[Mesorah] Melo Khol Ha'aretz Kevodo

[Micha Berger via Mesorah]

On Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 01:34:18PM -0500, Ben Kandel via Mesorah wrote:
: The verbal form in Hebrew that corresponds to the present in English is
: generally regarded as a participle, a kind of adjective derived from a
: verb.  (See, for example,
: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gesenius%27_Hebrew_Grammar/50._The_Participle
: and
: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gesenius%27_Hebrew_Grammar/116._The_Participles.)
:  I think this may explain why translating directly into English ("building
: of Y-M" etc.) sounds so strange.

I was almost at the same place, just considering "one who is adjective X",
the noun that every adjective can be use as, to be more under discussion
than the adjective.

But this just shows the full extent of the issue. Like when Artscroll
renders "HaKeil haGdaol haGibor vehaNorah" as three adjectives describing
haKeil, whereas the Gra understands the pasuq (and thus the berakhah) as
listing four nouns describing HQBH. The 4-fold structure is fundamental
to how the Gra understands Birkhas Avos; to him, all of the berakhah is
iterations of these four themes. Which is how the berakhah is a valid
extension of the praise in Tanakh, whereas R' Chanina's student's lengthy
list of adjectives is not.

So I would have said that it's a part of speech that is synthesis
of adjective, noun and present-tense (taxis?) verb. (I did so here
<http://www.aishdas.org/asp/divine-timelessness-ii-hebrew-tenses>,
although skp part I, I am now more enamored of taxis-based theories of
LhQ than of aspect based ones. II conteains the idea I gave earlier,
III adds adjectives to the mix.)

As I close there:
   So, in Biblical Hebrew, the same conjugation is used for nouns,
   present tense verbs, and adjectives.

   There is a major mussar statement. You can't fool yourself into
   saying that "really" you're a good person, deep down. You are what
   you do. While you are building, you are a builder. You can't fool
   yourself by saying that you just act one way, but deep down youare
   otherwise. (Of course, when speaking of ourselves, "otherwise" means
   "better", and when speaking of others, we mean "worse".) What you make
   of yourself isn't simply adjectives, attributes atop your essence,
   it's who you are.

   We might see these possible sources of confusion as flaws, but in
   reality, we're eliminating artificial distinctions that get in the
   way of understanding G-d and ourselves.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Weeds are flowers too
micha at aishdas.org        once you get to know them.
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