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To the sysop (fwd)





---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 23 Jan 96 00:33:19 EST
From: David Crowder <75352.2352@compuserve.com>
To: Orion Center <msorion@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il>
Subject: To the sysop

Dear Mr. or Ms. Sysop ... assuming there is a sysop,
  Yesterday I posted the message that follows, calling it something like "Isaiah
scroll question." Since it was addressed to "all" I expected to find a copy of
it in my own mailbox. I didn't. And because it was, I think, a tantalizing
question (or a very dumb one) that most of the scholars here could easily check
out, I expected to hear something. I didn't. 
  That makes me wonder if there was a problem with the question or if I
misaddressed it. Can you help?
  Here is the message, slightly revised, I attempted to post:
  
   I am working on an article and have read another just now being published
around the country that raises questions about the Isaiah scroll and
particularly Isaiah 7:11.
  The pertinent word appears to be  "mem aleph mem" or "mem aleph bet."  In
either case, it would make for an interesting translation. Would it not be
loosly translated as:  "Ask for a sign from the mother (or possibly father) of
the Lord thy God" ?
  I've pointed it out to others who say with assurance that the passage refers
to "mother." But one source says it was an "obvious misspelling," and that that
is why it was not originally transcribed as written into modern Hebrew. 
  My two questions are: Is that reading of the original text correct? And, if
so, why would it not have been transcribed? 
   I would appreciate answers sent or at least copied to my email address:
75352.2354@compuserve.com.
  Thanks in advance,
  David Crowder