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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] A Jewish perspective on reading biblical hebrew

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  • From: "Noam Eitan" <neitian AT nyc.rr.com>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] A Jewish perspective on reading biblical hebrew
  • Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 15:21:25 -0500

>However I am wondering what
> comments you could make that would help me to continue on the right
> perspective.

It's hopeless. I don't know if your Israeli has ever contemplated seriously
the alternative views, or is still in the naive stage. There are others on
this list who can (and have) discuss this better than me, but if my path
proves anything, than it's hopeless. I started from the (Modern Hebrew)
naive perspective of past-present-future. I educated myself for several
years about the way modern and past scholars view the issue, helped a lot by
this board. I am now back to a total rejection of imperfect and perfect in
BH, I see everything placed in time from the subject's perspective (the
'noseh'). I don't know if it is childhood fixations, I just cannot read the
texts with the perfect/imperfect understanding imposed on them. I agree with
everything you quote from the guy - I feel like a recovering alcoholic
resigned to and enjoying an alcoholic relapse. I experience a wall of
misunderstanding when I try to discuss this with non-native-Modern Hebrew
speakers. Based on my sorry experience my advice to you is not to waste your
time.



I'm curious what are the feelings of Modern Hebrew speakers on this board
about this issue. I have a vague impression that they have been relatively
quiet on this thorny grammatical problem on this board, maybe because Modern
Hebrew speakers don't experience any tension or cognitive dissonance when
following the tenses (if that's what it is) in the text.

- Noam Eitan, Brooklyn








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