21st Century Bible Hebrew -- a little more et

A little more et won’t kill you. When you see the collective et (tseire vowel) with kal, make sure you think “all”. When you see the distinctive et (segol and hyphen) with kal, make sure you think “every”.

This is especially important with erets.

Genesis 1:1 deals with heaven and earth as wholes. This is part of the basis for the midrash that the creation story isn’t about the exact order in which things happened. We don’t get the details.

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ:

Here’s Exodus 20:11. Notice the contrast with the tseire version in Genesis 1:1; this verse is dealing with the four different parts of the creation – actually five when you get to yom ha-shabbat. There is no definite article with yom, but it is understood because this is a construct phrase.

כִּי שֵׁשֶׁת-יָמִים עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֶת-הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת-הָאָרֶץ, אֶת-הַיָּם וְאֶת-כָּל-אֲשֶׁר-בָּם, וַיָּנַח, בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי; עַל-כֵּן, בֵּרַךְ יְהוָה אֶת-יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת—וַיְקַדְּשֵׁהוּ

Because in six days **** made the heavens and the earth, the sea and every thing that is in them, He rested on the seventh day; that's how, **** blessed the Shabbat day -- He showed its sanctity.

When there’s a restrictive sense to erets, we get the segol version as in Deuteronomy 3:8:

נִּקַּח בָּעֵת הַהִוא אֶת־הָאָרֶץ מִיַּד שְׁנֵי מַלְכֵי הָאֱמֹרִי אֲשֶׁר בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן מִנַּחַל אַרְנֹן עַד־הַר חֶרְמוֹן:

We took at that time the land from the two Emori kings that are across the Yarden, from the brook of Arnon as far as Mt. Chermon.

It’s pretty obvious that the only land concerned here is that of Sichon and Og. It can’t possibly mean all of the world. That’s why it has segol.

We have a problem in Leviticus 26:42. We have three contrasted covenants using the segol version, and we also have erets as a definite noun with NO et. Why not? The last phrase is in topic order, not normal word order. The verb has a future sense, not narrative past, and not with an adverbial like in Exodus 20:11.

וְזָכַרְתִּי אֶת־בְּרִיתִי יַעֲקוֹב וְאַף אֶת־בְּרִיתִי יִצְחָק וְאַף אֶת־בְּרִיתִי אַבְרָהָם אֶזְכֹּר וְהָאָרֶץ אֶזְכֹּר:

...such that I call to mind My covenant Yaaqov, also My covenant Yitschaq and also My covenant Avraham I shall call to mind and the earth I shall call to mind.

Leviticus 7:2-4 rings the changes, as Exodus 29 rang the changes on agentless verbs.

ב בִּמְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁחֲטוּ אֶת־הָעֹלָה יִשְׁחֲטוּ אֶת־הָאָשָׁם וְאֶת־דָּמוֹ יִזְרֹק עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ סָבִיב:

ג וְאֶת־כָּל־חֶלְבּוֹ יַקְרִיב מִמֶּנּוּ אֵת הָאַלְיָה וְאֶת־הַחֵלֶב הַמְכַסֶּה אֶת־הַקֶּרֶב:

ד וְאֵת שְׁתֵּי הַכְּלָיֹת וְאֶת־הַחֵלֶב אֲשֶׁר עֲלֵיהֶן אֲשֶׁר עַל־הַכְּסָלִים וְאֶת־הַיֹּתֶרֶת עַל־הַכָּבֵד עַל־הַכְּלָיֹת יְסִירֶנָּה:

In verse 2, the olah is referred to here in contrast with the asham and they both take the segol version of et. The blood is being considered as a specific part of the sacrifice so it does the same. Same thing for the chelev at the start of verse 3; there is more than one place to get chelev and the et kal shows that each one of them is meant.

In verse 3 the alyah, the “fat tail”, is considered as an entire entity, separate unto itself, and there are halakhot that specifically address it in Mishnah and Gemara.

In verse 4, the kidneys are another entity, like the alyah, and require the tseire version; the segol version is used with the chelev because it is considered in contrast to the actual kidneys and also to the other kind of chelev. The yoteret is listed in contrast to the liver of which it is part.

One special thing about the segolate et is that you will often find a suffixed version of et nearby: otam, oto, etc, see this lesson for the chart. https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/01/21st-century-bible-hebrew-genesis-117.html

This is in contrast to putting an object suffix directly on the verb, which I will discuss next time.