Page 26 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION 5 5

their meanings are far apart. One can perceive the fact that these two words share
the same root as sheer coincidence.
Alternatively, one can assume that two words sharing the same root must be
interrelated. The last assumption (or hypothesis, if you will) derives its credence
from long-held Jewish tradition that goes back at least to the time of Rabbi Akiva
(who lived during the time of the Jewish rebellion against the Romans, 135 CE,
and probably executed by the Romans a year later, at 136 CE). According to
this tradition, each letter in the Hebrew alphabet carries a certain meaning, and
indeed the true meaning of any Hebrew word can be contrived from the total sum
of the meanings of the root constituent letters. Furthermore, the position of a
letter in the root affects the “weight” it contributes to the word meaning. We will
relate to this in more depth in chapter 1.
If this assumption is adopted, then apparently “sin” and “miss” must be inter-
related, and in fact being derived from the same root they probably carry a certain
message. In this case, the message is not hard to fathom. Judaism, with its typical
optimism not eroded by experience, treats any moral aberration, or sin, as the out-
come of “missing the target”—the result of misjudgment and lack of knowledge,
not as the result of innate evil.
Having two words with the same root thus appears to be compatible, in this
case, with the total philosophy of Jewish tradition and in fact is explained by it.
Furthermore, it attests to possible design in the composition of Hebrew words.
No practical considerations of any sort would lead one to believe that over the
years the word “to sin” would naturally evolve from the word “to miss.” Can one
prove this apparent premeditated design by any commonly accepted statistical
testing? Clearly not. Therefore, we relate to this as a coincidence, leaving it for the
reader to decide whether this is really so.
Other coincidences, of perhaps more overwhelming and less explainable
nature, are scattered throughout this book with regard to the Bible and the
Hebrew language. One example of such unexplainable nature is the fact that “ear”
and “balance,” in biblical Hebrew, derive from the same root. Yet it is a historic
fact that only towards the end of the nineteenth century did researchers reveal that
the mechanism responsible for the human-body balance resides inside the ear (for
details, see section 10.3.2).
While we attempt no explanation of the coincidences expounded in the book,
it is important to stress two assumptions that we do make. These assumptions
are deeply rooted in Jewish tradition, and although one might be tempted to
attribute to them signatures of Jewish mysticism, they really are not. The assump-
tions derive their validity from dozens of examples in which the trueness of these
assumptions had been demonstrated. We will show some such examples in the
opening chapters of this book.