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  |      (C) Dr Hendel, Summer 2000                          |
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VERSE: Ex14-10a


RULE: The Hebrew root K-R-V when used in the Hifil mode means
to force oneself to come near*1



EXAMPLES
--------
Ex14-10   Pharoh FORCED HIMSELF (despite the 10 plagues) to attack Jews
Gn12-11   Abraham FORCED HIMSELF(despite the famine) to go to Egypt
Dt01-17   The 2 litigants FORCE THEMSELVES to go to court*2
Lv01-02   The person(despite his sin) FORCES HIMSELF to come near to God*3



NOTES
-----
*1 This is Rashis approach. Two other approaches to KRV IN HIFIL are

*1a IBN EZRA holds KRV IN HIFIL means to CAUSE SOMEONE ELSE TO BECOME CLOSE
    Thus Ex14-10 means He made his armies come closer. But I don't know
    how Ibn Ezra would interpret Gn12-11(See list above)

*1b MIDRASH RABBAH holds that KRV IN HIFIL means COME CLOSER TO GOD
    Thus "KRV A SACRIFICE" means come closer to God by sacrifices
    Similarly Ex14-10 means PHAROH (By attacking them) MADE THE JEWS
    PRAY (and thereby come closer to God). Again
    I don't see how the Zohar would interpret Gn12-11

*1c Some people might retort 'How can Rashi hold that KRV IN HIFIL
    means PUSH HIMSELF TO COME CLOSER---Isn't that the REFLEXIVE
    (HITPAEL) TENSE'.  The answer (given by RDK) is that it is NOT
    a universal rule that HITPAEL means REFLEXIVE. In fact RDK posits
    that the various grammatical MODES can simply function as
    ARBITRARY PLACE HOLDERS for the various meanings of a root.


*2 In other words most people do not want to settle in court but rather
   prefer to fight it out. Here the 2 litigants submit to court decision


*3 A fascinating statistical observation can be made here: Although we
   presented only 4 examples above, nevertheless there are several 100
   occurences of K-R-V in the Bible. This is because the word K-R-V
   usually means to offer a sacrifice (which we have interpreted to mean
   "force oneself to come close to God (via sacrifice) despite the fact
   that the person is a sinner and estranged from God)
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Volume 1 Number 10


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