[Mesorah] pasuk that is not a pasuk

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 02:56:24PM +0000, R. Rich Wolpoe wrote:
: IIRC Future in [Biblical?] Hebrew may be used at times to describe
: an ongoing process. I suspect the Targum is pointing this out here.

There is a theory that in Biblical Hebrew, the tenses are really
perfect vs. imperfect. We confuse the Biblical perfect tense with past,
and imperfect tense with future -- except when there is a vav hahifukh.
"Vayomer Hashem el Moshe" -- Hashem [was] saying (yomer, imperfect tense)
to Moshe.

So, it's perfectly valid to translate "yimlokh" as "is [perpetually]
ruling".

The Meshekh Chokhmah (to stick up for my greatgrandfather's rebbe) takes
the terms as three different tenses, and justifies their sequence --
starting with the middle (Melekh) -- psychologically.

Hashem Melekh is immediate.
Hashem Malakh comes second, because it requires memory.
Hashem Yimlokh le'olam va'ed is one step further, as it requires koach
hadimyon.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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