Page 42 - HaMizrachi #6 TuBishvat 5779

What's in a Word

Dr. Avshalom Kor

Separating the

W D from the REES

Photo: Roy Achiron
n Tu BiShvat eve, the custom Similarly, in the Tanach it was reported would normally use, i.e. words that are
is to make blessings over fruit that the man רי ִּ ק ַ ה ת ֶ א ס ַ ר ָ ה (destroyed the older, more classical. Hence it was
O from Eretz Yisrael. But what wall). Exactly the same action is decided that the blessing over fruit
bracha to make? described in the Mishna as ת ֶ א ר ַ ת ָ ס would be ץ ֵ ע ָ ה י ִ ר ְּ פ א ֵ ר ֹו ּ ב .ץ ֵ ע because that
ל ֶ ת ֹו ּ כ ַ ה. During the time of King
The Mishna says: Solomon, they would sail in ת ֹוּי ִנ ֹוא was the word used in the Tanach, even

(ships), but by the time Jonah the though they were living at a time when
ן ָ לי ִ א ָ ה ת ֹור ֵּ פ ל ַ ע ?ת ֹור ֵּ פ ַ ה ל ַ ע ןי ִ כ ְ ר ָ ב ְ מ ד ַ צי ֵּ כ ן ָ לי ִ א was the accepted coinage.
1 Prophet appeared, they had already
.ץ ֵ ע ָ ה י ִ ר ְּ פ א ֵ ר ֹו ּ ב ר ֵ מ ֹוא
begun using the word ה ָני ִ פ ְ ס. “But Dr. Kor,” I hear you say. “That’s just
“What blessing do we make on fruits? like the English. We also separate wood
On fruits growing on a tree [ן ָ לי ִ א], one In Tanach, the word for a tree is ץ ֵ ע. In
says, ‘...Who created the fruit of the tree fact ץ ֵ ע is the word for both the plant from trees. They probably just copied
[ץ ֵ ע].’” that grows and the raw material used for the English.”
making furniture. The only place that
Isn’t this rather strange? If the Mishna the word ן ָ לי ִ א appears in Tanach is in the No, kind sir. We were the first. We
opens with ן ָ לי ִ א, why isn’t the bracha Aramaic chapters of Daniel, but it is not certainly did not take a leaf out of the
ן ָ לי ִ א ָ ה י ִ ר ְּ פ א ֵ ר ֹו ּ ב? a word in Biblical Hebrew. English book. Because Rabbi Yehuda
HaNassi lived hundreds of years before
Or vice-versa. If the bracha is ץ ֵ ע surely During the time of Chazal, a
the Mishna should open with ץ ֵ ע as well? differentiation was created: the growing the first buds of the English language
plant was called ן ָ לי ִ א while the word ץ ֵ ע began to emerge.
The key to answering this question lies was limited to defining the material
in our recognition of the fact that the alone. Here it is appropriate to mention British
mode of speech evolved between Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli’s
Biblical times and Mishnaic times. Therefore, when Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi, famous retort to a Member of
compiler of the Mishna, sat in his office Parliament, Daniel O’Connell, the Irish
Vocabulary became greater and there – either in Beit Shearim or Tzippori, he Roman Catholic leader, who attacked
were other linguistic differences too. For said to his secretary – who no doubt
example, during Tanach times, they said typed it on the computer-equivalent at Disraeli’s Jewish ancestry. Disraeli – who
ת ֶ ב ֶ ׁש ָ ל (to sit) but the Mishna uses ב ֵ ׁ ּ ש ַי ְ ל that time – “Please write this down: became an Anglican at age 12 yet
(in the context of sitting in a Sukkah). Mishna, Tractate Brachot, Chapter 6, remained proud of his Jewish roots –
The Tanach uses ת ֵ ת ָ ל (to give), while Mishna 1: “What blessing do we make allegedly replied, “Yes, I am of Israelite
the Mishna uses ן ֵּ ת ִ ל (as in giving an on fruits? ן ָ לי ִ א ָ ה ת ֹורי ֵּ פ ל ַ ע.” birth, and allow me remind you that
accounting). Our ancestors in Tanach while the ancestors of the right
would say ה ָ מְי ַ ל ָ ׁשּורְי or ה ָ ר ָּ ב ְ ד ִּ מ ַ ה (to Of course he says ן ָ לי ִ א because he lived honorable gentleman were savages
Jerusalem, to the desert), but by the time at the time of our Sages, but now, as swinging on the trees on an unknown Reach over 200,000 people in
the Mishna was compiled it had become editor of the Mishna, he has to island, mine were priests in King
םִי ַ ל ָ ׁ שּורי ִ ל and ר ָּ ב ְ ד ִּ מ ַ ל. determine what the bracha will be for Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.” hundreds of shuls and communities
eternity.
And in terms of vocabulary, we use all over the US and worldwide
Tanach terms, so we say that astronauts When one is asked to give a blessing, or
1 Brachot 6:1.
fly to the ַ ח ֵ ר ָי (moon), but at the start of a speech – perhaps on behalf of the
every month we recite ה ָנ ָ ב ְ ל ׁשּו ּ ד ִ ק or parents at school, perhaps at work or in
ה ָנ ָ ב ְּ ל ַ ה ת ַּ כ ְ ר ִּ ב, using the word for moon, other forums – one dresses a little Dr. Avshalom Kor is an Israeli linguist
ה ָנ ָ ב ְ ל, as used at the time of Chazal (the smarter and one also chooses words that and expert on Hebrew grammar and To advertise in HaMizrachi email
last centuries BCE). are perhaps a little more flowery that one semantics
production@hamizrachi.org

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