midrash sessions 9 and 10

[cellio]

The last two sessions were shorter than usual so I'm combining them here. As usual, I'm choosing literal translation over the best (English) phrasing, since the main point is for me to improve my Hebrew.

First paragraph:

(1) When he came to sacrifice Yitzchak said to him: (2) Father! Bind [1] my hands and my feet, because the soul is impudent. (3) And when (?) I will see the devouring-knife lest I will shake [2] and the sacrifice will be invalid (pasul, opposite of kosher). (4) Please [mimkha], bind me (akeidni, this time) so that you will not make in me [a] blemish -- immediately "and he bound Yitzchak his son" (torah quote). (5) Yitzchak said to Avraham: (6) Father! Don't tell (lit. "cause to know") my mother when she is standing over a pit (cistern?) or when she is standing upon a roof, lest she fall (cause herself to fall, i.e. throw?) and she dies.

[1] Two words are used for bind, "asar" (as in (2), "asreini") and "akad" (like in "akeidah", binding). I haven't found a difference in meaning or usage between these two words yet; is there some nuance, or are they just synonyms?

[2] "ezda'za'", another four-letter (two-pair) root, zayin-ayin-zayin-ayin. [3] The grammar here is a little funky; if I understand correctly, the binyan is hitpalel but the dalet, which wouldn't normally be there, is subbed in for the taf to make it easier to pronounce. Or something like that. I think.

[3] So far every four-letter root I've seen during this midrash study has been two pairs (A-B-A-B, for arbitrary A and B). Pattern, or too-small sample size?

The rabbis here see Yitzchak as so concerned about ritual correctness that he's giving his father instructions, even at the cost of his life. I wonder how much concensus there is about whether that's a good thing. (This could be a good conversation topic when we cover something from this collection of midrash in the pre-high-holy-day beit midrash: how do we balance the need for correctness with the need to live in the world?)

While in the previous passage it seemed possible that Yitzchak was being sarcastic in talking about what happens next ("go on, give my ashes to mom, do a good job!"), here I'm seeing concern for his mother that doesn't seem so tinged with snark. (I'm not saying he was snarky before; I'm just saying it's ambiguous.)

Second paragraph:

(7) "And he placed him upon the altar" -- (8) The eyes of Avraham [were] to the eyes of Yitzchak and the eyes of Yitzchak [were] to the heaven of heavens. [That is, Avraham looked at Yitzchak's eyes and Yitzchak looked heavenward.] (9) And tears were falling [4] from the eyes of Avraham until his stature (?) rebelled (?) in tears. [The gist of it seems to be that he cried until he couldn't even stand.] (10) He placed the knife [5] in order to slaughter him such that from him would issue (?) a quarter of his blood [or maybe a quarter-measure of something, but there's no unit of measure]. (11) The satan came and he pushed the hand of Avraham and the knife fell from his hand, and as soon as he sent his hand to recover [it] (?) -- he gasped [and] his mouth opened and he howled greatly, and his eyes sought out (?) the Shekhina and he raised his voice and he said:

(We're in the middle of the last line before the second image.)

(12) "I lift my eyes to the mountains, where is my help?" (Ps. 121:1) (13) At that time the Holy One blessed be He [was] over the angels and he opened the firmament [that separates heaven and earth, see second day of creation], and Yitzchak lifted his eyes and he saw chambers of the chariot and he trembled and he shook [6]. (14) The ministering angels [7] stood row by row on the firmament and they were crying and weeping (?) and saying one to another: see, a unique one slaughters and a unique one is slaughtered [8]. (15) Master of the universe! (16) the oath "thus will be your seed" -- what [will become of it]? [9] (17) Immediately the Holy One blessed be He said to Micha'eil: (18) What are you standing [there for]? (19) Don't allow him [to continue]!

[4] "d'ma'ot noshrot". d'ma'ot is tears; nun-shin-reish is "fall" or perhaps "be shed", but the grammar doesn't look like a verb. Maybe it's a participle? Those are quasi-verbs. But that would make it take the from of present tense. ?

[5] "sakin" this time, not "ma'achelet", so just "knife" without further connotations.

[6] "shook": it's good old zayin-ayin-zayin-ayin again.

[7] "malakhei ha-shareit"; you know this phrase from "Shalom Aleichem".

[8] I got "is slaughtered" from context, but I'm not sure what that nun is doing on the beginning of "nishchat" so I'm likely a little wrong.

[9] "mah t'hei aleyha" -- not sure how to do this literally.

Comments

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

Noshrot is being used as a verb with hayu: "tears were falling" is a fair literal translation, where "falling" is an adjective formed from a verb and "were" is the actual verb.