Hello Isaac;
I enjoyed your story of hebrew family life.
Females (and others) today however, seem to have a different interpretation of these verb tenses. Rather than recounting the mother's "past" actions, in the week preceding shabat; the אשת חיל (e-shet ha-yil) rehearses the woman's actions as the "present" attributes of the mother?
http://www.hillel.org/NR/rdonlyres/D8427B98-3F42-4F74-A355- AA9088FF8E15/0/eshet_chayil.pdf
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ ejud_0002_0006_0_06079.html
Do you conclude that the formal and literal meaning of these verbs includes past tense, the above comments notwithstanding?
And חיל of course represents a most interesting word. 1 samuel 2:4 conveys "strength." But Isaiah 26:17 implies "twisting" in pain of child birth. What is the root meaning that can provoke such opposite usages?
regards,
fred burlingame
On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 9:52 AM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
1. DAR$-AH is present? E$ET XAIL is the main shabat-night PIUT, sung before meal with great gusto, extolling the virtuous and diligent deeds of Mrs. Busy-Busy (who is sitting beaming at the table opposite her husband, Mr. GEBER-GEBER, with all her children around her K-$TIYL-EY ZEIT-IYM) during the previous week (during the week Mr. GEBER-GEBER is busy sitting at the town gate with "ZIQN-EI AREC").
2. VA-TA-AS is: (and it came to pass that)-she-do. The past is indicated by the attached verb VA.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
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