[Mesorah] Melo Khol Ha'aretz Kevodo

[Mandel, Seth via Mesorah]

I am totally in accord about your cogent comments about how adjectives and nouns have the same import according to the Torah, where what you do has a large import.  However, I will disagree about HQBH and the place of the shekhina, where intent has so much of a bearing in things like n'vu'ah and very aspects of qorbanot.
But that is theology and philosophy.  I do not agree that the form bonei Y-m is the standard one in Hebrew; there are many other examples of the boneh form. Even in Kapitel 147 it occurs twice, not only the case that I mentioned.  I think that there are stylistic and poetic reasons for the different forms.

Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel
Rabbinic Coordinator
The Orthodox Union

Voice (212) 613-8330     Fax (212) 613-0718     e-mail mandels at ou.org

________________________________________
From: Mesorah <mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org> on behalf of Micha Berger via Mesorah <mesorah at lists.aishdas.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2016 2:34 PM
To: Ben Kandel
Cc: mesorah at aishdas.org
Subject: Re: [Mesorah] Melo Khol Ha'aretz Kevodo

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.
http://www.aishdas.org          - Eeyore ("Winnie-the-Pooh" by AA Milne)
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