Page 122 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

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THE PURPOSE OF LIFE
CHAPTER 6 THE PURPOSE OF LIFE 101
CHAPTER 6
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Another meaning of the lamed is the equivalent of the Hebrew word el (the
latter, by coincidence, coincides with the name of the English letter L).
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El in Hebrew means, simply, “to,” “toward,” or “in the direction of.” This
word, with its various derivatives, appears no fewer than 5,464 times in the Bible.
It already appears in the first chapters of Genesis.

Examples:

• “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered towards
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[el ] one place, and let the dry land appear” (Gen. 1:9).
• “And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field,

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and every bird of the air; and brought to [el ] the man to see what he
would call them” (Gen. 2:19).
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In fact, the word el is used in the Hebrew language interchangeably with the
Hebrew L, when the latter precedes the word as a prefix, meaning “to.” For exam-

ple, the prophet Zechariah, speaking for God: “Therefore thus said the Lord; I
have returned to [Hebrew L] Jerusalem with mercies: My house shall be rebuilt in
it, says the Lord of hosts …” (Zech. 1:16).
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Yet, the word el has some other meanings in Hebrew. It means “force” and
“God.” We will address the implications of these additional meanings in a later
section (7.2).
Once the different usages and meanings of the Hebrew L are learned, it is natu-
ral to expect its name in Hebrew to convey a related meaning, like the name of the
English letter L, which is compatible with the Hebrew meaning just delineated
(el). 1
Surprisingly, the Hebrew name does not convey such a meaning. The name of
the letter is seemingly devoid of any relationship to its meanings, as employed in
Hebrew sentences and as just expounded. The Hebrew name for the Hebrew L
is comprised of the root of a verb that means … “to learn”: L.M.D. The Hebrew
L is called in Hebrew lamed, written LMD. This seems a bizarre coincidence that
requires some investigation.
Let us start by saying that the biblical meaning of “to learn” somewhat departs
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from that of modern Hebrew. In the latter, li-lmod means “to learn”: learning
in school, at a university, and so on. This learning is related to, in the Bible, as
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“acquiring knowledge” (“purchasing of knowledge,” kniyat daat). In the bibli-
cal sense, and as related by the Malbim (1892), one of the most revered Jewish

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sages, to learn (in the sense of limud) means practicing and training—that is,
one is repeatedly learning until what is learned “gets into his or her heart” and
becomes like second nature. Thus, the prophet Isaiah prophesizes: “And they shall