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.
shiur and shaar
וַיֵּצֵ֤א הָרִאשׁוֹן֙ אַדְמוֹנִ֔י כֻּלּ֖וֹ כְּאַדֶּ֣רֶת שֵׂעָ֑ר וַיִּקְרְא֥וּ שְׁמ֖וֹ עֵשָֽׂו׃
And the first came forth ruddy, all over like a hairy mantle; and they called his name Esau.
In the previous post, I mentioned how achuz אחוז means "percent", while shiur שיעור means "percentage". However, you might be more familiar with another meaning of shiyur (also pronounced in Yiddish, via reduction, as shi'er or shir) - "lesson, class". This leads to a cute joke my son told me:
למה פאה וביכורים משחקים בחצר? כי אין להם שיעור
Why were Peah and Bikkurim playing outside during school?
Because they don't have a shiur...
(based on Peah 1:1, where shiur means "fixed measure")
The meaning "measure" came first, and only in medieval Hebrew did shiur come to mean lesson - "a set measure of learning" (that sense is preserved in shiurei bayit שיעורי בית - "homework"), followed by the modern Hebrew sense of "class". The word shiur derives from the root שער meaning, "to calculate, to estimate, to measure". The verb form only appears once in Tanach, in Mishlei 23:7. The noun form also only appears once, but for me in a surprising location, Bereshit 26:12
וַיִּזְרַע יִצְחָק בָּאָרֶץ הַהִוא, וַיִּמְצָא בַּשָּׁנָה הַהִוא מֵאָה שְׁעָרִים
Yitzchak sowed in that land and in that same year found meah she'arim
Meah shearim is a sign of blessing, and gave its name to one of the oldest neighborhoods in Jerusalem outside of the Old City. I had always thought that she'arim here meant gates (from sha'ar שער - "gate") and the meaning was poetic - "100 gates." But nearly every translation and commentary I've found said the phrase means "hundredfold" - literally "one hundred measures" - or "one hundred estimates". (Tur Sinai in his commentary Peshuto Shel Mikra, follows the Septuagint, and understands Onkelos in the same vein, and says that the word actually was se'orim שעורים - "barley".
tam and tamim
וַֽיִּגְדְּלוּ֙ הַנְּעָרִ֔ים וַיְהִ֣י עֵשָׂ֗ו אִ֛ישׁ יֹדֵ֥עַ צַ֖יִד אִ֣ישׁ שָׂדֶ֑ה וְיַעֲקֹב֙ אִ֣ישׁ תָּ֔ם יֹשֵׁ֖ב אֹהָלִֽים׃
And the boys grew; and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.
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.
tzchok
וַיְהִ֗י כִּ֣י אָֽרְכוּ־ל֥וֹ שָׁם֙ הַיָּמִ֔ים וַיַּשְׁקֵ֗ף אֲבִימֶ֙לֶךְ֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ פְּלִשְׁתִּ֔ים בְּעַ֖ד הַֽחַלּ֑וֹן וַיַּ֗רְא וְהִנֵּ֤ה יִצְחָק֙ מְצַחֵ֔ק אֵ֖ת רִבְקָ֥ה אִשְׁתּֽוֹ׃
And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
We find the root צחק - "to laugh" a number of times in the story of Yitzchak (which isn't surprising, considering it is the source of his name.) The verb appears in both the kal form - צחק tzachak and the piel form - ציחק tzichek. Just as laughter itself can be interpreted many different ways (are you laughing at me or with me?) - so to does the verb have different connotations: joy (Bereshit 17:17, 21:6), surprise / disbelief (18:12-15), jesting (19:14), mocking / teasing (21:9) and intimacy / foreplay (according to Chizkuni) in Bereshit 26:8.
The root שחק is closely connected to צחק - both in meaning and form. As Al Silberman wrote in Mail-Jewish:
The verbs "tzachak" and "sachak" appear many times in Tanach. "Tzachak"occurs 15 times and "Sachak" occurs 51 times. Both have the same meaning; a"tzaddi" and "seen" are interchangeable consonants since they are formed from the same part of the mouth. I would like to offer up the following observation:
The form "tzachak" is used exclusively until the time of the Shoftim (Judges). The form "sachak" is used exclusively in the seforim written during the first Temple. Both forms appear in the seforim written after the destruction of the first Temple.
Thus, the subject name appears in the Torah and Yehoshua as Yitzchak. It appears exclusively as Yischak in Tehillim, Amos and Yirmiyahu. It appears again as Yitzchak in M'lochim (Kings) and Divrei Hayomim (Chronicles).
The following are to be noted:
1. Both forms are used in the same posuk in Shoftim (Judges) 16:25. See Malbim for his explanation.
2. There is a dispute in Bava Basra 14b (and following folios) dealing with Iyov's era (when he lived or when the sefer was written). Iyov uses "sachak" exclusively.
More from Balashon on Toldot
At the table
- Read Genesis 25:25 aloud. Now that you know where שֵׂעָ֑ר comes from, what do you hear in the verse that you didn't before?
- Why might the Torah say תָּ֔ם in Genesis 25:27? 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?