These two days were spent in class and studying (and blogging). So there are no new sites to tell you about yet. But I can tell you that the Kibbutz is full of fruit trees, figs, pomegranates, etc.
Right outside of our classroom building is an almond tree (etz shaqed, or simply shaqed). The first photo shows the tree and the second is a closeup of the unripe fruit. Actually, they are related to the peach family; the skins are fuzzy. At this point, they actually rattle. But if you eat them now, they are quite bitter.
In Jer 1:11-12, the word comes from the Lord to Jeremiah. God shows him an image and asks him what he sees. Jeremiah says, "I see a branch of a shaqed." The Lord says, "You have seen correctly, for I am shaqed over my word to do it." The Lord makes a word play here. He gets Jeremiah to utter a word that sounds like what he will do. The word the Lord uses, shaqed, means "watching." The Lord's message is one of coming judgment on Judah. He gets the prophet involved in delivering the message.
Tuesday night was the weekly lecture by Randall Buth. It was on the nature of the Hebrew verbal system. He offered many excellent insights. For example, grammars typically teach that Hebrew has no present tense. This is not true. They use a participle (words that are half-verb and half-adjective) to talk about action currently in progress. In speaking the language, we are very familiar with these. Modern Hebrew does the same thing, but this is also normal biblical Hebrew.
Brakhot!
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