Turning The Corner (Part I)
Rabbi Pappenheim relates the word zavit to the word ziv (“splendor,” “radiance”), and he offers two different ways of explaining the connection between the passages.
Speedy Horsepower
Many commentators explain that achashtranim refer to mules that were born from the union of male donkeys and female horses (as opposed to hinnies, which are born to male horses and female donkeys and are typically weaker beasts).
Yisro: Murder He Wrote
While both retzicha and harigah refer to the act of taking another’s life, Rashi’s grandson Rashbam lays down a general rule to distinguish retzicha from harigah. According to Rashbam, retzicha always refers to killing somebody for no legitimate reason.
Scribal Culture
The Hebrew and Latin terms for scribe are similar to each other in that both are cognate with the word for book in their respective languages (sofer and sefer, libellarius and liber).
Parshas Bo: Please Stand Up
While the term amidah is teleologically neutral and simply relays the notion of standing in place, the term nitzav implies standing for a specific purpose.
The Trick Of Magi
In his commentary to Sanhedrin 67b, however, Rashi says the Talmud holds that lahat is something performed by the practitioner himself, while lat adjures sheidim to act on one’s behalf.
Drawing Water
As we explained earlier, “drawing water” and “lifting up” can actually be seen as one act.
Famishing Famines
Various permutations of this word appear around 130 times throughout the Bible.
Toldos: The Doers and Fighters
The Torah recounts a series of incidents between the shepherds employed by Isaac and those employed by Avimelech, the Philistine king of Gerar, in which the former dug wells, and the latter tried to usurp control of those wells.
Chayei Sarah: Take A Drink
Curiously, Rabbi Pappenheim argues that the word neshek (“weapon”) also relates to this root, because two opposing combatants approaching each other on the battlefield resemble two lovers approaching each other for a kiss, or because the mechanics of the neshek create a certain type of consistent noise.
Be My Guest
Interestingly, Rabbi Yaakov Emden (1697-1776) argues for a Hebrew etymology of the word ushpiz in the sense of host by explaining it as a portmanteau of the Hebrew phrase yesh po zin (there is sustenance here).
Prime Property
While the words rechush and mikneh always appear in singular form in the Bible, the word nechasim always appears in the plural.
Revealing The Secret
...the word sod expanded in Rabbinic Hebrew to refer to any sort of restricted or confidential information to which only a select few are privy. Hence, the word sod came to mean secret.
The Beautiful Citron
In Modern Hebrew, the term hadar was redefined to refer to the entire citrus genus. This includes all sorts of citrus fruits, like oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes, tangerines, pomelos, kumquats, mandarins, clementines, and more.
The Shofar’s Horn
When monies are invested into a potential endeavor, the undertaking can go in one of two possible directions – the principal can be lost, or it can produce profit.
An Utter Embarrassment
According to Rabbi Bedersi, klimah is the most intense type of embarrassment: it results from somebody doing something that he was not supposed to do, or somebody being called out for his misdeeds.
Flowering Chicklings
Academy of the Hebrew Language and another article by Dr. Moshe Raanan of Herzog College explain that even though in earlier times the terms efroach and gozal were indeed synonymous, in Modern Hebrew there is a difference between these terms based on a zoological distinction.
Of Thorns And Thistles (Part II)
Now that we’ve seen the entire list, we can better appreciate a comment that Rashi made off the cuff.
Of Thorns and Thistles (Part I)
The famous Burning Bush where Hashem introduced Himself to Moses was called a sneh, and that word appears a total of six times in the Bible.
Mattos: The Names Of Jericho
One of the appellations given to Jericho in the Bible is Ir HaTmarim, “the City of Dates.”
In The Middle
It seems that the principle meaning of the root reish-kaf-samech is “to tie together.” When things are tied together, the nexus of the knot is the point where their connection is strongest and most-highly concentrated.
On Dry Land
Rabbi Pappenheim postulates that there are two different types of moistness: one refers to something wet on the outside but not necessarily on the inside, while the other refers to something saturated with liquid on the inside but dry on the outside.
Korach: The Gorgeous Windpipe
The word garon appears eight times in the Bible. In five of those cases, the word is associated with speech, so it is clearly talking about the trachea through which speech passed to exit one’s mouth
Empty Exaggerations
In explaining what a guzma is, Rashi writes that they are “simply words,” meaning they do not reflect the actual reality ... Similarly, Rashi explains that "words of havai" refers to speech spoken by common people, who often speak in vulgar ways that exaggerate the matter at hand.
On Misers And Cheapskates
The truth is that kilay in the sense of miser is a rather obscure and archaic Biblical Hebrew word, seemingly not used in Mishnaic Hebrew.
My Husband, My Man
The word baal not only means husband, but was the name of the chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon. Throughout the Bible, the Jews dallied with Baal-worship, and many of the prophets endeavored to break the Jews of that idolatrous habit.
More Cheese Please
The word gvinah only appears once in the Bible: Is it not like milk that You have poured me, and like cheese [gvinah] that You have solidified me? (Job 10:10).
The Year of Seven (Part II)
Another word related to both sheviit and sheva is shavua, but this word bears two distinct meanings in both Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew.
The Year Of Slipping Away (Part I)
How does the literal meaning of “slipping away” relate back to laws of the sabbatical year?
Purim: Words For Wine (Part II)
Rabbi Avraham Bedersi in Chotam Tochnit points out that in rabbinic usage, the term shechar clearly refers to some drink other than wine.
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