Study Makkot folio 11A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
בלשון עזה, דכתיב: ״וידבר ה׳ אל יהושע לאמר דבר אל בני ישראל לאמר תנו לכם את ערי המקלט אשר דברתי אליכם וגו׳״? מפני שהן של התורה.
with harsh language, as it is written: “And YHWH spoke [vayedabber] to Joshua saying: Speak [dabber] to the children of Israel, saying: Assign you the cities of refuge of which I spoke [dibbarti] to you by means of Moses” (Joshua 20:1–2). Why does the Torah repeatedly employ a term of dibbur, connoting harsh speech, as opposed to the term of amira, connoting neutral speech? It is due to the fact that the cities of refuge are a mitzva of the Torah, and therefore they warrant emphasis.
למימרא דכל דיבור לשון קשה? אין, כדכתיב: ״דבר האיש אדני הארץ אתנו קשות״. והתניא: ״נדברו״, אין ״נדברו״ אלא לשון נחת, וכן הוא אומר ״ידבר עמים תחתינו״! ״דבר״ לחוד, ״ידבר״ לחוד.
The Talmud asks: Is that to say that all instances of speaking [dibbur] indicate harsh language? The Talmud answers: Yes, as it is written with regard to Joseph’s brothers: “The man, YHWH of the land, spoke [dibber] harshly to us” (Genesis 42:30). The Talmud asks: But isn’t it taught in a baraita with regard to the verse: “Then they who feared YHWH spoke [nidberu] with one another” (Malachi 3:16), that the term “they spoke” is nothing other than a term of gentleness, and likewise, the same is true of the verse which states: “He subdues [yadber] peoples under us” (Psalms 47:4), meaning that God will calmly and gently conduct the nations under the influence of the Jewish people? The Talmud answers: The meaning of dibber is discrete and the meaning of yadber is discrete. There is a difference between the two conjugations of the same root.
(סימני רבנן מהמני וספרי).
The Talmud provides a mnemonic for the disputes involving R' Yehuda that follow: Rabbis; mehemni, i.e., the dispute with R' Neḥemya; and the dispute with regard to Torah scrolls sewn with threads of flax.