Snippetage

[magid]

Animals are in the news again, this time as drug smugglers and money launderers.

Digit dentist: number number

I got a gift certificate for books from and by [my employer]. I get a 50% discount, too. Now to figure out what's out there that I want. Having this year's catalogs are nice, but I'd love a list of their books in print (or in stock, or whatever); I'm more likely to want to get something older (with a chance of having heard of it) than the latest and greatest. Of course, it's not like there's room in my apartment for more books or anything.

The farmer's market is smaller, but they're still there, today, Friday, and next Tuesday. I couldn't resist gorgeous mustard greens (supposedly they're not spicy; I assume I can use them as any other leafy green for cooking, then), plus there were sales on Brussels sprouts and winter squashes. I haven't had a butternut squash yet this year. Though they're not my absolute favorite for taste, they're definitely the best if I want to do anything that doesn't require baking the squash first, since they're actually peelable. Perhaps a tart with slices of squash, onions, rosemary, and some parmesan. Hmmm.

From this (past) week's parsha: it struck me yet again that Esav's request for pottage, or soup, or stew is very odd. "holaich la'moot" just doesn't work in Hebrew. I mean, it sounds fine if you translate it "going to die", but "holaich" isn't going in the general sense, but rather walking. And "walking to die" just doesn't work. I should look up some takes on this.

Comments

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

dd:nn <groan>

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

hrmm.
i think a decent, semi-poetic translation of 'holaich lamoot' could also be 'walking towards death' - although that's taking it out of the verb infinitive...silly biblical Hebrew.

and since I don't have the full parsha in front of me, i'm working out of context. and, well, from Hebrew knowledge rusty from years of disuse.

[magid.livejournal.com]

"Walking towards death" works as a translation for me, a little loose, sure, but reasonable. But then I start thinking of Esav, this hunter, who, whether he's a baddie through and through, has to have known hunger before, so this seems like a far too extreme statement. Yeah, Yaakov was making some really nice soup, but there wasn't anything else around to gnaw on, and no one else was doing any food prep (remembering that this is a family group with lots of servants and such; I'd be surprised if there weren't the equivalent of K-rations around at all times.)?

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

Hrmm.
The translation I have uses "at the point of death," which also seems a bit overblown - but no more exaggerated, really, than one of us saying "I'm starving" when we're just really, really hungry.

But maybe Esau had a thing for soup - it was his Scooby Snack, and Jacob new it was his true weakness??

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I thought holech could, actually, be used colloquially as "going" more than "walking"? Bo nelech!

[magid.livejournal.com]

I think that's more modern Hebrew usage than biblical (though I may be way off base here; my Hebrew knowledge is rustier than I'd like).