3
Nov
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The pictographic system which many call Paleo-Hebrew is actually Proto-Sinaitic. Yoel walks us through the history and development of the Hebrew script, distinguishing between theory vs. actual evidence of a pictographic precursor to Hebrew.
2
Feb
We are now deep into winter in the land of Israel, and there are several good Hebrew words worth discussing which appear in the Hebrew Bible.
14
Jul
וַיִּקְחוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים אֶת–אֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים, וַיָּבִאוּ אֹתוֹ בֵּית דָּגוֹן; וַיַּצִּיגוּ אֹתוֹ, אֵצֶל דָּגוֹן
“The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the temple of Dagon, where they positioned it beside Dagon” 1Sam 5:2
The name Dagon has been always associated with the fish like god which many try to depict as a merman–a half man, half fish. It is understood that the word דָּג-Dag-fish is incorporated into his name. However, this is probably a misunderstanding and the name is actually דָּגָן-Dagan-Grain.
8
Oct
An interesting point about the Hosha-Na practice:
We must remember that the time frame I am talking about is at a time where many had already refrained from speaking the name of God, so I use the idea of hinting in this argument about The Name. The practice of not speaking God’s name has been traced by some scholars to the 3rd and even 4th centuries.
28
Sep
Yom Teru’ah
One of the interesting discussions which exists is what does זִכְרוֹן תְּרוּעָה-Zikhron Teru’ah mean (Vayiqra/Leviticus 23:24). Many identify this as being a memorial of some sort. Rabbinic Judaism interprets that when the day falls on Shabbat we only commemorate the sounding of the Shofar, but not actually sound it. This is in opposition to the term יום תרועה “Yom Teru’ah” (Bamidbar/Numbers 29:1), which is understood as a day where we actually use the Shofar.
3
Jun
Who doesn’t love a freshly baked slice of bread? With the exception of people who have health problems, most of us see bread as a basic staple of our food. In Hebrew the word for bread is לֶחֶם – Lechem. Bread was the basic food in grain-based societies, and had many forms beginning with more porridge like food to sophisticated breads (in Egypt they had many types of baked goods).