Bit at a Time Bible Hebrew -- Subject Review II

I’m sorry, I changed my mind.  I figured it was better to do a subject review here, and then the lessons about  using  a dictionary to look up verbs.

 

After that I’ll do  an overview of the  binyanim and how to tell them apart.

Then I’ll give you a list of the 30 most common verbs in Genesis and possibly in all of Torah.  Memorize their conjugations and you’ll cut your dictionary time. 

 

Finally, there will be about 50 lessons on Biblical Hebrew grammar that I only learned about after reading a doctoral dissertation I found online in 2014.  It dovetails with other things I’ve learned in the last 15 years and it will really turn your head around about what Torah says, but at the same time it tells you things that lead directly to some midrashim and some halakhah.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

 

Genesis 1:1  definite article, introduction to binyanim, vowels

Genesis 1:2  “be”, construct state

                        Gender

Genesis 1:3      aorist vs. past

Genesis 1:4      causative

Genesis 1:5      genitive/dative preposition

Genesis 1:6      raqia; dagesh

Genesis 1:7      ablative preposition; “toward”

Dagesh rules

Genesis 1:9      past tense of “to be” a lamed heh verb

Genesis 1:10    plural nouns and context

Genesis 1:11    shin, sin, and context

Genesis 1:12    present tens of “to do, make”, a lamed heh verb

Genesis 1:13    past tense of “to do, make”

Genesis 1:14    pop quiz on gender

Genesis 1:15    present tense of hifil causative verb

Genesis 1:16    aorist/future of “to give, put, set”, a peh nun verb

Genesis 1:17    accusative case pronouns

Genesis 1:18    full conjugation of a strong verb in qal (simple) binyan

Genesis 1:20    introduction to piel punctuated repetition binyan                               

Genesis 1:21    declension of adjectives

Genesis 1:22    two imperatives

Genesis 1:24    possessive with preposition and with suffixes

Genesis 1:25    construct state of feminine nouns

Genesis 1:27    quoting out of context and interpretation

Genesis 1:28    verbs with object suffixes

Genesis 1:29    full conjugation of noten, a peh nun verb, in qal (simple) binyan

Genesis 1:30    conjugation of hayah, a lamed heh verb, in qal (simple) binyan

Genesis 2:1      pop quiz, identifying the verb tense

Genesis 2:4      introduction to nifal binyan, passive of qal

Genesis 2:5      introduction to infinitives

Genesis 2:6      full conjugation of oseh, a peh ayin/ lamed heh verb, in qal binyan

Genesis 2:7      meaning of piel binyan

Genesis 2:8      two meanings of mi

Genesis 2:9      meaning of l

Genesis 2:10    full conjugation of yotse, a peh yod / lamed alef verb, in qal binyan

Genesis 2:11    nominative pronouns

Genesis 2:12-13 “from” (ablative) declension

Genesis 2:14    full conjugation of yelekh, a peh yod verb, in qal binyan

Genesis 2:15   full conjugation of shamar, a strong verb, in qal binyan

Genesis 2:16  “in, against, by means of” declension

Genesis 2:17  mot tamut and related expressions

Genesis 2:18  “to, for” declension

Genesis 2:19    full conjugation of bo, an ayin vav/lamed alef verb, in qal (simple) binyan

Genesis 2:20    Future tense of matsa, a lamed ayin verb, to differentiate from yatsa which is also peh yod

Genesis 2:22    Verbs with object suffixes: heh infix.

Genesis 2:23    Demonstrative pronouns

Genesis 3:5-6  Table of the verbal binyanim

Genesis 3:9-10 Full conjugation of shomea, a lamed ayin verb

Genesis 3:10-11          “With me”, preposition plus suffixes

Genesis 3:13-14          Full conjugation of achal, “to eat”, a peh alef verb

Genesis 3:15-16          Full conjugation of qam, “rise”, an ayin vav verb

Genesis 4:1-4  Pluperfect use of “past” tense

Genesis 4:1-4  Full conjugation of yada, “to know,” a peh yod/lamed ayin verb

Genesis 4:5-8  Full conjugation of nafal, “to fall,” a peh nun verb

 

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

DIY -- Greywater again

The heavy housework this year has really improved the look and feel of my house.
Next, I looked at a new vacuum.
There are several relatively inexpensive dual  purpose vacuum cleaners that will also steam clean.
This is great if you have asthma and allergies because you can get them out much  better.
It's rotten if you are ditching detergents to improve our water supply.
Because all the makers say you should buy their expensive detergent to use in their machines.
There are alternatives.
Use your soap anyway.  If something goes wrong with  the machine you won't be able to take advantage of the warranty if any is left.

Rent a steam cleaner when  you need it.  Two uses or two days of use may cost as much as the whole machine you would buy, but you don't have to move all your furniture at once.

Have a service do it.  One hour may cost as much as a day's use  of a  rented machine and you have to move all your furniture and stand back.

Take up all your carpet and put down nice hardwood.  This probably only works if you own the place, but with the increase in asthma cases and allergies, it is a real selling point.  It's also a selling point if you've been in the place a long time; the buyer won't have to live with whatever has happened to the carpet in the last 20 years.

The first idea is the cheapest until the machine breaks;  we all know where that goes.

Look, lots of people from the Appalachian mountains westward now know just how precious clean water really is.  The DC region is getting its own lesson with a latex spill into a major source of drinking water.

The manufacturers have to wake up and support use of greywater-friendly soaps in their machines instead of detergents -- before there's a nationwide water crisis and the government forces them to do it.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

Garden -- October

By mid-month, you should clean off your tomato vines and put the vines into compost.
Sort the tomatoes.
The red ones -- you  know what  to do.
The green ones -- you have a choice.
Put  them in a paper bag with an apple.
Check it about once a week and remove the red ones to use.
It might take a couple of months to use them all  up.
Or make picallilly or chow-chow or chutney with the green ones.
If they're slicing tomatoes, slice them and make fried green tomatoes or a pakora or tempura.
All your other warm-weather veggies are almost done  as well.
If you planted spaghetti squash, you should be harvesting the last ones and putting them up for a month to dry before you use them.
If you planted pumpkins, leave them on the vine until you need jack o'lanterns,
but if you inspect them and they are starting to rot, harvest  them.
Clean the fibers off the seeds and roast them for snacks.
Cook the rind into pumpkin pie filling; there are recipes on the web.
(acorn and butternut squash also make good pie)
If you're not a pumpkin pie fan, you can pickle the rind or make pumpkin chutney.
You can also puree it and get recipes off the web for how to make your own pumpkin latte mix.

By mid-month, you should mow your lawn for the last time this year and put down cornmeal gluten to suppress the seeds of this year's weed grass.

By mid-month, if you planted late hardy vegetables, you should be harvesting microgreens
and baby vegetables to pickle or eat fresh-cooked.

If you are using open-pollinated seed in your garden, you are almost out of time to place an order.

And oh yeah, DON'T  PRUNE ANYTHING.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

Fact-Checking the Torah -- The Anatolian Crossroads

They were turbulent times.  In Mesopotamia itself, the downfall of Eannatum at the hands of Kug Bau’s grandson was closely followed by the rise of Sharru-kinu, who is described in the kings list as the cupbearer of Kug Bau’s grandson.  He is better known as Sargon of Akkad.

One of the things Sargon undertook was a war against Ebla.  At the time, Ebla was the hub of a vast economic region from Arabia “Felix” in the southeast to Afghanistan in the northeast, from Egypt in the southwest to the northwestern outpost of Wilusa, a wealthy city in Anatolia near the Black Sea.

You know Wilusa, but you probably know it as Troy.  The Troy destroyed by the “Greeks” in the Iliad has been labeled “Level VIIb.”  The Wilusa that traded with Ebla was “Level II.”  At the time Anatolia had large numbers of settlements all over, especially in the southeast toward the rich Fertile Crescent.  But right after 2400 BCE, things were changing.

Sargon wanted control of the trade routes and the coast of the Mediterranean, which would let him send ships to Wilusa and Egypt.  His wars made Akkadian the common language of the entire area for trade and diplomacy.

But the conquered areas of Mari and Nuzu rebelled, and his son had to fight the same battles over again.  His grandson, Naram-Sin, finally completed both projects, and destroyed Ebla about 2350 BCE.  (Remember that date.)  I believe that abandonment of towns in the southeast of Anatolia was an effect of the resulting trade vacuum. 

What Naram-Sin didn’t know killed him.  Indic peoples from Anatolia had been filtering into Mesopotamia for centuries; they included the Gutians, who originated in Anatolian Tukri.  They probably crossed the mountains into Mesopotamia over the centuries before Naram-Sin, just one more set of immigrants or traders from Anatolia, and Mesopotamia probably ignored them believing that the Anatolian Semites would remain in control.

After a century or two in Mesopotamia, the Gutians destroyed Naram-Sin and his army, and for the next century or two threw up some 70 rulers in Mesopotamia.  Then they were pushed out by Utu-Hengel, who commissioned creation of the kings list of 2000 BCE, and the Gutians apparently migrated east to the Tarim Basin, now in China.

The descendants of the Gutians were called Tochari.  Their language, of which they left written texts, is fully Indo-European.  Tukri, the name of their homeland, also contributed to the name “Teucrians,” and King Teucer in Greek myth was an Anatolian king and the ancestor of Ilus after whom Ilion was named.  Ilion is the Greek version of Wilusa.

It gets even better from here, but let’s get back to the list of genealogies in Genesis.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

Bit at a Time Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 5 -- the vocabulary

Genesis 5:1-21

 

א זֶה סֵפֶר תּוֹלְדֹת אָדָם בְּיוֹם בְּרֹא אֱלֹהִים אָדָם בִּדְמוּת אֱלֹהִים עָשָׂה אֹתוֹ:

ב זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בְּרָאָם וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם וַיִּקְרָא אֶת־שְׁמָם אָדָם בְּיוֹם הִבָּרְאָם:

ג וַיְחִי אָדָם שְׁלֹשִׁים וּמְאַת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בִּדְמוּתוֹ כְּצַלְמוֹ וַיִּקְרָא אֶת־שְׁמוֹ שֵׁת:

ד וַיִּהְיוּ יְמֵי־אָדָם אַחֲרֵי הוֹלִידוֹ אֶת־שֵׁת שְׁמֹנֶה מֵאֹת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בָּנִים וּבָנוֹת:

ה וַיִּהְיוּ כָּל־יְמֵי אָדָם אֲשֶׁר־חַי תְּשַׁע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וּשְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה וַיָּמֹת: 

ו וַיְחִי־שֵׁת חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים וּמְאַת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד אֶת־אֱנוֹשׁ:

ז וַיְחִי־שֵׁת אַחֲרֵי הוֹלִידוֹ אֶת־אֱנוֹשׁ שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים וּשְׁמֹנֶה מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בָּנִים וּבָנוֹת:

ח וַיִּהְיוּ כָּל־יְמֵי־שֵׁת שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה וּתְשַׁע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיָּמֹת: 

ט וַיְחִי אֱנוֹשׁ תִּשְׁעִים שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד אֶת־קֵינָן:

י וַיְחִי אֱנוֹשׁ אַחֲרֵי הוֹלִידוֹ אֶת־קֵינָן חֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה וּשְׁמֹנֶה מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בָּנִים וּבָנוֹת:

יא וַיִּהְיוּ כָּל־יְמֵי אֱנוֹשׁ חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים וּתְשַׁע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיָּמֹת:

יב וַיְחִי קֵינָן שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד אֶת־מַהֲלַלְאֵל:

יג וַיְחִי קֵינָן אַחֲרֵי הוֹלִידוֹ אֶת־מַהֲלַלְאֵל אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה וּשְׁמֹנֶה מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בָּנִים וּבָנוֹת:

יד וַיִּהְיוּ כָּל־יְמֵי קֵינָן עֶשֶׂר שָׁנִים וּתְשַׁע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיָּמֹת:  

טו וַיְחִי מַהֲלַלְאֵל חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים וְשִׁשִּׁים שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד אֶת־יָרֶד:

טז וַיְחִי מַהֲלַלְאֵל אַחֲרֵי הוֹלִידוֹ אֶת־יֶרֶד שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה וּשְׁמֹנֶה מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בָּנִים וּבָנוֹת:

יז וַיִּהְיוּ כָּל־יְמֵי מַהֲלַלְאֵל חָמֵשׁ וְתִשְׁעִים שָׁנָה וּשְׁמֹנֶה מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיָּמֹת:

יח וַיְחִי־יֶרֶד שְׁתַּיִם וְשִׁשִּׁים שָׁנָה וּמְאַת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד אֶת־חֲנוֹךְ:

יט וַיְחִי־יֶרֶד אַחֲרֵי הוֹלִידוֹ אֶת־חֲנוֹךְ שְׁמֹנֶה מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בָּנִים וּבָנוֹת:

כ וַיִּהְיוּ כָּל־יְמֵי־יֶרֶד שְׁתַּיִם וְשִׁשִּׁים שָׁנָה וּתְשַׁע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיָּמֹת:  

כא וַיְחִי חֲנוֹךְ חָמֵשׁ וְשִׁשִּׁים שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד אֶת־מְתוּשָׁלַח:

 

 

סֵפֶר	Count, enumeration, book
שְׁלֹשִׁים	thirty
שְׁמֹנֶה	eight
תְּשַׁע	nine
חָמֵשׁ	five
שֶׁבַע	seven
שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה	twelve
תִּשְׁעִים	ninety
חֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה	fifteen
אַרְבָּעִים	forthy
שִׁשִּׁים	sixty

 

Note that “generations” is written chaser.  It is written plene in Genesis 2:4.

 

Next lesson I want to make sure you have important information on the verb system because it will come in handy when I turn to a subject in Hebrew grammar that was new to me when I read about it in 2014.

 

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

 

Garden -- rain o'er me

We just got a nice soaking rain, the first for over a month.
What do you do when it doesn't rain?
If it hasn't rained in 2 weeks and there's no rain in the forecast,
you STOP mowing.
The grass is going dormant.
It won't be growing again until it gets two nice solid rains within a week.
Except the crabgrass and the Bermuda grass.
You have my permission to whack those.
But your bluegrass, your fescue and so on will go dormant.
If you cut, you will remove the only thing preserving the moisture that will keep the  roots alive.
If you have a lawn service which insists that the contract requires them to mow at this point,
FIRE THEIR BUTTS.
They don't know proper lawn care.
Look, if you had a fight with them when you hired them over cutting no shorter than 3 inches,
then you  already knew they didn't  know how to take care of a lawn properly.
If  they tried to convince  you  to seed your lawn before June,
then you already knew  they didn't know how to take care of a lawn properly.
To say nothing of the fight you had to put up to keep them from using chemicals on your  lawn.
It should have been no surprise to you that they wanted to mow dormant grass.
They are about money, not the good of your lawn.
Fire them.
Anyway, we're supposed to get a dump from a hurricane later in the week.
I'll cut grass next week.
For the first time in 2 months.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

DIY -- painting

The HOA told me to do some trim painting on my house.
They created a monster.
I could see that my front porch was starting to look ratty.
So I bought a quart of porch paint, a quart of trim paint, a scraper and a brush.
The trim passed inspection.
The porch looked amazing, like a ginormous carrot cake covered with cream cheese frosting.
They didn't say anything about the porch but they would have if it didn't measure up.
So I just saved myself a bad report in a future year.
There are ratty parts inside.
So I bought a quart of high-gloss and a gallon of semi-gloss.
I worked over the baseboards and a wall that desperately needed help, and the windowsills.
By the time I finished off the gallon, I had spruced up about half of the house.
Next time you're depressed about how your place looks,
Hit the home improvement store for some nice paint, a scraper and a couple of brushes with different widths.
You can use plastic trash bags for drop cloths.
Scrub the surface before you paint.
Do it in bits so you don't have to move all the furniture on the same day.
That way lie bruises and total exhaustion, and on a really bad day you'll break something you treasure, like a vase or an arm.
It will not turn you into Eldon the house painter, unless you entertain grandiose delusions.
(old people's reference, google murphy brown)
Work slowly with some good music on.
Good paint cleans off the brushes with water, and off your skin with a loofa or other exfoliator.
If you have help, pay off in pizza or Chinese food.
You'll be amazed at how good it feels to produce a nice-looking place without it costing an arm or leg, more or less literally.

Just one hint.   Before you move out, repaint in white; whatever color you chose may work with your  stuff but it might scare off buyers.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved