As an editor and lover of words, I tend to look at Tanakh and biblical texts with the eye of an editor. How do I do this? Qohelet, for example, from an editor's standpoint does not read as a fluid, singular piece of literature. Likewise, it doesn't read as a series of acts to compose a play. From an editor's standpoint, it can easily be separated into a variety of small, thematically similar poems or songs.
So today, in Hebrew class, when the professor brought up the Hebrew word for truth-- emet -- I was elated with the rabbis' take on the word. I give to you, the word for truth. Do you notice anything?
A beautiful little morsel, I think, worth considering. My intent? To read each Hebrew word with the care and delicacy of the rabbis so that perhaps I, a mere academic Jewess, can discover the details and wisdom in the letters.
3 comments:
Very cool. Very, very cool.
Another note: each letter in Emes has two legs on which it stands, Sheker, falsehood is taken entirely from the end of the Alef Beis, and each letter only has one leg
Kate: I know, right?
Mottel: I like that little morsel, as well. Words are so fascinating, so necessary, so curious.
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