Q&A: Water Really Wet in the Literal Sense
Water Really Wet in the Literal Sense
Question
“Na” means only a term of request?
But lots of times “na” means “now,” doesn’t it?
And likewise, “water” means only Torah.
But lots of times the meaning of “water” is just actual water, literally wet water, isn’t it?
Answer
When it says, “X means nothing other than Y,” the intention is not that X is always Y. Rather, it means that in this particular case, X specifically refers to Y and not to X in its literal sense. In some cases, this only comes to reinforce the point and prevent the claim that this is taking the verse away from its plain meaning. In other cases, the “rather” excludes the usual meaning: “water means nothing other than Torah”—that is, in this context, “water” does not mean water but only Torah. But of course this does not mean that everywhere “water” is not water but Torah.