Commentary for Kiddushin 113:2
אמרו לו תלמידיו רבי כל אתין שדרשת מה תהא עליהם אמר להם כשם שקבלתי שכר על הדרישה כך קבלתי על הפרישה עד שבא רבי עקיבא ולימד את ה' אלהיך תירא לרבות תלמידי חכמים
but as soon as he came to, thou shalt fear [eth] the Lord thy God,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Deut. VI, 13.');"><sup>4</sup></span> he refrained.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Considering it impossible that this fear should be extended to another.');"><sup>5</sup></span> Said his disciples to him, 'Master, what is to happen with all the ethin<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Pl. of eth.');"><sup>6</sup></span>
Daf Shevui to Kiddushin
The Talmud now segues into a famous source about doing a midrash on the word “et.” A sage we never hear about elsewhere is said to have interpreted all of the times this word “et” appears, until he came to one whose interpretation would seem to be heretical. From that point forward, he stopped making derashot on the word et. R. Akiva, who seems to be his student, or at least his successor, succeeds in coming up with a derashah even for this verse.
We should note that we never find the word “et” being interpreted in actual tannaitic sources. Tannaim, the sages who operated in the tannaitic period, did not interpret grammatical features of verses such as full spelling and individual letters. It is only in later tradition that rabbis begin to ascribe to the tannaim such interpretive methods. This is a topic I will return to in a forthcoming third volume of Reconstructing the Talmud. So stay tuned.
We should note that we never find the word “et” being interpreted in actual tannaitic sources. Tannaim, the sages who operated in the tannaitic period, did not interpret grammatical features of verses such as full spelling and individual letters. It is only in later tradition that rabbis begin to ascribe to the tannaim such interpretive methods. This is a topic I will return to in a forthcoming third volume of Reconstructing the Talmud. So stay tuned.
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