[Avodah] Shabbas Hagadol

[Jay F. Shachter via Avodah]

>
> ... This is another basis for the Shabbos preceding Pesach to be
> called the "Great Shabbos."
>

No, it is not.

Haggadol is not an adjective modifying Shabbath, because Shabbath is
feminine.  No one who speaks Hebrew uses masculine adjectives to
modify Shabbath, ever (pedantic footnote: except in the fixed
expression "Shabbath shalom umvorakh", which is said by people who
do speak Hebrew, but which for other reasons is clearly an idiomatic
expression that does not follow the rules of grammar, unless you want
to call it a mistake, which is also fine with me).

It is the same reason why we know that Lshon Hara` and `Eyn Hara` are
not nouns modified by adjectives, because lashon and `ayin are
feminine nouns.  No one who speaks Hebrew would ever use the masculine
adjective ra` to modify the feminine nouns lashon or `ayin.  They are
nouns modified by other nouns, and so is Shabbath Haggadol.

(Whether lshon hara` and `eyn hara` are the correct pronunciation
turns on whether the smikhuth forms in Rabbinic Hebrew are the same as
the smikhuth forms in Biblical and modern Hebrew, a question that is
irrelevant to the current discussion.  They are unquestionably
smikhuth forms, however they should be pronounced.)

This alone is not sufficient reason to reject your translation "The
Great Shabbos", because languages do not have to be translated
literally and word-for-word.  I do not reject the translation "the
holy tongue" for "lshon haqqodesh", even though "lshon haqqodesh"
literally means "the tongue of holiness", because languages do not
have to be translated literally.  If you want to translate "lshon
haqqodesh" as "the holy tongue", fine.

But you cannot do that with "Shabbath Haggadol", because we do not say
Shabbath Haggodel, or Shabbath Haggdula, we say "Shabbath Haggadol",
and gadol is an adjective, albeit a masculine one.  As for what it
does mean, well, if you want to say that Hagadol is a kinuy for God
("the Great One"), I think that is far-fetched, but I won't post an
article publicly saying that you are wrong.  It is clear to me that we
say Shabbath Hagadol for the same reason that we say Shabbath Xazon or
Shabbath Naxamu or Shabbath Shuva.  You may disagree.  But what you
cannot plausibly say is that it means "the great Shabbath".


                        Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
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