Thursday, February 28, 2019

21st Century Bible Hebrew -- subjeect review #3

Again, try to remember at least one fact about each of the following topics. 

Noun plurals
Progressive in habitual and descriptive uses
“do”
“infinitives”
Idioms with hayah
Qal of strong verbs
Direct object pronouns
Ki- versus ki
Pronoun suffixes
Purposeful speech (lemor)
Segolate verbs
Prepositions with suffixes
Natatah
Naaseh and nifal: a tragedy in translation
Agentless verbs
Pual and the denouement
Nouns in -ach
Oblique modality
Ayin yod verbs
Yatsa
Triply weak verbs
Duplicate conditional
“go, come”
“bring”
Lamed alef verbs
“know”

If you can remember just one thing about each of these subjects, give yourself a reward, such as a week off. I’ll keep posting but you might need a brain break.

I have decided to stop doing vocabulary reviews.  You have learned so much vocabulary at this point, partly through the grammar tables, that the only other thing I will do is give you a list of the top 30 verbs when we finish going through  Parshah Breshit. 

Sunday, February 24, 2019

DIY -- bacalao

I haven't done one of these columns for a while but here's one. I spent about $7.50 for a little over a pound of fresh cod.

I had some sugar/salt cure left over from a batch of lox. Added a little kosher salt to completely cover the cod.

Cured it about 5 days, then soaked out some of the salt.

For this, you would pay nearly $20 on Amazon.

Is that even a choice?

I also bought nearly a pound of fresh haddock for $7.50 and put it in vinegar and salt. I'm going to pickle it with wine sauce.

You can get Vita Herring in Wine Sauce for about half this amount BUT Vita's website tells you it contains polysorbate 80. This emulsifier and its relatives may relate to obesity by altering gut bacteria.
https://www.nature.com/news/food-preservatives-linked-to-obesity-and-gut-disease-1.16984

Well, I haven't had ice cream in nearly 5 years but at first that was just to cut some fat out of my diet. Now, I wonder why I need emulsifiers, if I can make the product myself without them.

By the way, there are also emulsions in soft drinks. One of the emulsifying ingredients is gum arabic.
https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5710/4/2/25/htm

This is a product of Sudan and has not been banned as coming from a conflict region only because it would disrupt the soda industry.

Use of straight gum Arabic causes digestive discomfort for a week.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3570285/

While that eventually produced a small drop in BMI, use of gum Arabic in sodas does not have that effect. It is offset by the fact that the sweetener in soda -- no matter what chemical it is or how many calories it has -- causes the pancreas to wear itself out taking sugar from the bloodstream and turning it into fat. So all sodas coordinate with both obesity and Type II diabetes.

Do your homework to find the hidden emulsifiers in your food and drink. In the meantime, I'm all over that price saving on the salt cod, for which I have a great stew recipe.

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Thursday, February 21, 2019

21st Century Bible Hebrew -- "with" two

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.
 
Notice that little phrase ha-min-ha-ets. Notice that there’s a revia above ha-ets. The hyphen shows that this is one lexical unit, that’s why it can take a revia.
 
Second, ha-min is a question. The ha- prefix is for a yes-no question as well as the definite article.
 
Imadi is not the normal “with me”. The normal form for “with, accompanied by” is based on the fact that et, the direct object particle, is also the preposition “with.”  
 
Singular
Plural
Person/gender
אִתִּי
אִתָּנוּ
First
אִתְּךָ
אִתְּכֶם
Second/masculine
אִתָּךְ
אִתְּכֶן
Second/feminine
אִתֹּו
אִתּהֶם
Third/masculine
אִתָּה
אִתּהֶן
Third/feminine
 
And here’s the one in verse 12.
 
Singular
Plural
Person/gender
עִמָּדִי
עִמָּנוּ
First
עִמְּךָ
עִמָּכֶם
Second/masculine
עִמָּךְ
אִתְּכֶן
Second/feminine
עִמּוֹ
עִמָּהֶם
Third/masculine
עִמָּהּ
עִמָּהֶן
Third/feminine
 
I couldn’t find an actual example of the 2nd feminine plural but it follows from the masculine.

Thursday, February 14, 2019

21st Century Bible Hebrew -- sequential -ah

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.
 
I gave you the conjugation of natan in lesson 56 on Genesis 1:17. Natatah in this verse looks like the perfect aspect but what’s that ah doing on the end of it?
 
This is something I started wondering about after I read Dr. Cook’s dissertation because it looks like one of the modal morphologies he wrote about, the volitive. But that modality – which we haven’t seen an example of yet – is based on the imperfect not on the perfect. So what is this?
 
So I started up my handy dandy application that lets me search the entire Tannakh for all occurrences of specific words, and it showed up 65 times. When I studied all 30 of the examples in Torah, it looked as if they required a sequence of events.
 
So the man is saying “the woman that you [later] gave with me.”
 
This is the final confirmation that Gd told Adam about the tree and the woman came along later.
 
Adam is kind of saying, you know, if you had made her and then told both of us, none of this would have happened. But you made her later. Deal with it.
 
But at least he didn’t say she ate. So when he got to her, he saw the fruit in her hand with a bite taken out of it, but she was not chewing at the time. He doesn’t know from that, that she’s the one who took the bite out of the apple, and he doesn’t pretend that he does know.
 
There’s nothing more childish than saying “well, he did it first!” when you’ve been caught doing something wrong. But it’s still pretty childish to say “He made me do it.” All Chavvah did was put the fruit in his hand. He didn’t have to eat.
 
Which now that I think of it, suggests that Adam also thought touching the tree might kill them. As soon as he gets the fruit in his had, he doesn’t drop dead. So he comes to the same conclusion as Chavvah, and he eats. Hm.
 
By the way, don’t pin Lilith onto this “later”. The oldest material I can find on Lilith is from about 1000 CE (not BCE), after the Talmud and Midrash Haggadah and Halakhah had been written down.

Thursday, February 7, 2019

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.

Sunday, February 3, 2019

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.