30 November, 2023 19:02

Date: Sun, Oct 1, 2023 at 2:05 PM

Subject:

*** "until this very day," almost always is understood as = "forever". But actually, never was in fact "until this very day" Discuss

How does one reading the Torah, or Tenach…know when the words on the page are exaggerating? Or in other words speaking in the language of the common person?

It is an ancient and *widely* accepted tradition that at times, the Torah / Tenach speaks in what we might say is "everyday" terms — not to be taken "literally".

But when do we know when the sentence (or) sentences in question are literal?

Does the Torah "really" mean each day of Beresheit was 24 hours?, when the Sun/Moon was not created until day 4?

And we know in other places in our tradition that the word "day" can mean a very long time (even 1000 years)! (Or more). And no one was there at Creation.

Okay, slightly less "troubling"… when the Torah uses the term "and so and so is the name ‘until this very day’" when sitting in 5784, we know that "until this very day" in fact, is not the case.

The term "until this very day" is more frequent in the Book of Yehoshua and in Judges, but it is also used in the 5 Books of Torah. Each and every example examined would probably prove my overall thought that… when the Torah (or) Tenach writes "until this very day" while we ‘generally’ translate that as meaning forever, permenant /the subject in question in fact, did not remain, until this (specific day) i.e. until the 21st century!

So, the question remains… what is actually meant by the phrase "until this very day"

In Torah itself, it is a bit hard. Due to the Datii belief that ALL of the 5 Books was give by G-d directly to Moses, who then gave it to Yehoshua Ben Nun.. (see Pikey Avot).

And not only does the Datii world believe this, they also believe Moses prophecy was the highest and most clear (face to face) than ALL the other prophets. Including Prophets mentioned before Moses!

In short, we are more or less forced to believe that "until this very day" *must* mean forever! But, on the other hand, it is also generally accepted that the Torah itself can be understood as speaking in (sometimes) exaggerated terms. Which leads back to the first question — how does a regular person reading the Torah know "when" to take the verses in question literal or not?