21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 3:11-12, "higid"

Genesis 3:11-12

 

יא וַיֹּ֕אמֶר מִ֚י הִגִּ֣יד לְךָ֔ כִּ֥י עֵירֹ֖ם אָ֑תָּה הֲמִן־הָעֵ֗ץ אֲשֶׁ֧ר צִוִּיתִ֛יךָ לְבִלְתִּ֥י אֲכָל־מִמֶּ֖נּוּ אָכָֽלְתָּ:

יב וַיֹּ֖אמֶר הָֽאָדָ֑ם הָֽאִשָּׁה֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר נָתַ֣תָּה עִמָּדִ֔י הִ֛וא נָֽתְנָה־לִּ֥י מִן־הָעֵ֖ץ וָֽאֹכֵֽל:

 

Translation:     He said: who told you, that you are naked; did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?

The man said: the woman that you gave with me, she gave me from the tree and I ate.

 

Vocabulary in this lesson:

מִי	Who?
הִגִּיד	told
הֲ	Question marker prefix
כִּי	That, if, when, because
לְבִלְתִּי	Not to [do something]
עִמָּדִי	With me

 

Lots of grammar here.

 

Higid is the hifil of a peh nun verb nagad; the qal is intransitive and means “in front of, opposing”. From this, there’s the term mitnaged, or misnaged in Ashkenazic pronunciation. The misnagdim were orthodox Jews opposed to the Chassidic movement which tried to revitalize Judaism, but sometimes seemed to do it at the expense of learning. To some extent, this was turned around in the Chabad/Lubavitcher Chassidic movement founded by R. Shneur Zalman of Lyady. Chabad is an acronym for three words which put across the point that learning is necessary for Jews or they abandon their heritage. R. Shneur Zalman was the founder of the Shneerson Chabad dynasty, as distinguished from the Twersky dynasty which headed the Chernobyl Chassidic community. The Orthodox and Chassidic movements settled their differences in the mid-1800s while remaining distinct denominations.

 

Higid is always used in the sense of official knowledge, as opposed to rumor.

 

Compare verse 11 to what Adam said in the last lesson. Gd is not talking about an essence, He is talking about a perception. There are two ways to take that.

 

One is that Gd knows Adam is wearing a girdle now, when he didn’t earlier. There’s no reason for him to have a girdle. Nobody commanded him to do that. It’s not part of either commandment that has been expressed to him by Gd. Somebody changed Adam’s perception to one that made him believe wearing a girdle was a good thing. That person could not higid because it wasn’t Gd. So Gd wants to know “Who told you this was a smart thing to do?”

 

On another level, Gd is saying “Who told you that you were smart?” Gd certainly didn’t, and Adam should not have taken anybody else’s word for it. Gd is not talking about Adam’s essence, so He doesn’t use the ki- that Adam used. Adam may seem wise to himself, or at least more knowledgeable than he was, but wisdom is still not his essence, not in Gd’s eyes.

 

Since the Tree was good for making one shrewd or perceptive, Adam’ attitude prompts Gd to ask if Adam disobeyed the one negative commandment given him. And Adam throws Chavvah under the bus. Which I’ll discuss in our next.

Knitting -- Adventures in Argyle 7 SOCKS

Thanks again to freevintageknitting.com, here's the blast from the past.

All of these argyle socks are knitted top down. The problem is, the patterns all have an open sole and they want you to wait until you finish the toe, then sew a seam from cuff to toe across the sole of your foot. Can you say ouch?

So once you finish the diamonds, sew the back seam and finish the ankle and foot in the round, the way you're used to from your favorite sock pattern.

https://freevintageknitting.com/socks-patterns/doreen96/601-mens-argyle-socks-pattern

Of course, if your argyle pullover is not brown and green, you're going to use the colors in your pullover.

Here are "slack socks", shorties that will take about half as much time to knit.
https://freevintageknitting.com/socks-patterns/doreen96/600-mens-slack-socks-pattern

Here's a women's anklet argyle sock, sized 8 to 11.
https://freevintageknitting.com/sock-pattern/chadwicks250/womens-argyle-anklets

The pattern comes from a book which has two nice glove patterns.
https://freevintageknitting.com/patternbook/doreen99/mittens-gloves-socks

This one comes from a "college knits" book which includes slippers and a skirt. The coat is an absolute classic.
https://freevintageknitting.com/sock-pattern/botany2/socks144

https://freevintageknitting.com/patternbook/college-hand-knits-for-men-and-women

Here are vintage 1969 patterns. No socks, but if you are my age or older, you'll recognize the designs.
https://freevintagecrochet.com/patternbook/gypsy-vest-book-jack-frost-75

By the way, Free Vintage has a partner, Purple Kitty, which has digitized dozens of needlework pattern books for knitting, crochet, tatting, and so on, from the yarn and thread makers. Here's their catalog for the last three years.
https://purplekittyyarns.com/ebooks/2016-end-of-year-special

Here are prior collections.
https://purplekittyyarns.com/ebooks/2014-end-of-year-special
https://purplekittyyarns.com/ebooks/2013-end-of-year-special
https://purplekittyyarns.com/ebooks/2012-end-of-year-special

The catalogues of books include crochet lace and clothing, dolls, afghans, and … oh well, if you're not addicted now, you could be just from looking at the pictures.

21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 3:9-10, new trop

Genesis 3:9-10

 

ט וַיִּקְרָ֛א יְהוָֹ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶל־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ל֖וֹ אַיֶּֽכָּה:

י וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אֶת־קֹֽלְךָ֥ שָׁמַ֖עְתִּי בַּגָּ֑ן וָֽאִירָ֛א כִּֽי־עֵירֹ֥ם אָנֹ֖כִי וָאֵֽחָבֵֽא:

 

Translation:     **** Gd called to the man; He said to him, where are you?

He said: I heard Your voice, in the garden; I was afraid, I am naked, I hid.

 

Vocabulary in this lesson:

אַיֶּכָּה	Where are you
שָׁמַעְתִּי	I heard
אִירָא	I was afraid
אָנֹכִי	I

 

Anokhi is a separate word for “I” besides ani.

 

Shamati is from a lamed ayin verb.

 

Verse 10 illustrates what I was saying about emphasis. The normal word order in a sentence that has a perfect aspect verb is subject-verb-object. If there’s an adverb, it’s adverb-verb-subject-object. If it’s in oblique modality, it’s verb-subject-object.

 

This verse puts the object of the verb shamati first in the clause. It’s not clear to me why that’s important to the man. Maybe he heard the wind and knew Gd would be moving around, but was only afraid upon hearing the voice which showed that Gd was going to make His presence felt. That would certaintly be supported by the distinctive (segol) version of et.

 

Kind of like when you were a kid and did something wrong. Then you stopped and listened to see if somebody was about to catch you. If not, you started trying to cover up, but when you heard Mom’s or Dad’s voice “Hey, where are you?” you knew you’d better hurry up and finish so you could go stop them from coming any closer to the disaster. If you couldn’t, at least you answered so it wouldn’t seem like you were hiding anything.

 

And like a kid, the man says the one thing that will tell Gd that there’s been a disaster.

 

Lots of languages use topic order sentences for this sort of emphasis. It’s common in Russian and Chinese. We use it less in English but there are examples. I just didn’t use it here.

 

Shama and qol often appear together as shama b’qol. It means “obey”. Here we have et-qolkha shamati which is different.

 

Remember what I said so long ago about ki-tov? So here Adam says ki-eirom. Is he saying “I’m naked” or “I’m shrewd”? Well, he isn’t naked any more, he has a leaf belt on. And ki- means his essence, so he’s saying he’s shrewd. Which means he disobeyed, so he’s hiding out of guilt over his disobedience.

 

Most translations feel justified in sticking with “because I’m naked”, but the trop says differently. The word before ki- is va-ira, and under it is a little left curve with a dot inside the curve. It’s called tvir, it sets that word off from ki-eirom. That’s why I put a comma after “I was afraid”.

 

Knitting -- for lefties only

It's just not the same. The continental stitch, where you hold the yarn in your left hand, is just not a true left-handed way of knitting.

So here's how to cable on left-handed. I messed with this a little and I see how it works. With some practice I might get good at it. When I broke my right arm as a kid, I learned to write left-handed. Sort of. But I'll stick with what I have already learned, being a rightie.
https://www.nickimerrall.co.uk/beingknitterly/knit-tutorial-cable-cast-on-method-lh/?v=7516fd43adaa

If you like how that site teaches, here are its other left-handed tutorials.
https://www.nickimerrall.co.uk/beingknitterly/tag/knit-left-handed/?v=7516fd43adaa

There are three pages. This one has how to knit stockinette. If you are knitting in the round, you just keep doing that. When you need to knit stockinette, is to make a button-up sweater, or work above the armholes on a sleeveless tee or vee-neck vest, or to do argyle.
https://www.nickimerrall.co.uk/beingknitterly/tag/knit-left-handed/page/2/?v=7516fd43adaa

Here's a video that starts with the slip knot. It gets to the actual  knitting at minute 3. It shows how to bind or cast off about minute 6:15. It does not show how to purl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b21msW3cS34

Here's an entire YouTube account with left-handed knitting and crochet. It has a separate video just for the purl stitch but it also has one for stockinette, of which purl is a part.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9IbTuEveJMfas9aOkIM-g/videos?disable_polymer=1

So if you're a lefty and you always wanted to knit but couldn't find lessons, here they are. Get yourself a pair of needles and some yarn, and get started!

21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 3:7-8, idioms again

Genesis 3:7-8

 

ז וַתִּפָּקַ֨חְנָה֙ עֵינֵ֣י שְׁנֵיהֶ֔ם וַיֵּ֣דְע֔וּ כִּ֥י עֵֽירֻמִּ֖ם הֵ֑ם וַֽיִּתְפְּרוּ֙ עֲלֵ֣ה תְאֵנָ֔ה וַיַּֽעֲשׂ֥וּ לָהֶ֖ם חֲגֹרֹֽת:

ח וַֽיִּשְׁמְע֞וּ אֶת־ק֨וֹל יְהוָֹ֧ה אֱלֹהִ֛ים מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ בַּגָּ֖ן לְר֣וּחַ הַיּ֑וֹם וַיִּתְחַבֵּ֨א הָֽאָדָ֜ם וְאִשְׁתּ֗וֹ מִפְּנֵי֙ יְהוָֹ֣ה אֱלֹהִ֔ים בְּת֖וֹךְ עֵ֥ץ הַגָּֽן:   

 

Translation:     The eyes of both of them opened themselves, they knew, that they were naked; they took leaves of the fig tree and made themselves girdles.

They heard the voice of the Lord Gd, [Who was] walking around in the garden in the breeze of the day; the man and his wife hid themselves because of the Lord Gd in the midst of the trees of the garden.

 

Vocabulary in this lesson:

יִּתְפְּרוּ	They sewed
עֲלֵה	leaf
תְאֵנָה	fig
חֲגֹרֹת	girdles
קוֹל	voice
מִתְהַלֵּךְ	Walking around
יִּתְחַבֵּא	He hid himself
מִפְּנֵי	Because of

 

Verse 7 is the real pun on erom/arum. Once the decree was passed on them and they became shrewd, piqeach, they realized that there would be consequences for what they had done. They also became arum like the serpent.

 

This interpretation pops out of using trop for punctuation; you know that trop that is on top of va-yedu. It’s a zaqef qatan.

 

Mithalekh “Walking around” is the progressive aspect of the continuously repetitive hitpael binyan. I told you we would see this very soon.

 

“Hid himself” is a true reflexive use of the hitpael.

 

Mi-p’ney is an IDIOM.  It does not literally mean “from the face of”, although that would certainly fit here.  There are contexts where it can only mean “because of”, although there are also some which can only mean quite simply “from”.   So I decided to use a translation which is useful in more than one place. Other translations are examples of how doing it “literally” messes up idioms.

 

“Tree of the garden.” Now, we all know that you can’t hide “among” one tree. This is one of a number of cases when a singular noun is used to represent plural nouns.

21st Century Bible Hebrew -- "k"

Genesis 3:5-6

 

ה  כִּ֚י יֹדֵ֣עַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים כִּ֗י בְּיוֹם֙ אֲכָלְכֶ֣ם מִמֶּ֔נּוּ וְנִפְקְח֖וּ עֵֽינֵיכֶ֑ם וִֽהְיִיתֶם֙ כֵּֽאלֹהִ֔ים יֹֽדְעֵ֖י ט֥וֹב וָרָֽע:

ו וַתֵּ֣רֶא הָֽאִשָּׁ֡ה כִּ֣י טוֹב֩ הָעֵ֨ץ לְמַֽאֲכָ֜ל וְכִ֧י תַֽאֲוָה־ה֣וּא לָֽעֵינַ֗יִם וְנֶחְמָ֤ד הָעֵץ֙ לְהַשְׂכִּ֔יל וַתִּקַּ֥ח מִפִּרְי֖וֹ וַתֹּאכַ֑ל וַתִּתֵּ֧ן גַּם־לְאִישָׁ֛הּ עִמָּ֖הּ וַיֹּאכַֽל:

 

Translation:     For Gd knows that on the day of your eating from it, your eyes will be opened; you will be like Gd, knowing good and evil. 

The woman must have seen that the tree was good for food, and an attraction to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for enlightening, and she took some of its fruit and ate; she gave also to her man with her and he ate.

 

Last but not least, here is k’, with object suffixes.  K’ means “the same manner as”, “similar to”, and with aspectless verbs it often means “just at the time that” as opposed to the  broader meaning of b’ plus an aspectless verb as “in the time period when…”

 

Notice that k’ needs an infix like me does.  You’ll see why when I tell you that without a suffix, when it is not prefixed to a verb or noun, this preposition is spelled כְּמוֹ.  Also notice the switch from “n” to “h” before the suffix.

 

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
כָּמֹנִי	כָּמֹנוּ	First
כָּמוֹךָ	כְּמוֹכֶם	Second/masculine
כָּמוֹךְ	כְּמוֹכֶן	Second/feminine
כָּמֹהוּ	כְּמוֹהֶם	Third/masculine
כָּמוֹהָ	כְּמוֹהֶן	Third/feminine

 

I talked about ba-asher and la-asher.  There is also a fairly frequent phrase ka-asher which means “like, in the same manner as”. 
 

So now you’ve had three things: k’ meaning “as, as soon as, according to”.
 

Ki which depending on context can mean “if”, “when” (“as soon as”), “but”, “lest”. Rashi quotes this and he gets it from Resh Laqish in Babylonian Talmud Gittin 90a.
 

Ki- which refers to the essence of something and can even turn imperfect aspect verbs into something like a noun for the status of something.

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