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.