Page 46 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

CHAPTER 1 THE STRUCTURE OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE
CHAPTER 1 THE STRUCTURE OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE 25 25

Yet there is another very specific word for community, outstanding in its specific

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meaning: edah. Its root is the same as that which gives rise to ed (witness). It
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is a lesson in precision to learn where the Bible uses the word edah to refer to
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the children of Israel, and when kahal, or kehilah, the lesser terms, are judged
appropriate to describe the community of Israel and their spiritual condition,
faith-wise.
A good example is introduced in chapter 20 of Numbers. God calls upon
Moses to take his rod (baton), to assemble with his brother, Aaron , the community
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(edah), and then talk to the rock before Israel’s eyes. God promises that the rock
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shall give forth water, and the complaining edah, who do not have drinking
water, would have ample water, for them and for their beasts. Moses, however,
has lost faith, both in the possibility of the miracle and in the Israeli congrega-
tion. So instead of talking to the rock, as commanded, Moses first addresses the

community, calling them rebels and asking them whether they believe water can
be produced from the rock. Then “Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he
smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation
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[edah] drank, and their beasts too” (Num. 20:11).
For their failure to obey God’s command to talk to the rock (instead hitting it),
Moses and Aaron are punished and forbidden from entering the Promised Land
(Num. 20:12). However, let us trace how the biblical narrator discriminately uses
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the words edah (implying that the congregation comprises willing witnesses of
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God) and just kahal. To the unsuspecting eye, both words in this story obvi-
ously convey the same meaning of “community,” or “congregation.” But the Bible
speech is more precise than that.

God had never lost his confidence in the people of Israel. Obviously, Moses
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had. So the narrator tells us that God commanded Moses to assemble the edah
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and talk to the rock, and the water coming forth will serve for the edah to
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drink—both them and their beasts. But then Moses assembles not the edah, as
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commanded. Instead, he and Aaron assemble the kahal (verse 10), obviously
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not believing that they have under their leadership edah. The narrator has his
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or her own opinion: he or she keeps denoting the congregation edah: “and
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the water came out abundantly, and the congregation [edah ] drank …” (Num.
20:11).
Later, what Moses and Aaron have just done has an adverse effect on the con-
gregation. So when God rebukes Moses and Aaron after the whole incident is over,
the words used are, “Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes
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of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation [kahal ]
in to the land which I have given them” (Num. 20:12). God’s reference to the
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edah just a few verses earlier, when he commands Moses, renders a reference to