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Holidays and Occasions – חַגִּים וּמוֹעֲדִים
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מָה מַסְוָה הַמְּגִלָּה?
What Does the Megilla Disguise?
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The root of the Hebrew noun מְגִלָּה, ‘scroll,’ is well disguised unless you know where to look. If you compared it to nouns like קְהִלָּה, ‘community,’ and קְלִפָּה, ‘peel,’ which have the same pointing and the straightforward roots קה"ל and קל"ף, you might guess the root of מְגִלָּה to be מג"ל; but you’d be mistaken, because the מ of מְגִלָּה belongs to the noun-pattern rather than to the root. The word מְגִלָּה parallels nouns like מְסִבָּה, ‘party,’ and מְסִלָּה, ‘railroad track, track.’
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The words מְגִלָּה, מְסִבָּה, מְסִלָּה have roots described as “geminate” by grammarians because of their “twin” second and third consonants: גל"ל, סב"ב, סל"ל. Where is the second ל in מְגִלָּה, you ask? Indeed, מְגִלָּה contains just one letter ל; but the diacritical dot (דָּגֵשׁ חָזָק) in the ל signifies doubling of the consonant – megilla – and thus hints at the second ל of the root. Nifty disguise, eh? And it’s not even the most inscrutable one: the noun גַּל (‘wave’), also from גל"ל, outdoes מְגִלָּה, displaying the doubled ל only when the word has a suffix, as in the plural form, גַּלִּים.
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Words that share the root גל"ל and do not disguise it include the verb גָּלַל and the noun גָּלִיל. The verb means ‘to roll’ or ‘to roll up,’ as in the synagogue honor of rolling up the Tora scroll – גְּלִילָה; in our computer age the verb has also taken on the sense ‘to scroll.’ Meanwhile, גָּלִיל denotes a cylinder or roll (e.g., of cloth or paper) as well as a district and, specifically, the Galilee. The word גָּלִיל occurs in Esther 1:6 in the phrase גְּלִילֵי כֶסֶף, often translated “silver rods.”
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What about the verb נָגִילָה, as in הָבָה נָגִילָה (‘come, let’s rejoice’)? In unpointed Hebrew the words נגילה and מגילה certainly look similar, and in each of them the first letter is not part of the root; but נָגִילָה is a form of the verb גָּל, ‘to be happy, to rejoice,’ from the root גי"ל. Happy Purim!
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What’s in a Name? – שֵׁמוֹת וּמַשְׁמָעוּיוֹת
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H̱en – חֵן
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The noun חֵן generally denotes beauty, charm, grace, and favor, as in the words of Proverbs: שֶׁקֶר הַחֵן, וְהֶבֶל הַיֹּפִי – ‘Grace is deceptive, and beauty is vain’ (31:30); אֶבֶן־חֵן, ‘precious stone, gem,’ perhaps as a charm (17:8); לִוְיַת חֵן, ‘a garland of grace’ (1:9), today ‘ornament’ or ‘additional charm’; יַעֲלַת חֵן, ‘graceful mountain goat’ (5:19), now a lofty term for a beautiful woman.
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In the Bible חֵן appears most often – over 40 times – in the phrase מָצָא חֵן בְּעֵינֵי־ (e.g., Esth. 7:3), typically understood as ‘to find favor in the eyes of [someone]’; the similar נָשָׂא חֵן בְּעֵינֵי־ (using נָשָׂא, ‘to carry, bear’) occurs only in Esther, as in 5:2: נָשְׂאָה חֵן בְּעֵינָיו. In modern Hebrew both versions mean ‘to please, appeal to, gratify’; מָצָא חֵן בְּעֵינֵי־ remains the more common wording. In Esther the end of the phrase varies as well, with בְּעֵינֵי־ swapped for לִפְנֵי־, ‘in the face of, before,’ as in 8:5: וְאִם־מָצָאתִי חֵן לְפָנָיו.
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The Bible at times juxtaposes or interchanges חֵן with חֶסֶד, ‘kindness, lovingkindness, mercy,’ as in the depictions of Esther’s reception by others: וַתִּשָּׂא־חֵן וָחֶסֶד לְפָנָיו (2:17), וַתִּשָּׂא חֶסֶד לְפָנָיו (2:9). With the addition of רַחֲמִים, ‘compassion,’ the liturgy forms the threesome חֵן וָחֶסֶד וְרַחֲמִים that appears in the final blessing of the Amida and elsewhere (and in Aramaic – חִנָּא וְחִסְדָּא וְרַחֲמֵי, in the prayer “יְקוּם פֻּרְקָן”). The association of חֵן with חֶסֶד and רַחֲמִים makes sense if we consider the meaning of other words that share its root, חנ"ן: for instance, the Divine is described as רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן, ‘compassionate and gracious/merciful’ (Exod. 34:6); and תְּחִנָּה and תַּחֲנוּן both denote supplication – an appeal for mercy and compassion. Linguistic scholar Reuven Sivan contends that in the phrase מָצָא חֵן in the Bible, as in the threesome חֵן וָחֶסֶד וְרַחֲמִים, the word חֵן denotes mercy, kindness, compassion – another meaning of “grace.” Sivan points out, for example, that when Genesis reports the Creator’s decision to destroy life on earth (6:7) and then says that Noah found חֵן in the Creator’s eyes (6:8), the ancient translation into Aramaic by Onkelos renders חֵן as רַחֲמִין (“הוויות לשון,” in Leshonenu La'Am 36 [1985], pp. 156–157). By this explanation of מָצָא חֵן, Esther presents her requests of the king as dependent on his regarding her with grace and mercy, not on her finding favor.
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Today חֵן serves as a given name for both boys and girls. During the 1980s and 1990s it surged in popularity, especially as a choice for girls; subsequently it declined in favor, dropping to modest levels. A more unusual female name is בַּת־חֵן, a common name for ‘daisy’ (the official name of the genus Bellis is חִנָּנִית). The Biblical name חַנָּה, also from the root חנ"ן, remains consistently popular as a traditional name for girls. Additional Biblical names from the root חנ"ן still used today include the boys’ names יוֹחָנָן (=John) and חָנָן, אֶלְחָנָן, חֲנַנְאֵל, חֲנַנְיָה.
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Idioms and Expressions – מַטְבְּעוֹת לָשׁוֹן
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שׁוּבוּ בְּשָׁלוֹם, שׁוּבוּ לְשָׁלוֹם
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Why are many speakers careful to say “לְכוּ לְשָׁלוֹם” rather than “לְכוּ בְּשָׁלוֹם” to bless those departing on journey? Is the blessing for those returning “שׁוּבוּ לְשָׁלוֹם” or “שׁוּבוּ בְּשָׁלוֹם”?
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Some expressions use the prepositions בְּ־ and לְ־ interchangeably, such as בְּלֹא and לְלֹא for ‘without’; בָּאַחֲרוֹנָה and לָאַחֲרוֹנָה for ‘recently, of late’; שָׁאַל בִּשְׁלוֹם־ and שָׁאַל לִשְׁלוֹם־ for ‘to ask after [someone].’ In the Bible לֵךְ לְשָׁלוֹם is the usual wording, but לֵךְ בְּשָׁלוֹם appears as well; and the two formulations seem to mean the same thing (‘go in peace’), just as in the other phrase pairs above. At any rate, both versions of the blessing are grounded in the sources. Why, then, do many speakers eschew לֵךְ בְּשָׁלוֹם?
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The avoidance of לֵךְ בְּשָׁלוֹם stems from a Rabbinic directive (BT Berakhot 64a) that when parting from a friend one should not say “לֵךְ בְּשָׁלוֹם” but “לֵךְ לְשָׁלוֹם,” for Jethro said to Moses “לֵךְ לְשָׁלוֹם” (Exod. 4:18), and the latter went and succeeded, whereas David said to Absalom “לֵךְ בְּשָׁלוֹם” (2 Sam. 15:9) – and the latter went and died. Conversely, when parting from a deceased person one should not say “לֵךְ לְשָׁלוֹם” but “לֵךְ בְּשָׁלוֹם,” as it is said (to Abraham, in Gen. 15:15): “וְאַתָּה תָּבוֹא אֶל־אֲבֹתֶיךָ בְּשָׁלוֹם” – ‘As for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace.’ Many speakers heed this dictate.
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What of the blessing for those returning? After verbs from the root שׁו"ב the Bible keeps to בְּשָׁלוֹם, as in Jacob’s words “וְשַׁבְתִּי בְשָׁלוֹם אֶל־בֵּית אָבִי” – ‘and if I return in peace to my father’s house’ (Gen. 28:21). Rabbinic Hebrew follows suit when the verb is from the root שׁו"ב but shows more independence when using an equivalent non-Biblical verb from the root חז"ר: here לְשָׁלוֹם figures as well, as in וְתַחְזִירֵנִי [לְבֵיתִי] לְשָׁלוֹם, ‘and return me [home] in peace’ in early versions of תְּפִלַּת הַדֶּרֶךְ, the traveler’s prayer (today, וְתַחְזִירֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם, ‘and return us in peace’). In modern Hebrew בְּשָׁלוֹם is the more common wording after verbs from שׁו"ב and חז"ר alike, but לְשָׁלוֹם is acceptable, too.
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With a nod to Biblical tradition, we bless the hostages: שׁוּבוּ בְּשָׁלוֹם!
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Timely Terms – מֻנָּחִים לָעִנְיָן
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Rehabilitation – שִׁקּוּם
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The verbal noun שִׁקּוּם, from the verb שִׁקֵּם, serves for ‘rehabilitation,’ as from injury or trauma, and for ‘reconstruction,’ e.g., of damaged infrastructure. Today the word is well established and has gone on to spawn the adjective שִׁקּוּמִי; but in the 1964 proceedings of the Academy (p. 203), Daniel Leibel recalls that when he coined the verb שִׁקֵּם many years earlier, the Language Committee (the precursor to the Academy) opposed it vociferously. Why would שִׁקֵּם have aroused such objection?
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The ordinary-looking verb שִׁקֵּם masks an unorthodox origin. It is not a relative of the Biblical שִׁקְמָה (today, ‘sycamore’); rather, its root שׁק"ם was generated by prefixing a שׁ to the root קו"ם, the root of verbs such as קָם, ‘to rise,’ and קוֹמֵם, ‘to reconstruct, restore.’ Admittedly, the creation of new roots by prefixing שׁ has a precedent in Rabbinic Hebrew: the roots of שִׁעְבֵּד, ‘to enslave, subjugate,’ and שִׁחְרֵר, ‘to emancipate, liberate,’ are composed of שׁ+עב"ד and שׁ+חר"ר. However, their prefixed שׁ indicates causative meaning, and not by chance: scholars attribute שִׁעְבֵּד and שִׁחְרֵר to the influence of Aramaic verbs of the form שַׁפְעֵל, which borrowed from Akkadian the use of a prefixed שׁ for causative (Aramaic’s own verb pattern for causative, הַפְעֵל, employs prefixed ה, as the corresponding Hebrew pattern הִפְעִיל does). The modern verbs שִׁפְעֵל and שִׁנֵּעַ adhere to the Rabbinic model: שִׁפְעֵל means ‘to activate’ (cf. פָּעַל, ‘to act’), and שִׁנֵּעַ – ‘to transport’ (cf. נָע, the intransitive verb ‘to move,’ from נו"ע). In שִׁקֵּם, by contrast, the prefixed שׁ substitutes for the English prefix re‑. Additional examples of שׁ for re‑ in modern Hebrew include שִׁכְתֵּב, ‘to rewrite, revise’ (cf. כָּתַב, ‘to write’), and שִׁעֲרֵךְ, ‘to revaluate’ (‘to valuate’ is הֶעֱרִיךְ, from ער"ך).
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The use of prefixed שׁ as an equivalent to an English prefix is, of course, without precedent in classical Hebrew and could account for resistance of the Language Committee to שִׁקֵּם. Words from its root שׁק"ם first appear in the Academy’s dictionaries in 1985.
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News and Events – חֲדָשׁוֹת וְאֵרוּעִים
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חָדָשׁ: הָאָקָדֶמְיָה מַצִּיעָה קוּרְסִים אָקָדֵמִיִּים מְקֻוָּנִים בְּנִקּוּד וּבְתַחְבִּיר
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New: AHL Offers Online Academic Courses in Nikkud and Syntax
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The Academy is offering two online BA-level academic courses, one in nikkud (vocalization) and the other on the fundamentals of Hebrew syntax, in cooperation with Israeli institutions of higher education. The nikkud course began on March 12; the syntax course will start on March 23.
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Both courses are targeted to university students but open to the public as well. The language of instruction is Hebrew.
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