היוצא לדרך": על דו-משמעות ועל תוצאותיה"

The article treats the dual connotation of the expression היוצא לדרך 'when one sets out on a journey', which can be understood as (a) just before, or on the verge of setting out, and (b) after setting out, already on the way. Two passages in the Babylonian Talmud exemplify the dual meanings of this term and their confusion. In the passage dealing with the prayer for a journey (BT Berakhot 29b), this double meaning created uncertainty as to the precise moment for its recitation. The original halakhah mandated that it be recited after he sets out; namely, it understood this phrase in the second sense. However, within the passage itself there are signs of a different approach that understood the expression in the widespread meaning of 'on the verge of setting out', namely, in the first sense. Another example in which we find confusion in the meaning of these terms comes from a passage dealing with the marital rights due to a wife whose husband is about to set out on a journey (BT Yebamot 62b). The coupling of R. Joshua ben Levi's statement with a citation of a statement by R. Isaac ben Abdimi regarding 'one who sets out' created exegetical difficulties. Later redactors of the Talmud overcame the difficulty by explaining both statements in the first sense noted above. Via analysis of BT Erubin 100b, the original context for R. Isaac's statement, the author reached the conclusion that, in the original statements, Joshua ben Levi discussed the issues according to the term's first meaning, whereas Isaac ben Abdimi employed the term in its second sense. The introduction of Isaac ben Abdimi's statement, which originally lacked halakhic implications, to Yebamot, was instrumental in the institution of a significantly lenient ruling within the stringent laws of the menstruant woman.