|
|
|
Holidays and Occasions – חַגִּים וּמוֹעֲדִים
|
The Three Weeks – בֵּין הַמְּצָרִים
|
|
|
Mishna Ta'anit 4:6 enumerates calamities that occurred on the 17th of Tammuz and on the 9th of Av, five on each, including the breaching of Jerusalem’s walls on the former and the destruction of both Temples on the latter. The dates frame a trouble-ridden three-week stretch referred to as the period בֵּין הַמְּצָרִים, after Lam. 1:3:
|
|
,גָּלְתָה יְהוּדָה מֵעֹנִי וּמֵרֹב עֲבֹדָה; הִיא יָשְׁבָה בַגּוֹיִם
|
|
.לֹא מָצְאָה מָנוֹחַ – כׇּל־רֹדְפֶיהָ הִשִּׂיגוּהָ בֵּין הַמְּצָרִים
|
|
|
|
The verse laments that Judah, in exile among the nations, did not find rest: all her pursuers overtook her בֵּין הַמְּצָרִים. What are מְצָרִים?
|
The Psalmist says (118:5): מִן־הַמֵּצַר קָרָאתִי יָּהּ; עָנָנִי בַמֶּרְחָב יָהּ, ‘I called to G‑d מִן־הַמֵּצַר; G‑d answered me בַמֶּרְחָב.’ The form מֵצַ֫ר and the contrast with מֶרְחָב (a relative of רָחָב, ‘wide’) both point to the root צר"ר, which underlies the words צַר, ‘narrow, tight; foe, oppressor,’ and צָרָה, ‘woe, trouble, distress; cowife.’ Just as מֶרְחָב signifies a spacious, wide-open place or expanse, מֵצַר (plural: מְצָרִים) denotes a narrow place, as well as distress, hardship, or duress. Today מֵצַר also designates a strait or isthmus.
|
In the Mishna and Talmud we find מצר for ‘border, limit’ – e.g., אִילָן הָעוֹמֵד עַל הַמצר, ‘a tree that stands on the border [between fields]’ (BT Bava Metsi'a 107a). Pointings of ‘border’ vary in manuscripts of Rabbinic texts – e.g., מֵצַר (just like ‘narrow place’) and מֵצֶר; today we point it מֶצֶר. The forms מֵצֶר and מֶצֶר indicate a different origin for ‘border,’ the root מצ"ר, corroborated by Aramaic and Arabic parallels. In our day ‘border’ serves in בֶּן־מֶצֶר, ‘owner of adjoining property’ (also called בַּר־מִצְרָא, per Talmudic Aramaic), and in לְלֹא מְצָרִים or בְּלִי מְצָרִים, meaning ‘boundless, vast.’ The latter usage dates to the Talmud: כֹּל הַמְּעַנֵּג אֶת הַשַּׁבָּת, נוֹתְנִין לוֹ נַחֲלָה בְּלֹא מְצָרִים, ‘whoever makes Shabbat pleasurable will receive a boundless inheritance’ – i.e., an immense reward (BT Shabbat 118a).
|
|
In בֵּין הַמְּצָרִים, what are the מצרים? Ben-Yehuda’s dictionary construes them as borders. The Targum incorporates both meanings: ‘overtook her when she was hiding between the borders and pressed her.’ Likewise, Rashi on the verse explains הַמְּצָרִים as ‘borders of field and vineyard’ but elucidates בֵּין הַמְּצָרִים by depicting a high barrier on each side and no place to flee – i.e., a tight place: שֶׁיֵּשׁ גֹּבַהּ מִכָּאן וּמִכָּאן וְאֵין מָקוֹם לָנוּס. More often, though, translations hew to צר"ר – e.g., “between the straits,” “in [the] narrow places,” “in the midst of [her] distress”; so does the contemporary usage of בֵּין הַמְּצָרִים for ‘in straits, hemmed in.’ The Septuagint, too, aligns with צר"ר but reads ‘amid the oppressors’ (ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν θλιβόντων); this rendering fits the vocalization הַמְּצֵרִים, from the verb הֵצֵר. It seems likely that the מצר in Lam. 1:3 is from צר"ר, but the exact meaning of בין המצרים in the verse remains uncertain.
|
|
|
|
|
|
What’s in a Name? – שֵׁמוֹת וּמַשְׁמָעוּיוֹת
|
|
|
|
The word דְּבִיר appears in the Bible as both a proper noun and a common noun. We encounter the latter in the description of the construction of the First Temple:
|
'וּדְבִיר בְּתוֹךְ־הַבַּיִת מִפְּנִ֫ימָה הֵכִין, לְתִתֵּן שָׁם אֶת־אֲרוֹן בְּרִית ד
|
– ‘And the sanctuary he set up in the inner part of the House, to put the ark of G‑d’s covenant there’ (1 Kings 6:19). When all was ready, the priests brought the ark אֶל־מְקוֹמוֹ אֶל־דְּבִיר הַבַּיִת אֶל־קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים, ‘to its place, to the sanctuary of the House, to the Holy of Holies’ (1 Kings 8:6; 2 Chron. 5:7). In these verses, דְּבִיר designates the most sacred section of the Temple, also called קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים. Today it serves also for the inner sanctum of any temple.
|
The Bible uses the common noun דְּבִיר only with respect to the Temple; but scholars assert that it fundamentally denotes an inner room or inner area of any building, suggesting a connection to the Arabic noun dubur (دُبُر), ‘back, rear.’ Menahem Kister contends that the sense ‘inner room’ persisted alongside the use of דְּבִיר as a technical term for the Holy of Holies. As evidence he adduces Ben Sira 26:16b. The Hebrew (found in the Cairo Geniza) reads יפה אשה בדביר בחור, ‘a woman is beautiful in the דביר of a lad’; Kister, citing the ancient Greek translation, emends the word בחור to בתה and reads בִּדְבִיר בֵּיתָהּ, ‘in the inner part of her house’ (the Greek has οἰκίας αὐτῆς, ‘of her house,’ in lieu of בחור). In the Syriac, too, the corresponding phrase, ܒܡܘܬܒ ܒܝܬܗ͘, contains ‘her house’ and agrees with Kister’s interpretation of the gist: that a woman should remain at home, out of the public eye (Kister, “Genizah Manuscripts of Ben Sira,” in The Cambridge Genizah Collections: Their Contents and Significance, pp. 41–42).
|
In the liturgy דְּבִיר often serves as a term for the Temple as a whole, as in the רְצֵה blessing of the amida: וְהָשֵׁב אֶת הָעֲבוֹדָה לִדְבִיר בֵּיתֶךָ, ‘and return the worship to Your Temple.’ Verse three of “Ma'oz Tsur” provides another example: דְּבִיר קׇדְשׁוֹ הֱבִיאַנִי, ‘He brought me to His holy Temple.’ The phrase דְּבִיר קׇדְשׁוֹ echoes Ps. 28:2, בְּנׇשְׂאִי יָדַי אֶל־דְּבִיר קׇדְשֶׁךָ, ‘when I lift my hands toward Your holy sanctuary’; indeed, some understand the Biblical phrase, too, as referring to the Temple. The Tish'a Be'Av dirge “אֱלִי, צִיּוֹן” (‘Weep, Zion’; listen here) bids Zion weep עֲלֵי כָבוֹד אֲשֶׁר גָּלָה בְּעֵת חׇרְבַּן דְּבִירֶיהָ, ‘for the glory that was banished upon the destruction of her Temples.’
|
|
In the Bible דְּבִיר appears also as the name of a city that Joshua captured and of a king of Eglon; scholars have proposed various etymologies and meanings for those names. In our day, though, the inspiration for the name דְּבִיר is neither the city nor the king but the Holy of Holies. In the last few decades דְּבִיר has enjoyed increased popularity as a given name for boys; it serves also as a surname.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Timely Terms – מֻנָּחִים לָעִנְיָן
|
|
|
|
|
Idioms and Expressions – מַטְבְּעוֹת לָשׁוֹן
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Demonstration – הַפְגָּנָה
|
|
|
In Hebrew the root פג"ן is first attested in the Rabbinic period, in the verb הִפְגִּין. BT Ta'anit 18a relates that a group of rabbis, faced with a Roman decree forbidding Tora study and Jewish practices, consulted a matron whose home all the leaders of Rome frequented. She advised them, בּוֹאוּ וְהַפְגִּינוּ בַּלַּיְלָה, ‘Come and הַפְגִּינוּ at night.’ And so they did: עָמְדוּ וְהִפְגִּינוּ בַּלַּיְלָה, ‘They stood and הִפְגִּינוּ at night.’ They said, “Woe, heaven! Are we not brothers, sons of one father? How are we different from any other nation or tongue, that you set upon us decrees?” And they cancelled the decrees.
|
In 1900, S. M. Laser notes in the January 25 issue of “הַמַּגִּיד” the need for a Hebrew equivalent for ‘demonstrate.’ He proposes the verb הִפְגִּין, citing the above Talmudic story as precedent. In the April 5 issue a few months later, Avigdor HaLevi Mermelstein commends Laser’s idea, deeming it far superior to מזהרה, which Eliezer Ben-Yehuda had coined for ‘demonstration’ based on the Arabic noun muẓāhara (مُظَاهَرَة) meaning the same. In keeping with Laser’s proposal, Mermelstein recommends using the noun הַפְגָּנָה for ‘demonstration.’
|
|
As Mermelstein points out, the Aramaic of the Targum has the verb פגן for ‘shout, cry (out).’ E.g., Pseudo-Jonathan brings פגנת for Hebrew צָעֲקָה in Deut. 22:27: כִּי בַשָּׂדֶה מְצָאָהּ; צָעֲקָה הַנַּעֲרָ הַמְאֹרָשָׂה, וְאֵין מוֹשִׁיעַ לָהּ – ‘For he found her in the field; the betrothed girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.’ The Rabbinic Hebrew verb הִפְגִּין, too, probably meant ‘to shout, cry out.’
|
|
In the haftara for the Shabbat preceding Tish'a Be'Av, Isaiah declares: אַרְצְכֶם שְׁמָמָה, עָרֵיכֶם שְׂרֻפוֹת אֵשׁ, ‘Your land is a ruin, your cities – burned by fire’ (1:7). Over 2600 years later, Zionists called for הַפְרָחַת הַשְּׁמָמָה, “making the desert bloom.” Like the word שְׁמָמָה, the related noun שַׁמָּ֫ה similarly denotes destruction and desolation, or a ruin, wasteland, or desolate place, as in Jeremiah 25:11: וְהָֽיְתָה כׇּל־הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת לְחׇרְבָּה לְשַׁמָּה, ‘This entire land will become a ruin, a desolate place.’
|
The word שַׁמָּה sometimes appears in the construction שָׂם לְשַׁמָּה or שָׁת לְשַׁמָּה, ‘to destroy, lay waste, make desolate.’ E.g., in Zech. 7 G‑d declares that because the Israelites refused to heed G‑d’s call to judge honestly and be kind and compassionate to one another, they were exiled, וְהָאָרֶץ נָשַׁמָּה אַחֲרֵיהֶם מֵעֹבֵר וּמִשָּׁב; וַיָּשִׂימוּ אֶרֶץ־חֶמְדָּה לְשַׁמָּה, ‘and the land was desolate after them, without anyone coming and going; and (thus) they made the pleasant land desolate’ (7:14).
|
Of the numerous instances of שַׁמָּה in the Bible, only one uses the plural form: לְכוּ־חֲזוּ מִפְעֲלוֹת ד', אֲשֶׁר־שָׂם שַׁמּוֹת בָּאָרֶץ, ‘Come, behold the work of G‑d, who has wrought destruction upon the land’ (Ps. 46:9). This construction, which adds the preposition בְּ־, evolved in modern Hebrew into its current form עָשָׂה שַׁמּוֹת בְּ־, meaning either ‘to destroy, ruin’ or ‘to harm greatly.’ Its structure parallels that of the expression עָשָׂה שְׁפָטִים בְּ־, ‘to punish severely.’
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
News and Events – חֲדָשׁוֹת וְאֵרוּעִים
|
|
|
|
|
|
חָדָשׁ: תִּיק עִבְרִי לְחוֹף הַיָּם
|
|
|
דְּרוּשִׁים: מַדְרִיכִים וּמַדְרִיכוֹת
|
לְמֶרְכַּז הַתַּרְבּוּת וְהַהַדְרָכָה הֶחָדָשׁ
|
|
Wanted: Guides for the New
|
Cultural and Educational Center
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
AHL’s growing collection of Hebrew swag now includes a sea-themed cotton tote decorated with colorful pictures of shells and sea creatures and their Hebrew names. Another new offering is a stainless-steel water bottle bearing a caricature of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the blessing לִרְוָיָה (literally: ‘To quenching the thirst!’).
|
|
Do you love Hebrew and enjoy working with groups? The Academy’s new Cultural and Educational Center seeks guides – including some English-speaking ones – for the diverse groups who visit the Center. Requirements include academic knowledge of Hebrew and experience guiding or teaching.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
