Fundamentals of Grammar

At the beginning of every thought of the heart and at the first expression of every lip, I will ascribe power to Him who teaches man knowledge (Psalms 94:10) to think thoughts, to Him who creates the fruit of the lips (Isaiah 57:19) to speak with clarity, to Him who grants strength to the sagacious to articulate words. These words are like bodies, and their meaning souls. Just as the activity of the soul can be realized only in its body, which is prepared as a vessel [lit., palace] for it, to receive its potentiality in accordance with the nature of that body, so, too, meaning can be contained only by words.

Regarding all who can hear with understanding (Nehemiah 8:2), if someone tries to interpret scripture but has not studied the grammatical secrets of the holy tongue, he will be considered as one who gropes for the wall like the blind (Isaiah 59:10). He cannot know what will cause him to stumble, for he might claim that a verse has ten meanings, and he will praise himself for this idea and draw more strength in his thoughts than ten rulers (Ecclesiastes 7:19), and when people hear this, his reputation as a commentator will increase. But, in fact, the opposite is true. For when he offers numerous interpretations of a verse, he does not know which of them is correct. It is even possible that he will not include the true explanation in his commentary, for whenever someone writes a book, whether he is a prophet or a sage, his statements have but a single meaning. Only the proud of heart [see Proverbs 21:4] add to that meaning and infer one thing from another, either by exposition or by using the verse as support for their own ideas. It is about this that the early sages, of blessed memory, said: “a verse does not depart from its plain meaning” [b. Shabbat 63a]. [ . . . ]

On account of an ignorance of grammar, many did not follow the correct path, such as Menaḥem Ibn Sarūq, who claimed that there are words in the holy tongue that mean both a thing and its opposite. Now, in no language is this possible, as words are an attempt to convey what is in the speaker’s heart, and if what [Menaḥem] said about [this] is true, then the listener will be unable to understand his meaning. His contention is correct only in one specific instance, namely, when a term is used euphemistically, out of respect for the person or thing that is mentioned. For example, Naboth blessed [a euphemism for cursed] [God and the king] (1 Kings 21:13) and: bless [a euphemism for blaspheme] God (Job 2:9). [ . . . ]

The letter alef appears at the beginning of a verb—when it is invariably an indication that the speaker is referring to himself—in all conjugations, such as erdof, asig, aḥalek [I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide] (Exodus 15:9). All three of these verbs have unusual conjugations. There are also instances of an alef that comes at the beginning of a word instead of the letter heh, for example, Jehoshaphat etḥabar [joined himself with, instead of the regular hitḥabar] (2 Chronicles 20:35). One can likewise find it appearing as a silent letter at the end of a word, marking the feminine form instead of a heh. Thus, for example, “call me mara” [bitter, with an alef at the end instead of the more usual heh] (Ruth 1:20), and “his stature was gavha” [exalted, again with an alef at the end] (Ezekiel 31:5). It can also feature as an additional letter at the beginning of a word, as in be-ezro‘akha [with Your hand] (Jeremiah 32:21) or avne ekdaḥ [carbuncles] (Isaiah 54:12), as well as in the middle of a word, e.g., and the rivers shall become foul [ve-he’ezniḥu] (Isaiah 19:6). Furthermore, an alef can replace a double letter, as in: whose land the rivers divide [baz’u instead of bazezu] (Isaiah 18:2), as well as an additional letter at the end of a word, for example: and its galleries [ve-’atikeha’] (Ezekiel 41:15). An alef will never serve at the end of a word [as a suffix].

The letter bet can serve at the beginning of a word [as a prefix], for example, with my sword and with my bow [be-ḥarbi u-ve-kashti] (Genesis 48:22), and likewise: it shall be eaten in one house [be-vayit] (Exodus 12:46). A bet can also replace the letter mem, as in: and that which remains from the meat and from the bread [ba-basar u-va-laḥem] (Leviticus 8:32).