Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Silberman, Alfred" <alfred.silberman AT lmco.com>]

>       -----Original Message-----
>       Shalom Al,
> 
>       I am a touch confused.  Your last sentence reads "difference," but
>       Randall's reads "equivalency."  I think you mean that it is easy to
> read
>       through the weak notion that there is any difference between yiqtol
> and
>       weqatal(in agreement with Randall), but I'm not sure.  Thanks
> 
> 
        Dear Bryan,
        I apologize for my brevity. Your assumption is correct. Randall's
statement was expressing my sentiments exactly. I really don't wish to enter
this debate from a technical point of view. However, what I think Randall
was saying - and applies on a practical level to all the people I know who
deal with this material as part of their lifestyle - is that the people
actually conversant with this text do not find any semantic coding in the
differences between the "yiqtol and weqatal" when dealing with "p'shat"
(plain meaning of the text).

        My above statement does not apply to "d'rash" (exegesis). The Talmud
uses these fine differences in deriving Jewish Law.

        Regards,
        Al

        [snip]

>       > 
>       >       For over 40 years I have been studying and reading Tanakh,
> Talmud
>       > and the Midrashim with commentaries before joining this list. I
> was not
>       even
>       > aware of a difference until I started reading about it on this
> list. I
>       can
>       > assure everyone on this list that for the thousands of people who
> are
>       > engaged in Torah Study on a 24 hour per day basis this difference
> is
>       totally
>       > transparent.
>