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.

sorry testing twitter

21st Century Bible Hebrew -- conjugating "know"

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:

 

So here is “to know”, qal binyan.  It’s a peh yod and lamed ayin verb and the yod disappears in the imperfect. Memorize it.

 

The first is the gerundive for prepositions and the second is the one that cannot take prepositions.

דַעַת

יָדוֹעַ

This is the imperfect aspect.

 

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
אֵדַע	נֵדַע	First
תֵּדַע	תֵּדְעוּ	Second/masculine
תֵּדְעִי	תֵּדַעְנָה	Second/feminine
יֵדַע	יֵדָעוּ	Third/masculine
תֵּדַע	תֵּדַעְנָה	Third/feminine

 

This is the perfect aspect.

 

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
יָדַעְתִּי	יָדַעְנוּ	First
יָדַעְתָּ	יְדַעְתֶּם	Second/masculine
יָדַעְתְּ	יְדַעְתֶּן	Second/feminine
יָדַע	יָדְעוּ	Third/masculine
יָדְעָה		Third/feminine

 

This is progressive aspect.

 

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
יוֹדֵעַ	יוֹדְעִים	First
יוֹדַעַת	יוֹדְעוֹת	Second/masculine

 

21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 3:5-6 final

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, knowers of 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, so she took some of its fruit and ate; she gave also to her man with her and he ate.

 

Now notice what the woman does. Va-tere is from raah, “see”, and it’s a certainty epistemic in its evidentiary form; a certainty epistemic at the start of a verse requires evidence that it’s true and most of the time it is in the same verse. There’s an exception in Genesis 14 but that’s outside the scope of this course.  When you get there you can email  any questions to me.

 

The evidence is always in narrative past. Here it’s va-tiqach.

 

The problem is that tere does not have the normal vowels for qal or hifil, and it’s also not an agentless binyan. This verb form shows up with the vav about 31 times and 3 times in the masculine form, throughout Tannakh. When it’s at the start of a verse, as it is here, it seems to have the same connotation: it impels the woman to action based on something she knows, instead of begging evidence to support the claim that the verb makes. It’s her knowledge that makes this form an epistemic.

 

Notice all the aspectless verbs in these verses:

Akhalkhem

L’maakhal

L’haskil

 

Akhalkhem reflects that they haven’t eaten yet; the snake can’t just use imperfect without the vav because that would make him look like a prophet. It would just be wrong.  Obviously he can’t use perfect aspect and the context doesn’t allow for any of the connotations of progressive aspect. Aspectless verbs show up where the aspects all give false impressions of how to understand what’s going on.

 

L’haskil is from a root sakal meaning to have insight or act wisely. The hifil has a special meaning which would have resonated strongly in the 1700s CE. The European enlightenment movement came into Jewish culture as the haskalah. From about the time of the American Revolution to the accession of Nikolai II in Tsarist Russia, this movement eventually led to a fairly large flow of Jews into secular lifestyles, though its original aim was only to make them more aware of European culture. One notable founding member was Moses Mendelssohn, father of Felix Mendelson the composer.

 

Anyway the situations here can’t use conjugated verbs.

 

And now gam. I think this is the first time we had it. It’s an emphatic. It marks something that is either unexpected or has no prior cause. The woman has been worried up to now about her own self. Now she gives to Adam. Gam is only used with substantives: nouns, substantivized adjectives (“the X one”), gerundives. Later there will be situations where an imperfect verb carries the action, but there’s a gerundive with gam. Sometimes it will be an aspectless verb.