who are the "top 3" rishonim?
Does it depend on how many of there seforim go Platinum?
A more interesting question is which of the distinguished Rishonim believed that Bilaam's she-donkey actually spoke.
I presume they all say it was a miracle; see this: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2007...-on-
billam.html
"(And allow me to bring redemption to the world by noting that I heard this from the lips (or fingers) of Mis-nagid, four years ago, back when he was brave enough to blog.)"
Talk about a backhanded compliment.
You forgot the most important fun fact about Bilaam: You know that donkey who talked? It was a she-donkey. And you know what our tradition teaches that Bilaam did with that she-donkey? You don't want to know, it's that perverted!
Peretz I know all about it, and I discuss it here: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2007...-on-
billam.html
(And allow me to bring redemption to the world by noting that I heard this from the lips (or fingers) of Mis-nagid, four years ago, back when he was brave enough to blog.)
Ho-hum, and I first heard it in my father's house, when I was eight....
btw, yosef or possibly avraham is the earliest reference to a biblical personality
Yoni no Billam is.
Depends on the definition of "prophet." While he might not fit some definitions, the plain meaning of the text is that he spoke the words God told him to, which makes him, according to the colloguial usage, a prophet. Or put it another way, modern colloquial English does not make the distinction between a prophet and a soothsayer that the Ramba"n did.
there are ancient egyptian references to yosef, written in the second melenia BCE.
It infact references him as a powerful egyptian viceroy.
There are also clear period egpytian references to moses as well. (none of them complimentary.)
Yoni,
Never heard this before. You have a cite online or in a book?
He's wrong. No reference to Joseph has turned up in Egyptian sources.
There is also no definite reference to Moses in Egyptian texts.
Sure there are, but they're from many centuries later. See, eg, Manetho, 3rd century BCE.
Mentions of "Moses" (actualy Osareph) in Manetho are (1) late and (2) far from definite references.
yoni said clear period egpytian references to moses as well.
Manetho is neither (a) clear; nor (b) period
>Mentions of "Moses" (actualy Osareph) in Manetho are (1) late and (2) far from definite references.
Oh, they're late? No!
Of course it's late, and of course that's why they're irrelevant for the point Yoni is trying to make, but likely it's what he is referring to. But you know what? Manetho is an Egyptian source, just not one that matters in trying to show an outside reference to Moses in literature.
Right, which is why I was correct when I told Yoni he was wrong, yet you, inexplicably, seemed to be coming to his defense.
It sounds like at the end of the Ramban that there was a point where bilaam had ruach hakodesh that made him more than just a soothsayer. However, once he joined up with balak G-D removed his ruach hakodesh and then he went back to his status of "soothsayer."
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