Subject: [b-hebrew] yorenu (again) in Sanhedrin 105
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:23:29 -0700
Thanks much to Harold, Yigal, Yitzhak and Isaac for all the help. The
"nun energicum" is what I was missing.
It had seemed to me that the Sanhedrin passage is playing off this nun
in order to change "teach him" (in /Isaiah/) into "teach us" ("us" being
the Israelites who answer "the prophet" in Rabbah b. bar Hana's
parable). This was the Soncino reading; but the Schottenstein
translation has "teach IT" (the yetzer hara' in the parable) -- and,
appropriately as per Yitzhak's information, puts a dagesh in the nun of
the Talmudic text as well. (I am assuming that the dagesh's are later
additions to the Talmudic text as well as the Biblical, so that Soncino
and Schottenstein can decide where to put their dagesh's in the Talmud.
Correct? Or is there an "official" Masoretic Talmud?)
But what both translations agree on is to say "LET his God teach
[him/us]" rather than simply, "His God will teach [him/us]". This fits
in with a reading of the passage that takes the Israelites as being
defiant or rebellious, and thus resisting the teaching, or at least
taking no responsibility for controlling themselves. What interests me
is an alternative reading, in which the Israelites would be saying, in a
more positive manner, "His God WILL teach us." So what I want to know
is, is there any grammatical basis for deciding this? If you set out to
translate the two English sentences ("Let him teach us", "He will teach
us") into (Biblical) Hebrew, what would you come up with to distinguish
them?
thanks again,
Gabe Eisenstein
[b-hebrew] yorenu (again) in Sanhedrin 105,
Gabe Eisenstein, 06/30/2008