Q&A: Nefeg’s memory vanished — why?
Nefeg’s memory vanished — why?
Question
“And the sons of Izhar: Korah, and Nefeg, and Zichri.”
Nefeg somehow got blotted out and his name faded away…
As for Zekher [or Zeicher — timely, with the Sabbath of Zakhor], nothing remained of Zichri.
Only the sons of Korah remained. And the verse in the plains of Moab in Pinchas already wraps up all the descendants of Izhar as the Korahite family… [since only they remained].
Does the Rabbi know why it turned out that way for those families of Nefeg and Zichri, whose names faded and whose memory was lost?
And from one matter to another, on the same topic.
Another question: if every male descendant of Izhar is “the Korahite,” then maybe it isn’t advisable to name a son Izhar?
Maybe it isn’t advisable to live in a community with that name?
Since the whole name traces through the Korahite line…
Who would name his son Korah? Or give that name to a town? Maybe they should change the name.?
Answer
I don’t deal with or have expertise in these kinds of questions. There is absolutely no problem with living in such a community or giving such a name.
Discussion on Answer
Are you bored?
By the way, Mr. Melamed — even the supposedly serious question (why Nefeg and Zichri were omitted in Numbers 26:58) is strange. Since, as befits an obvious and straightforward question in the plain meaning of the text, someone called Rashi discussed it, and also someone else called Nachmanides, and others as well. I wonder why you didn’t ask, “Where was the tanna standing at the beginning of Berakhot that he taught: From when…?”
With God’s help, 4 Adar 5781
The community of Yitzhar is named after the nearby Arab village ‘Asira,’ whose meaning is ‘the oil pressed from the olive.’ The Yitzhari family was a distinguished family in Spain, to which Rabbi Zerachiah HaLevi belonged; he wrote in the introduction to his book HaMaor: “Take a book and set it up like a noon-light, and place it as a lamp to your path; for my Yitzhari, Zerachiah, in the tower of Yarchi (= Lunel) composed it; raise it up as a banner.”
In the 15th century there was a well-known rabbi in Spain, the rabbi of Saragossa, Rabbi Mattithiah HaYitzhari, a disciple of Rabbi Chasdai Crescas, who composed an extensive commentary on Psalm 119, a commentary on Tractate Avot, and explanations on Ibn Ezra’s commentary to the Torah, among other works. I do not know whether he was from the family of Rabbi Zerachiah HaLevi.
The sons of Korah did not follow in their father’s path. Their songs were included in the book of Psalms, and even the prophet Samuel is among the descendants of Korah, so being traced to the sons of Korah is very honorable indeed.
With blessings, Menashe Fishel HaLevi Zukhmir
Teaches that place has an effect…
Maybe if people live in a place where the only practical meaning that name had in the generation that inherited the Land was basically the Korahite…
Maybe that could create a Korah-like atmosphere in such a place?
For example, to quarrel and clash with IDF soldiers and Israel Police officers?
Of course, all this is purely hypothetical, if there were such a place in the Land of Israel… or a person who would call his son that?
All in all, even Kidor — “for they are a generation of reversals”… and that’s only hinted at; maybe all the more so Korah, who is discussed at length?