[Mesorah] KEAN, NA, VE'ATA

[Mandel, Seth]

First of all, let us be precise.  You mean w‘atTO, and not ’atTO or ’OTto.
The word ‘atTO as a proper adverb has the specific meaning of "now," as opposed to "previously" or "later." That is also the meaning of Aramaic k‘an.
However, to go further, just look at the English word "now."  Besides its temporal meaning, it is used as a conjunctive preposition, e.g. in a clause like "and now we see that Senator X is not telling the truth." The two words "and" plus "now" mean that in almost all languages. It means "in light of what we have said or discussed."
So "and" plus "now" serves as a conjunctive adverb for the entire clause.
(See how I pulled a fast one: I began the last sentence with "so," which has the exact same meaning, "in light of what we said.")
But there are certain syntactical limitations for using the word/phrase in that way:  it has to be at the beginning of the sentence, usually with the vav.  If the word appears elsewhere, it has the normal  adverbial  temporal meaning.
One needs look no further than p'sukim that one says every day.  All Jewish communities say in P'sukei d'Zimra before starting Chapters 145-150 of Sefer T'hillim a few other p'suqqim.  The second of them is from Psalms 113:2:

יְהִי שֵׁם יְיָ מְבֹרָךְ מֵעַתָּה וְעַד-עוֹלָם

It is absolutely clear that the meaning here is the temporal one.
OTOH, after the end of Chapter 150 of T'hillim, a few p'sukim from various places outside of T'hillim, including the section beginning "Vayvorekh David," 4 psukim from I Chronicles 29:10-13.
The last of those p'suqqim states
וְעַתָּה אֱלֹקֵינוּ מוֹדִים אֲנַחְנוּ לָךְ, וּמְהַלְלִים לְשֵׁם תִּפְאַרְתֶּךָ.
If one looks at the section, it is absolutely clear that this is the second of the two meanings we mentioned, and should be translated "So/and now/in light of this." Note that the words are at the beginning and have the vav.
To summarize: in English, as in Biblical Hebrew, as in many other languages, the word "now" is both used in a temporal sense and as a clause modifier "it follows/in light of this."
Aramaic uses the word "k‘an" in both senses also.  In particular, we find t'shuvos of the G'onim which use the word "k‘an" at the beginning of a sentence clearly in the second meaning, so [excuse the word] it is a real Aramaic usage, not something that only Unqulos used for his translation.
The Biblical word "na" has a different considerations and I will leave that for another time.

Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel
Rabbinic Coordinator
The Orthodox Union

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

________________________________
From: Mesorah <mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org> on behalf of Aharon Gal via Mesorah <mesorah at lists.aishdas.org>
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2019 8:36 AM
To: mesorah at lists.aishdas.org <mesorah at lists.aishdas.org>
Subject: [Mesorah] KEAN, NA, VE'ATA



I want to have a better understanding about the words NA and ATA in Hebrew,

Seems to me that NA is not just “now” or just “please”.

As for the word ATA, and more “VE’ATA”, based on the pesukim, it sounds in many places as “therefore”, rather than “now”.


In Vayera “IM NA MATZATI CHEN”, Unkelos translates NA as “Kean”.  “Kean” is known as “now”, but does really Unkelos mean “now”? i am not sure if “kean” is always “now”, and if it is “now” in this pasuk.


Also I curious to know why Yonatan Ben Uziel translates NA in this pasuk as “bevau” and “kadun”.  This shows me that NA is not exactly “please” and not exactly “now”.


I am aware what Rashi says about the word NA, and what the Ibn Ezra says, but their perushim not always work when I try to replace NA with what their explanation.


On the pasuk “Erda Na ve’er’e ha’ke’tza’a’tah,”, it is hard for me to accept that here NA is “Please”, but also I am not sure that it means “now” .  I don’t see why the adverb “now” is needed here.


I am sure people wrote about the word “NA”. I am interested to know what your opinion on this word. More than this, I would like to know what “Kean” is. Seems to me that it is more than “now.


Thanks,


Aharon



Legal Disclaimer

The contents of this email and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or legally privileged information. You must not use or disclose them other than for the purposes for which they were supplied. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete or destroy all copies of this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. Any privilege or confidentiality pertaining to this email and attachments is not waived by reason of mistaken delivery to you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/mesorah-aishdas.org/attachments/20191112/106cf36d/attachment-0002.htm>