opportunity to learn in yeshivos as is common for even the whippersnappers of today. The men I speak of will have had all sorts of nisyonos, and are perhaps responsible for the foundations of today’s Torah learning. In any case, many are upstanding and upright people of outstanding integrity. It seems to me that the learning should be made as accessible to them as to anyone else. Who knows who is the greater person.
The phrases are:
mimeilah
pesharah
chakarah
Thank you.
Answer:
The particular post that you read was a class given to an audience of people familiar with terminologies used in many Yeshivot that was transcribed, and it is different than the regular posts meant for the general public .
No doubt that there are many very righteous tzaddikim from various back rounds, and no one is to judge who has more merits than the other. The fact that certain terminology was used, was not in any meant, and should definitely not be taken as an insult or a put down to anyone at all. This is not want was meant, it is just different terms that are used among a certain audience, no different that when a professor gives a class to medical students that he may use terms that some people may not be familiar with. It isn’t meant to demean or to be insulting at all. It is just a form of speech.
Having said that, I would be more than happy to translate any “yeshivish” words for you.
Mimeilah- Therefore
pesharah – compromise
chakirah – A type of analytical question common used to “dissect” a topic and therefore understand it on a deeper level.
If there is any other words or terminologies that you need help with, I will be more than happy to be of help.
