Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 7:43 PM, Gabe Eisenstein wrote:

> 3. "His God will teach us" is also a possible reading, if we choose to
> leave the dagesh out of the nun in the Talmudic yorenu, and if we regard
> the shift from "him" (vav with nun energicum) to "us" (standard nun-vav
> suffix) as a piece of wordplay.

Dear Gabe,

I see no way that "us" can be a possible reading in this verse.  Soncino
just translated incorrectly.  Let me point out that the sermon is apparently
found in Yalkut Shim(oni.  There it is related to Rabbi Abba bar Kahana:
http://www.tsel.org/torah/yalkutsh/yishayahu.html#A1514
In his commentary, Rashi also apparently relates this sermon to Rabbi
Abba bar Kahana and writes, "That is, a winning argument, that they
said - God will discipline, because we cannot discipline it."
The Shteinzaltz edition notes that Rabbi Yaacov ben Zvi of Emden
(יעבץ) commented on this verse.  Shteinzaltz writes "There are those who
explain this - throw it away -- from the verb yrh - shoot, that Israel said,
'there is no solution to the inclination, unless God will throw it away.'"
Whether Rashi, or Yaacov ben Zvi, the reading is consistently "him."
There is no other way, in my opinion, to read the Talmudic passage
and make sense of it.

Yitzhak Sapir