Words from this week's reading, traced to their roots by David Curwin, the Hebrew Language Detective. Each begins with the verse where the word appears and continues in his own words.
tam and tamim
תָּמִ֣ים תִּֽהְיֶ֔ה עִ֖ם יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃
Thou shalt be whole-hearted with the LORD thy God.
Two similar adjectives appear throughout the Bible: tam (תָּם) and tamim (תָּמִים). Both come from the root תמ"ם, and both can describe someone as upright, complete, or perfect. But they aren't always used in exactly the same way. Yaakov (Bereshit 25:27) is called an אִישׁ תָּם, while Noach (Bereshit 6:9) is an אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים. Iyov (Iyov 1:1) is תָּם וְיָשָׁר, while Avraham (Bereshit 17:1) is commanded to be תָמִים. So what is the difference between the two words?
Let's start with the root תמ"ם. The Ben-Yehuda Dictionary gives the basic meaning of the verb תמם as "to be complete, finished." We find that meaning in verses such as וַיִּתְּמוּ יְמֵי בְכִי אֵבֶל מֹשֶׁה, "the days of mourning for Moshe came to an end" (Devarim 34:8). That basic idea of completion or wholeness is the starting point for both adjectives.
The words tam and tamim are two different adjective forms built from the same root. The ending of tamim may look like a masculine plural ending, but tamim itself is singular. Its plural is temimim תְּמִימִים.
TDOT suggests that tam may represent the older of the two adjective forms, with tamim becoming more common later. Other Semitic languages also have more than one form from this root. Arabic has both tāmm, "complete," and tamīm, with related meanings of completeness or being well formed. Hayim Tawil, in his Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew, notes the Akkadian cognate tamīmu, which he defines as "perfect." Interestingly, unlike Hebrew tamim, the Akkadian word is restricted to describing animals.
That is worth noting, since one of the most common biblical uses of tamim is also for animals. The Pesach offering must be a שֶׂה תָמִים, an unblemished animal (Shemot 12:5), and sacrificial animals are repeatedly required to be tamim.
chanukah
וְדִבְּר֣וּ הַשֹּֽׁטְרִים֮ אֶל־הָעָ֣ם לֵאמֹר֒ מִֽי־הָאִ֞ישׁ אֲשֶׁ֨ר בָּנָ֤ה בַֽיִת־חָדָשׁ֙ וְלֹ֣א חֲנָכ֔וֹ יֵלֵ֖ךְ וְיָשֹׁ֣ב לְבֵית֑וֹ פֶּן־יָמוּת֙ בַּמִּלְחָמָ֔ה וְאִ֥ישׁ אַחֵ֖ר יַחְנְכֶֽנּוּ׃
And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying: ‘What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.
It's widely known that there is major disagreement as to the proper spelling of חנוכה in English. Andy Carvin has an interesting article about the different spellings and how Wikipedia has made Hanukkah more popular than Chanukah. And of course Wikipedia deals with the spelling issue in the main article and in the discussion page as well.
A book I picked up a number of years ago - How Do You Spell Chanukah?: A General-Purpose Romanization of Hebrew for Speakers of English by Werner Weinberg recommends Chanukah. Rabbi Josh Waxman in Parshablog suggests Chanukka. I'm partial to Chanuka or even Hanuka, but my wife quotes her fourth grade teacher as saying "The one rule about spelling חנוכה - it must have eight letters." And since shalom bayit (lighting Shabbat candles) comes before the mitzva of publicizing the miracle (lighting חנוכה candles) - see the last Rambam in Sefer Zmanim - I'll stick with Chanukah.
What I didn't realize is just how complicated the etymology of Chanukah is. The complication arises from the multiple meanings of the root חנך. While I am aware that חנך in modern Hebrew can mean "to educate" - as in chinuch חינוך , I always thought that חנך for chanukah meant "dedication". However, this article by Prof. Stefan Reif shows how the basic meaning of the root חנך is "to begin, initiate". Dedicate, on the other hand means "to consecrate to sacred uses" - קדש in Hebrew. He writes that this translation was based on the Latin translation of the Bible - the Vulgate.
kalgas
Today I heard on the news a word I wasn't too familiar with: kalgas קלגס. The dictionary definition is "soldier", but the connotation seems to always be a brutal, thuggish soldier. It certainly sounded like it was not of Semitic origin, and Klein confirms that:
soldier, warrior (mostly used in the plural קלגסים). [Latin caliga (= heavy military shoe), whence figurative 'military service'. Related to calx (=heel), calcar (=spur), calceus (=shoe).]
Klein, as well as most sources I checked, doesn't connect calx as "heel" to the Latin calx meaning "lime, pebble", which is the source of such words as calcium and calculation. However, this site suggests that perhaps
The Latin word for heel is calx, calcis. Here we must take another short digression, because the Latin word for lime is also calx. The Century tells us that the underlying Latin means "small stone," and perhaps that is the connection between "lime" and the "heel." Lime, or chalk, begins as a small stone that is eroded while the heel bone can appear, to the eye, as if stone-shaped. The Latin word for shoe is calceus, or something that goes over the heel.
In any case, caliga - the Roman sandals, secured with nails (which made quite a bit of noise) - were apparently frightening enough to give their name to the Roman soldiers in general (pictures here). For example, the Mishna (Sota 8:1) interprets part of the verse of Devarim 20:3 - "Let not your heart faint; fear not, nor be alarmed" - as saying not to fear the noise of the (enemy) troops - שפעת הקלגסין. The notorious Roman emperor Caligula also got his name from those shoes - his name mean "little (soldier's) boot", because as a child he accompanied his father, a general, in military campaigns.
At the table
- Read Deuteronomy 18:13 aloud. Now that you know where תָּמִ֣ים comes from, what do you hear in the verse that you didn't before?
- Why might the Torah say חֲנָכ֔וֹ in Deuteronomy 20:5? What would be lost with a more ordinary word?
- Which of this week’s words do you use in Modern Hebrew? Has the meaning moved since the Torah used it?