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What's in a Word

David Curwin
ךְ ַר ְכּ ת ָדּ

krach dat

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Krach word palisade, which means a “a fence of Shadal ) is to interpret eshdat as “slope,”
wooden stakes forming an enclosure” the singular of ash(e)dot, as in ashdot
he Megillah is read in most but originally meant the stake itself. In ha-Pisgah, “the slopes of Pisgah,”
cities on the 14th of Adar, but fact, many translate charax, and even mentioned in 3:17, 4:49.
T in walled cities it is read on the krach, as palisade. From charax, we also
15th. One of the terms for a walled city ultimately get the English words The consensus is that the word dat
ְ
is krach (ך ַ ר ְּ כ). “character” and “gash,” both related to comes from a Persian word – data. (In
the scraping nature of the pointed stakes. the Book of Ezra the word appears as
Until very recently, I would have told such – א ָ ת ָ ּ ד). Edward Horowitz, in How
you that the origin of that word was At any rate, the foreign etymology of the Hebrew Language Grew, claims that
ְ
fairly obvious. The root ך ַ ר ְּ כ means to krach seems more convincing to me, the Iranian data led to our English data,
bind, wrap, surround. The binding of a although I’m sure most Hebrew speakers as well as the English word date. While
book is kricha (ה ָ כי ִ ר ְּ כ), and so an may find that difficult to swallow. all agree that the English words data and
individual volume in a series of books is date are connected, is there really a
ְ
kerech (ך ֶ ר ֶּ כ). In the Pesach seder we read Dat connection between dat and data?
about how Hillel would wrap his matzah
(clearly not the hard matzah eaten by The word dat (ת ָ ּ ד) appears Since Horowitz did not provide sources
most Ashkenazi Jews today), maror and approximately 20 times in Megillat for his theory, I’m going to rely on
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the sacrificial meat. That wrapping – Esther. The meaning there is “law” or Ernest Klein’s research. Klein claims
which today we duplicate by eating “custom.” Over time, the word was that the Persian word data derives from
matzah and maror together – is called adopted into Hebrew as “religion”. In the Indo-European base dhe. This root
korech (ך ֵ ר ֹו ּ כ). From here we get the modern Hebrew we have dati as means “to put, to place” or “to do, to
official word for sandwich in modern religious, and the Ashkenazic make” and gives us such words as deed,
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Hebrew – karich (ךי ִ ר ָּ כ). pronunciation gives us dosim, which is a the suffix -dom, edify and many more.
derogatory term for religious individuals
So I assumed that a krach is so called On the other hand, the English word
because the walls surround it. However, in secular Israeli culture. data derives from the Indo-European
I then noticed that Rabbi Steinsaltz, in It doesn’t appear at all in the Torah, root do, meaning “to give”. From here we
his commentary on the Talmudic apart from the second verse in Vezot get the words data (a fact “given”), date
tractate Megillah, notes that a krach is a HaBeracha, where it is written as part of (originally when the ‘(letter) was given
large, generally walled city. He mentions the word ת ַ ּ ד ְ ׁש ֵ א – eshdat, but read as ׁש ֵ א or delivered’), doron (Greek for gift, later
the theory that it derives from the root ת ַ ּ ד – esh dat. There the Ibn Ezra also says migrating into Hebrew), donate, dowry
ְ
ך ַ ר ְּ כ as we mentioned before, but only as dat means a permanent law. and dose. At least from Klein’s research it
the second possibility. I had never heard would appear that dat and data are from
of the first possibility. Jeffrey Tigay, in the JPS commentary on different roots.
Deuteronomy, writes that the meaning
This theory says that krach derives from of eshdat is uncertain. The traditional
the Greek charax, meaning a fortification interpretation, reading it as two words, 1 Rabbi Shmuel David Luzzato, 1800-1865.
– a location defended by reinforcing esh dat, “a law of, or from, fire” is 2
Klein was a Romanian-born Canadian linguist,
walls. There were many places known as midrashic; dat, “law,” is a Persian word author and Rabbi, 1899-1983.
Charax found throughout the Greek that did not enter Hebrew before the
world. The word charax originally meant fifth century B.C.E. David Curwin is a writer living in Efrat,
the pointed stake used to make the walls, and the author of Balashon, a blog
and later came to mean the fortification He offers a number of different about the origin of Hebrew words and
itself. In this way it is very similar to the possibilities, one of which (that of phrases balashon1@gmail.com

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