Drawing Water
As we explained earlier, “drawing water” and “lifting up” can actually be seen as one act.
Bovine Words: Cows And Cowboys
In Hebrew, an egel is a male calf, while an eglah is a female calf. Calves are immature bovines that rely on their mother’s milk to survive and grow.
Five Ways To Be Silent
A fourth word for quiet is “hass.” This verb means making others quiet (i.e., hushing them). The etymology of this word might be an onomatopoeic adaptation of the sound used to quiet others (like “shh…”).
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.
Calling The Defender
A meilitz yosher is a defender who emphasizes a person’s good and “straight” deeds, while a prosecutor emphasizes a person’s evil and criminal deeds.
Getting Stoned (Part Two)
As mentioned last week, the Bible actually uses both regimah and sekilah in the case of Achan (Joshua 7:25). Rashi explains that this is because Achan himself was subjected to regimah, while the animals he took as booty were subjected to sekilah (see also Targum and Radak there).
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).
The Shining Sea Of Galilee
It’s possible that this body of water actually does not have its own name and is identified instead by the most prominent city on its banks.
Hebron: The City Of Four And More
Kiryat Arba is an older name for the city of Hebron (Josh. 14:15, Jud. 1:10). It means “City of Four” or “Tetrapolis.” But what does Hebron have to do with the number four?
Seasoning The Land (Part II)
Avot de-Rabbi Natan explains that the world is called taivel because it is “spiced up” (metubal) with Torah, so that the Midrash is emphasizing the importance of Torah in that the entire world is called taivel simply because there’s a little bit of Torah “mixed into” it.
Sing And Song (Part II)
The word “yashar” (straight) would seem to hold the opposite meaning of “shirah,” but Rabbi Shapiro notes that in rabbinic literature the two are linked.
When Suddenly…
The Talmud (Kritut 9a) states that “peta” connotes shogeg (by mistake), while “pitom” could connote oness (by accident), meizid (on purpose), or shogeg. The Midrash (Sifrei to Numbers 6:9) disagrees.
Spoils Of War
Rabbi Pappenheim traces the etymology of “baz” and “bizah” to the biliteral root bet-zayin, which refers to something unimportant.
Through The Looking Window
We now turn our attention to “eshnav.” This rather obscure word only appears twice in the entire Bible.
Feeding The Lie
Indeed, the Talmud (Shavuos 26a) exempts a person from punishment if he swore falsely to something that he thought was true.
The Many Shades Of Purple
Explaining argaman as red does not preclude explaining argaman as orange, for orange is a shade of red mixed with yellow.
The Ovine And Caprine Families
The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 26a) points out that "yovel" also means ram, and was borrowed to mean a ram’s horn (Joshua 6:4-5), as well the 50th year – the jubilee, an English word derived from the Hebrew "yovel," when such a horn is blown.
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.
Kneading The Dough
Rabbi Mecklenberg writes that “arisah” is related to “eres” (bed): Just as dough consists of a mixture of flour and water, so too a bed’s mattress rest on a mixture of interplaced beams or planks.
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).
The Strong Ones (Part II)
Another verse in Psalms (68:35) exhorts the reader to give “oz” to G-d. Obviously we can’t actually strengthen G-d.
Revolting Revolutions
The poshea is not one who tries to rebel but is rather one whose indolence shows that he does not care about the result of his actions.
Be A Man
The Vilna Gaon argues that man stopped resembling G-d in the generation of Adam’s grandson Enosh when idol worship began to develop.
Are You Really ‘With Me’?
If G-d told Balaam not to go with Balak’s men, why did He seemingly “change His mind” and later allow him to go?
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.
Castle In The Sky
“Apadna” appears once in the Bible (Daniel 11:45), and the commentators explain that it denotes a palace. In the Talmud, “apadna” sometimes means, not a palace, but a den that is especially grand or kingly.
The Power To Hold Back
In Cheshek Shlomo, Rabbi Pappenheim connects “eitan” to the biliteral root aleph-tav, which he further reduces to the monoliteral root tav. He explains that this root means connections and linking.
Boys And Girls (Part II)
A whole slew of other words also come from ayin-lammed, including “elyon” (high), “l’maaleh” (up), “oleh” (elevate), “aleh” (leaf, which grows on a branch), “ohl” (yoke, which placed on an animal), “meil (tunic, which is worn on top of other clothing), “na'al” (shoe, which is worn on top of the foot), etc.
A Biblical Feast
Ibn Janach writes that produce is called “tevuah” because it comes at certain times of the year.
How Many Foreheads?
The Mishnah and the Talmud do not explain what “padachat” means, so how do we know it means “forehead”?