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Garvin's avatar

Looks interesting.

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Eric Brand's avatar

Great stuff. I wonder if "go in and come out" is a euphemism itself.

You say "Inability to identify names without a patronymic marker" is an impediment. Because without it there's too much redundancy for identification?

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Ezra Brand's avatar

" I wonder if "go in and come out" is a euphemism itself." - I don't think so. The worship of Pe'or is understood to be scatological, not sexual.

See the Mishnah:

https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.64a.14:

הפוער עצמו לבעל פעור זו היא עבודתה

"one who defecates before Ba’al-Peor, this is its typical form of worship"

Compare a previous passage in that sugya:

https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.64a.10:

כיון שהגיע לפעור, שאלה לכומרים, במה עובדין לזו, אמרו לה, אוכלין תרדין, ושותין שכר, ומתריזין בפניה

" When she arrived at Peor she asked the priests: How does one worship this idol? They said to her: One eats spinach, which causes diarrhea, and drinks beer, which also causes diarrhea, and defecates before it."

Re "Inability to identify names without a patronymic marker" - by this I mean "son of/bar/ben". Because without it, the capitalized word could be the beginning of a sentence, or some other kind of proper noun, like a place name

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Eric Brand's avatar

Thanks for the quick reply. But we know the sin of Baal peor was precipitated by an interest in sexual relations. So that phrase could still have that connotation, and the worship was connected or just a bonus (or vice versa)

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Ezra Brand's avatar

Maybe. Though again, in Chazal, there's no connection made with anything sexual. So no real indication to read it as a euphemism

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