Showing posts with label mishlei. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mishlei. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The gimel / kaf switch, and the talmid toeh

In parshat Noach, after encountering the root סגר, we encounter the root סכר. In Bereishit 8:

ב וַיִּסָּכְרוּ מַעְיְנֹת תְּהוֹם, וַאֲרֻבֹּת הַשָּׁמָיִם; וַיִּכָּלֵא הַגֶּשֶׁם, מִן-הַשָּׁמָיִם.2 the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.

And Ibn Ezra says that it is similar to סגר, though of course it is not the same root. Because in Hebrew, certain letters switch, but others do not:

ח, ב]
ויסכרו -
כמו ויסגרו, ואין הכ"ף מתחלפת בגימ"ל, רק הם שתי מלות.
והטעם אחד, כי לא יתחלפו חוץ מאותיות יהו"א וסמ"ך בשי"ן.
Thus, ehevi switch, and samech and sin switch, but no others. He neglected to mention one exception to this general rule, which is that in the hitpael and the like, the tav instead manifests as a tet, due to a phonological rule where it becomes the more emphatic t sound in the context of other emphatic sounds such as the tzadi. Though it cannot simply randomly switch in most contexts, in terms of meaning.

So it is kemo vayisagru, where the similar letters in these roots share similar meanings (see Rav Shamshon Refael Hirsch for a well-developed system of this), but of course they are not the same word.

In other instance, Ibn Ezra speaks of a gimel / kaf alternation with similar meaning, which prompts the sefer Michlol (is this Radak) to declare that Ibn Ezra didn't write a certain peirush, but that an erring student did. And this gives Avi Ezer, supercommentator of Ibn Ezra, license to claim this whenever he feels that Ibn Ezra is out of bounds in arguing against Chazal. (See here.)

ג שָׁלְחָה נַעֲרֹתֶיהָ תִקְרָא-- עַל-גַּפֵּי, מְרֹמֵי קָרֶת.3 She hath sent forth her maidens, she calleth, upon the highest places of the city:
And Ibn Ezra writes:
ט, ג
שלחה נערותיה תקרא על גפי מרומי קרת -
כמו גבי, כי אותיות בומ"ף מתחלפות.
Note he does not only say kemo, like before, but that the letters bumaf switch off with each other, something he explicitly distances himself from in parshas Noach.

Avi Ezer writes on parshat Bereishit what is pictured to the right, saying to see Michlol, nikud gimel, where he writes that what the Rav wrote on Mishlei "al gapei" is like al gabei, a talmid toeh wrote it, see there.

I don't know which Michlol he refers to. I was not able to find it in Michlol of Radak, but maybe I just did not know how to look.








At any rate, on parshas Noach, when Ibn Ezra says what he says about ויסכרו, Avi Ezer takes notice. And he says:
"However, in sefer Mishlei the Rav {=Ibn Ezra} wrote upon al gapei: kemo al gabei. And in parshat Miketz, on נצטדק, that the tet is in place of the tav of hitpael. Thus it is clear that the Rav retracted from this, and maintains like the opinion of those medakdekim that letters which come from the same place switch with one another as well. And it is forced to say in all of these that they are two words. And see the beginning of parshat Kedoshim, on the pasuk lo telech rachil. Or else, choose for yourself the words of the Michlol which I brought in Bereishit 1."
What he means by choosing the words of the Michlol is to say that a talmid toeh wrote the words on gapei.

In terms of the tet / tav in hitpael, see Mechokekei Yehuda who cited what I think is a commentary of Ibn Ezra (shita rishona) that includes the tet / tav switchoff as well as tav / heh.

Radak has a similar take on the gimel / kaf switchoff or meaning, in this instance. He writes on Vayiskeru, in parshas Noach what appears to the right -- that with a kaf it is like with a gimel, and gives a parallel in Tehillim 63, where it means to shut up.







And on gapei, in sefer Shorashim, Radak considers the possibility that it is kemo al gabei, since the bet and the peh are from the same place of articulation.

It certainly does seem that Ibn Ezra reversed himself between the two comments, especially when we consider the full quote in Mishlei. While one might be able to argue that he is saying that roots with letters from the same place of articulation bear related meanings, while not being the same word, I am not convinced that his language can sustain such a meaning.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

The Age of Trup -- part xxi

Shadal's Vikuach Al Chochmat haKabbalah continues. The guest finished saying, in the previous segment, that the Chachmei Teveria considered the trup and nikkud to have not been written down from the time of Ezra, but was transmitted orally and was thus susceptible to corruption; and therefore felt free to offer a different trup or nikkud, which was at odds with the trup or nikkud which Chazal must have had, as evident from certain gemaras. Now, in the present segment, they turn to the fact that commentators felt free to disagree with the nikkud, and further, that those who established the nikkud did so at odds with Targum Onkelos and Targum Yonatan.

The author: If the matter is indeed so, behold, as they did, so was paid in kind to them, for after them came Sages, commentators of Scriptures, and they leaned upon it in all that appeared to them to agree with the simple meaning of Scriptures, and in every place that it appeared to them that the nikkud did not rest with the implication of Scriptures, they turned from it and did not heed it; and all this from their opinion that nikkud is only the work of men.

The guest: Still return and see that those who established the nikkud which is our hands also did not heed Targum Onkelos and Yonatan.

Do you not see that the vocalized
{in Shemot 2:5
ה וַתֵּרֶד בַּת-פַּרְעֹה לִרְחֹץ עַל-הַיְאֹר, וְנַעֲרֹתֶיהָ הֹלְכֹת עַל-יַד הַיְאֹר; וַתֵּרֶא אֶת-הַתֵּבָה בְּתוֹךְ הַסּוּף, וַתִּשְׁלַח אֶת-אֲמָתָהּ וַתִּקָּחֶהָ. 5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river; and her maidens walked along by the river-side; and she saw the ark among the flags, and sent her handmaid to fetch it.
}
וַתִּשְׁלַח אֶת-אֲמָתָהּ in a way that it only teaches "her maidservant," and Onkelos translates "and she extended her arm {amata}," and the language of "extension" does not fall upon a maidservant but rather upon the hand; And behold, according to the opinion of Onkelos, it would have been fitting to vocalize it ammatah with a dagesh in the mem {and a full patach under the aleph rather than a chataf-patach}.

And so too they made {Zechariah 14:5}
ה וְנַסְתֶּם גֵּיא-הָרַי, כִּי-יַגִּיעַ גֵּי-הָרִים אֶל-אָצַל, וְנַסְתֶּם כַּאֲשֶׁר נַסְתֶּם מִפְּנֵי הָרַעַשׁ, בִּימֵי עֻזִּיָּה מֶלֶךְ-יְהוּדָה; וּבָא ה אֱלֹהַי, כָּל-קְדֹשִׁים עִמָּךְ. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the LORD my God shall come, and all the holy ones with Thee.
from the root nos {flee}, and Yonatan made it the language of closing {setima, with root STM}, as if the reading was venistam, just as also the 70 elders who translated for Talmay made it {=the Septuagint, LXX}, and also as Yosef ben Guryon {Yosippon?} made it.

And how did the Sages of Teveriah fill their hearts the argue on that which Ezra made, and also which afterwards no dispute fell therein? Or how did Onkelos and Yonatan, and the other translators fill their hearts to argue on the nikkud, if it was the work of Ezra, or the work of the Prophets themselves? And if we turn to the Tagum of the Writings {Ketuvim}, we will see quite a number of verses where their Targum differs from the nikkud, such as (Mishlei 20:4)
ד מֵחֹרֶף, עָצֵל לֹא-יַחֲרֹשׁ; ישאל (וְשָׁאַל) בַּקָּצִיר וָאָיִן. 4 The sluggard will not plow when winter setteth in; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.
is translated {in Targum} as if it was written m'choraf atzeil lo yecherish {?"the blasphemous sluggard will not be silent"?}.

And so too (Mishlei 20:14)
יד רַע רַע, יֹאמַר הַקּוֹנֶה; וְאֹזֵל לוֹ, אָז יִתְהַלָּל. 14 'It is bad, it is bad', saith the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.
is translated as "friend, friend." {reia', reia'}

And so too (Mishlei 26:10):
י רַב מְחוֹלֵל-כֹּל; וְשֹׂכֵר כְּסִיל, וְשֹׂכֵר עֹבְרִים. 10 A master performeth all things; but he that stoppeth a fool is as one that stoppeth a flood.

וְשֹׂכֵר עֹבְרִים is translated as {if vocalized} veshikor oveir yam {? and the drunkard who passes over the sea ?}

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