Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

0. I will report it as soon as as it is done.
1. I am not a big fan of Mrs. Einstein, but I love Herr Doktor.
2. BARA, like PARA, is 'to disperse', it consists of BA-RA, 'be- 
many'. When I meet Mrs. Einstein in heaven (I assume we will be both  
placed on the same side of the "deictic center" of the Mighty One) I  
will try to explain this to her, but I know from experience that  
Balkan women are hard headed.
3. I am glad you agree that thickness implies being, and hope you  
also agree that being implies thickness.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Feb 1, 2011, at 12:30 AM, fred burlingame wrote:

> Hello Isaac:
>
> Thanks for your comments.
>
> Please allow me to respond in reverse order.
>
> 1. I am very interested in your planned experiment. I wait with  
> great anticipation to hear the results of whether the secular,  
> fluent, hebrew speaker in 2011 can understand, at all, hebrew  
> language of torah read or spoken to him.
>
> 2. Perhaps mrs. einstein was the smarter of the two. Didn't she  
> have to abandon her mathematics and take another job to support his  
> thinking? Perhaps mrs. einstein would opine that "ba-ra" simply  
> means "to fill." ... :)
>
> 3. Thickness implies being? I agree.
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
>
> On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 9:01 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> 1. I consider root ZB, ZV as composed of the two single consonant  
> roots Z+B, namely, זע+בא or עז+עב or יצא+עבה or צאה 
> +בעה. With a B, it is for the coming out of bodily fluids ,and  
> with a V, it is for the coming out of light.
> 2. The English "to come" is somewhat misleading. BA is 'to be', and  
> to be means to have עובי. How can you otherwise 'be'? ANI BA- 
> BAYIT means I am home.
> 3. The question is what is "understand". Even Einstein did not  
> understand what is really meant by בראשית ברא אלוהים  
> את השמים ואת הארץ
> I don't see any inherent difference between the language of the  
> Torah and the language spoken today, except for this funny  VA-YI-GA 
> $ (come-he-approach, presently-he-approach) form, which is now  
> outmoded. I will try to find someone young speaking good Hebrew,  
> but ignorant of the torah (in the diaspora it is easy as may  
> children of Israeli parents speak good Hebrew but have gone to  
> English school and have never opened the Hebrew bible) and read to  
> him some passages and see if he gets it.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
> On Jan 31, 2011, at 7:30 PM, fred burlingame wrote:
>
> > Hello Isaac:
> >
> > Sorry about the mischaracterization of your granddaugther.
> >
> > If I understand you correctly, zee-vah זיוה the popular name;  
> > and zeev-ah זיבה the illness, have a common etymology. And that  
> > commonality includes the identity of letters "vav" ו and "bet"  
> > ב ; and the single root meaning: "to come."
> >
> > The verb עבה "a-va" as thick, and as expressed in noun form 1  
> > kings 7:26, I suppose I can see as emanating from the root letter  
> > "bet," ב "to come."
> >
> > Your comment in your paragraph 2 is most interesting. I thought  
> > that a person raised and trained in the hebrew language spoken in  
> > israel today, cannot, absent special additional training,  
> > understand a reading of the torah? Am I incorrect in this conclusion?
> >
> > In other words, the average college educated person in america,  
> > who never read the english language bible, can nonetheless  
> > understand the english language of the bible being read to him the  
> > first time at say age 21.
> >
> > Is that true for the average college educated person in israel who  
> > has never read the torah? Can she understand the torah being read  
> > to her for the first time at say age 21? ... Or does such a person  
> > exist?
> >
> > Thanks for your comments.
> >
> > regards,
> >
> > fred burlingame
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 5:33 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> > 0. She is not my "relative", she is my granddaughter, and she is  
> > not "very young", she is 5 years old.
> > 1. Yes. ABAH and AWAH mean that something came, BA, materialized  
> > עבה (or עוה), and settled in our consciousness, driving us to  
> > yield to it's, often vehement, insistence. So, BA LI is a clear  
> > and succinct ANI MIT-ABAH (namely, מתאוה or מתעבה) LE-.
> > 2. there is no such thing as "modern" Hebrew.
> > 3. I return to my previous example. You may call (by voice) your  
> > daughter ZIYBAH, but you must write it ZIYVAH (the registrar may  
> > refuse to register ZIYBAH in order to protect the dignity and  
> > reputation of the child). We are calling her ZIYBAH (which is the  
> > same as ZIYVAH), but we know that it is written with a vav. Seeing  
> > the word and hearing the word are interconnected.
> > 4. All you have to do to study Hebrew etymology is to put your  
> > mind to it.
> >
> > Isaac Fried, Boston University
> >
> > (Isaac Fried, Boston University
> > > >