Page 39 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
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gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field”
(Gen. 2:19–20).
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So what name was given to the donkey? Chamor. The root of this name
is Ch.M.R, and it is pronounced nearly identically to another Hebrew word:
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chomer, meaning “material, substance.” This word generates many related words
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that are similar to English words derived from “material”—chomrani (material-
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istic), chomranut (materialism), and so on.
This special feature of the donkey’s character—namely, being tied up to
“material things”—is addressed by the prophet Isaiah when he describes the
people of Israel: “The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel
does not know, my people does not consider” (Isa. 1:3). Read it again: the ox is
loyal to his owner, the ass to its crib!
So what is the symbolism in riding a donkey?
Riding a donkey implies rising to such spiritual heights that all materialistic
considerations are subdued and subjugated to the spiritual. This symbolism can-
not be avoided, unless one wishes to accept trivialization of biblical text.
The following examples corroborate this argument.

Example 1: The Sacrifice of Isaac
The story of the sacrifice of Isaac starts with the following: “And Abraham rose

up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with

him, and Isaac his son” (Gen. 22:3). And later, “And Abraham said to his young
men, sit here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder” (therein, 22:5). And
later, after the encounter with the angel of God who had prevented Abraham from
sacrificing Isaac: “And Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and

went together to Beer-Sheba ” (therein, 22:19). In the last quotation, there is no
mentioning of the famous ass. The ass simply evaporated after being addressed
twice a few sentences earlier. Obviously, all materialism had disappeared after
Abraham’s encounter with the angel of God. No human materialistic inclinations
need further be controlled, because they all vanished.

Example 2: Moses Returns to Egypt from Exile

After God delivers Moses his lifelong mission (over forty years) of delivering Israel
from the bondage of Egypt, the Bible is very short on detail. Here is how the story
of Moses returning to Egypt is told in the Bible: “And the Lord said to Moses
in Midyan, Go return to Egypt: For all men are dead who sought thy life. And
Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to
the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand” (Exod. 4:19–20).