Page 123 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
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102 COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa.
2:4). The learning here obviously does not relate to “acquiring knowledge” about
war but rather to practicing war, to training for war, in other words, to “repeated
learning until what one has learned becomes part of his nature.”

In view of this interpretation, it is only natural to find in the Bible that the root
L.M.D is mostly used in the sense of “learn the ways of the Lord until his ways
become to you (the learner) like second nature.”
This interpretation is strengthened by reading how Moses conveys God’s stat-
utes and laws to the children of Israel. Consider the book of Deuteronomy. Moses
does not convey “thou should,” as in earlier books of the Pentateuch, but rather,
“thou could not do otherwise,” implying that as a result of learning, in the sense
expounded above, the children of Israel will not be able to deviate from these
laws, as they would have become, for them, second nature.
Consider these examples:

• “Thou may not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy
wine …” (Deut. 12:17).

• “Thou may not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the
Lord thy God gives thee: But only at the place which the Lord thy God
shall choose to place his name in …” (Deut. 16:5–6).
• “In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his
garment; and with every lost thing of thy brother’s, which he has lost
and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise; Thou may not hide thyself”
(Deut. 22:3).

In all these cases, and others, the “thou shalt,” or “thou shalt not,” of pre-
vious books of the Pentateuch, are replaced in Deuteronomy, quite often, with
“thou may,” or, “thou may not.” The Hebrew original text indeed emphasizes the
change of heart even more strongly (than the English translation insinuates): “you
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can” or “you would not be able to [lo tuchal ].” Like second nature.
What then is the connection of “repeated learning until what you learn changes
your nature,” implied by the root L.M.D in the name of the letter L, and the
meanings associated with common usages of that letter?
For lack of an alternative interpretation, one is led to apply the same mode of
interpretation that has allowed us to understand why the name of the first letter

of the alphabet, which has a value of 1, is called alef (derived from Aluf, one of the
names of God).
Let us specify how one can interpret the message of the Hebrew L.