<HTML>Mr. Alan Smith discussed this in his Shiur at the OU Israel Center.
He calls Asa the perfective form of the verb. V'asa has a Vav Hahipuch and
is called the imperfective form (like Ya'aseh).
He explained that the imperfective form has three main uses:
1. The simple future tense, "he will make" or "he will do"
2. An instruction, "he is to make/do"
As by Betzalel, "Betzalel and Ahaliav are to make"
3. Repeated tenses:
Past (He used to make/do)
Present (He makes/does, e.g. repeatedly)
Future (He will make/do, repeatedly)
The following are some examples of past repeated tenses:
- V'ala in Shmuel Aleph 1:3. (See Rashi)
- A lot of words in Shmot 33:7-11.
- V'shamru, V'na'ala, V'nasa'u, in Bemidbar 9:19-21.
- Also, without the Vav Hahipuch,
"Umordechai Lo Yichra V'lo Yishtachaveh".
Thus, "V'asa Lo K'tonet Pasim" seems to be a past repeated tense, and
means "he used to make him a special coat"; apparently Ya'akov made Yoseif
a new one whenever Yoseif wore out or grew out of the old one. Vaya'as
would mean that Ya'akov only made one coat, once.
Eli Handel</HTML>
