Thursday 5 January 2017

midrash - Acacia wood or Cedar


The verse mentions one of the materials in the Mishkan was עצי שטים. Artscroll and others translate it as acacia wood.



Rashi on the pasuk quotes Midrash Tanchumah (#9) that Yaakov planted ארזים in Egypt and commanded his children to bring them with them to the wilderness. Usually ארזים is translated as cedar wood.


Which is it? Acacia or cedar?



Answer



ארז, which you translated as cedar, is actually the name of a group of 10 (or 4) different types of trees (see the gemara in R"H on .כג, and the gemara in B"B), one of which is שיטא, which apparently Artscroll translates as accacia.


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