Fact-Checking the Torah -- more Numbers neders

Your assignment was to read Numbers 30:3-16 carefully.

A woman who makes a neder to the Lord and prohibits something to herself in the house of her father when she is a naarah

And her father hears her neder and the prohibition she places on herself and holds his tongue toward her, all her neders are established and all her prohibitions that she placed on herself shall be established.

If her father dissuades her on the day that he hears any of her neders or prohibitions that she placed on herself, it shall not be established and the Lord will pardon her for her father dissuaded her.

If she is already married and has neders on her or a statement of her own mouth that she prohibited to herself.

And her husband hears, on the day that he heard and holds his tongue, her neders and prohibitions are established that she placed on herself.

If on the day of her husband hearing he dissuaded her and annulled her neder that was on her and what she spoke with her mouth that she prohibited herself, the Lord shall pardon her.

The neder of a widow or divorcee all that she prohibited herself is established.

If she made a neder in the house of her husband or prohibited something to herself with an oath

And her husband heard and held his peace toward her and didn’t prohibit her, all her neders and prohibitions that she placed on herself shall stand.

If her husband absolutely annulled them on the day he heard what came out of her mouth for her neders or prohibitions on herself, they shall not stand, her husband annulled them and the Lord will pardon her.

Every neder and oath of prohibition to oppress the soul her husband may establish it or annul it.

But if her husband actually held his peace toward her for twenty-four hours, all her neders or prohibitions that she places on herself are established, he established them because he held his peace toward her on the day he heard.

If he definitely annulled them after he heard them, he shall bear her sin.

These are the laws that the Lord commanded Moshe between a man and his wife, a father and his daughter when she is a naarah in the house of her father.

 

Now let’s look at a seeming contradiction.  I said that the husband or father had to annul the vow “on the day he heard it.”  But one of the verses above says “for twenty-four hours.”  The Hebrew for this phrase is me-et le-et, from one point in time to that same point in time, 24 hours later.

Why isn’t this a contradiction?  Because as already discussed, “day” can be ambiguous.  Mishnah established what it meant for purchases, but Torah established what it meant for the vows of a naarah.  It means 24 hours.  The husband may be out in the fields and not come home until dark.  He didn’t have a chance to find out about the oath.  But if he is given 24 hours, then the naarah can’t play tricks on him by only making vows while he is in the field and trusting to the onset of dark to prevent him from annulling them.

The other issue is that it says he has to hear it, but it doesn’t say he has to hear it from her.  So anybody in the house who hears her say it can tell the husband and he can annul it. 

 

Again, people make stupid vows, and there’s no reason for a husband to put up with all the stupid things his child bride might vow just because she tries to outwit him.

For next week, read Leviticus 7:16-18 and 27:1-28 and we’ll talk about more vows.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved

Another thank you

And some more truth.
Today the pageviews on this blog reached 5,000 from non-bots, as far as I know.
Early in its history, vampirestat botted this blog about 790 times.
So if you're looking at the top of the blog, subtract 790 from the number of pageviews, and
THIS BLOG HAS NOW REACHED 5000 PAGE VIEWS FROM REAL PEOPLE.

Again, thanks for all the visits, and I hope I'm posting things that will keep you coming back.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved

Bit at a time Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 1:28

Genesis 1:28

 

כח וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם אֱלֹהִים פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְכִבְשֻׁהָ וּרְדוּ בִּדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּבְכָל־חַיָּה הָרֹמֶשֶׂת עַל־הָאָרֶץ:

 

Transliteration: Va-yivarekh otam elohim va-yomer lahem elohim p’ru u-r’vu u-milu et-ha-arets v’khivshuha u-r’du bi-d’gat ha-yam u-v’of ha-shamaim u-v’khal chayah ha-romeset al-ha-arets.

Translation:     Gd blessed them and Gd said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and dominate it and subjugate the fish of the sea and the flyer of heaven and all wild animal that creeps on the earth.

Vocabulary in this lesson:

כִבְשֻׁהָ

Dominate it

 

This verb form shows an important feature of the Hebrew language.  It could have said v-khivshu otah but instead it combines the object pronoun with the verb.  The suffix should look familiar.  Let’s go through the forms although you would never say some of them.

 

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
כִּבְשֻׁנִי	כִּבְשֻׁנוּ	First
כִּבְשֻׁךָ	כִּבְשֻׁכֶם	Second/masculine
כִּבְשֻׁךְ	כִּבְשֻׁכֶן	Second/feminine
כִּבְשׁוּהוּ	כִּבְשֻׁתָם	Third/masculine
כִּבְשֻׁהָ	כִּבְשֻׁתָן	Third/feminine

 

 So when it looks like a verb but doesn’t have the ordinary personal ending for the binyan, or the person, number or gender, think about otam and its personal endings; you may be looking at a verb with a personal suffix ending.

 

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved

Garden -- harvest

Usually it would be too early to take out the tomatoes in August.

FYI, if they're in a sunny place, you can usually leave them up to October 12 to see if the fruit all colors up.

But this year it's been too wet and the fruit is rotting before it can color up completely.

And the leaves are all discolored.

So it's time to take the fruit off and put it in a paper bag with an apple.

Then it will ripen up.

I've already ripened some this way.

I made spaghetti sauce with them the other day.

And it's time to dig carrots and beets.

If I buy more compost I can plant a round of turnips, beets, and carrots that will be ready by Thanksgiving.

What do you think I should do?

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved

Outdoors -- cricket count

My radio meteorologist -- NOT announcer, he's a real scientist -- hates my cricket count.
It's a guess at how harsh the winter will be depending on when crickets start trying to invade my house and how many.
By the middle of July 2013, I was fighting them off with a broom. Literally.
That was a sign of a harsh winter.  I've had heavy invasions before, but not like that, not even for the Snowmageddon year or the back-to-back blizzards in the 1990s.

This year, the crickets are not trying to get in.
In fact, I opened the back door the other day and a little one tried to run away.

So my winter forecast is that it will start with MILD temps.
This has nothing to do with precip, but based on this summer's precip, I would say regular and mostly rain since the temps will be mild.

This could change.  If the crickets start trying to invade by say a month from now, that would point to a ferocious end to the winter.

But for now, if you believe this kind of thing, relax.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved

Knitting -- pullover/jumper sleeves

The pattern I'm going to give you is is for long sleeves.

Long sleeves have a problem; you need to be able to push them back if you keep the sweater on while you do dishes in the sink, for example.

So the wrists have to be loose or you will pull them loose.

"Loose" means loose on you.

What I want you to do is make a sample wristband for a sleeve and see how loose it is on you.

So cable 64 stitches onto either of your circular needles.

Then work 10 rows of k2/p2 rib.

Then bind it off.

On me, this would be 2 inches wider than my wrist.

See how far you can push this up your arm.

That will tell you how far up your arm you can push a sleeve to keep it out of the way of dish washer or other cleaners.
If you need it wider, do a new test strip and add 6 more inches in the starting cable for each inch wider that you want the wristband.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved

DIY disinfectant

The herb thyme has some disinfectant properties, similar to bleach.
Google for a PDF that shows it's not identical.
But I am trying it out instead of buying, for example, more bleach cleaners.
Because the one thing you can't do with thyme is produce poisonous hydrochloric acid.
Which some woman did recently by mixing ammonia and chlorine.
You spend about $20 on the major brand toilet bowl cleaner.
You spend about $3 on less than half an ounce of thyme leaves in a grocery store.
I know where to get 32 times as much thyme leaf for only twice the price of those tiny jars in the store, and it's also about 1/4 the price of the toilet bowl cleaner.
That gives me plenty of thyme for Cajun seasoning and other cooking as well as disinfectant.

There are recipes all over the web for this disinfectant.
You spray the surface, wait 10 minutes, then wipe.
That's because the other ingredient is castile soap, which reacts with the water in the thyme part of the mixture, leaving a film of salts.
You can go around and spray all the surfaces you want to disinfect.
By then, it's probably been 10 minutes, so you go back to the start and wipe them down.

I don't have anybody to test the before and after.
If you can test this, post the results on your blog and email me a link I can post on mine
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved