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THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND WHAT’S IN A NAME

David Curwin

Vision

and Comfort

he Shabbat before Tisha B’Av is In Yeshayahu 28:15, we find the word ה ֶזֹח in humanity had become, he “regretted [ם ֶח ָּנִּי ַו]
called Shabbat Chazon, and the Shab- a unique context: ה ֶזֹח ּוני ִש ָע לֹוא ְ ׁש־ם ִע ְו. This is that He had made man on earth” (6:6).
ׂ
bat following Tisha B’Av is called generally translated as, “we have made a
TShabbat Nachamu. Both are named pact with the grave.” However, commentar- How did the same root come to mean both
for the opening words of the haftarah read ies such as Ibn Ezra point out that the word comfort and regret? One theory says that
that week. Let’s look at those two words. is connected to the root הזח, and so say it ם ֵח ַנ is related to the root ַחֹונ (“to rest”), and
means a “covenant made by (Divine) proph- so one who is comforted is rested from their
Chazon ecy.” Some scholars point out that prophets anger or sadness. Similarly, regretting an
were asked for their advice before treaties action, either a beneficial one like creating
The word ןֹוז ָח means “vision,” from the were made. Today a ה ֶזֹוח refers to any kind humanity or a punishment, as when Moshe
root ה ָז ָח – “to see.” Hebrew has a number of contract. asks G-d to “renounce [ם ֵח ָּנ ִה ְו] the plan to
of verbs that express vision, including the punish Your people” (Shemot 32:12), involves
most common, ה ָא ָר, as well as ה ָז ָח and טי ִּ ב ִה. There is one word in this family that moved putting the plan to rest.
Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim 1:3) provides in the opposite direction – from the secular
different meanings for each verb. He writes to the religious. According to some theories, Another theory relies on a different etymol-
that ה ָא ָר – “to see,” is something that is expe- ן ָּז ַח originally meant “overseer” (from ה ָז ָח ogy for the root. These scholars claim that
rienced by people in general, via sight. The meaning “to see”). This could be the overseer ם ֵח ַנ is related to ח ַנ ֶא – “to sigh, moan.” They
root טי ִּ ב ִה – “to look at,” indicates turning of any project or group. But later it came point out that in Arabic, nahama is used to
and paying attention to something in par- to mean specifically the one directing or refer to the panting breaths of a horse. So
ticular. And finally, he says that our root, ה ָז ָח leading the prayer service – i.e. the cantor. according to this approach, ם ֵח ַנ first meant
– “vision” is often used in a more figurative “to grieve, be sorry.” Feeling sorry for one-
sense, to express what the heart (or mind) Nachamu self or others led to the sense of “comfort,”
perceives. while the result of feeling sorry can lead
ּומ ֲח ַנ means “comfort,” as found in the open-
This distinction is borne out by linguistic ing words of the haftarah: one to “regret” or “repent.” We see the same
evidence as well. Beyond the meaning “to phenomenon in English, when saying “I’m
see,” ה ָז ָח often means “to perceive,” “to pre- י ִּ מ ַע ּומ ֲח ַנ ּומ ֲח ַנ – “Comfort, oh comfort My sorry” can either express regret or an effort
dict” or “to prophecy.” In Arabic, the cog- people” (Yeshayahu 40:1). to comfort someone.
nate word means “astrologer,” which also However, the root ם ֵח ַנ has multiple mean- Whatever the origin of the word, may G-d
expresses this sense of seeing beyond what ings, some seemingly contradictory. For renounce any bad plans He has for us, and
the eye can detect.
example, when Noach was born, his father provide us all with the comfort we need.
Several other Hebrew words derive from gave him that name because he prayed that,
this same root, but much of the supernat- “this one will provide us relief [ּונ ֵמ ֲח ַנְי] from
ural connotations of the words have been our work and from the toil of our hands” David Curwin is a writer living in Efrat,
replaced with more secular meanings in (Bereishit 5:29). But a few verses later, we see and the author of the Balashon blog:
Modern Hebrew. the root again. When G-d saw how wicked balashon.com.
For example, a synonym for ןֹוז ָח in Biblical
Hebrew is ה ֶז ֲח ַמ. When G-d reveals Himself
to Avraham, he does so in a ה ֶז ֲח ַמ (Bereishit
15:1). In Modern Hebrew, however, a ה ֶז ֲח ַמ is a
drama or play (literally something watched).
Another set of words that have gone through
a similar transformation regard a different
type of prediction. While we don’t have
prophecy today, we do predict the weather.
So a forecast is a תי ִז ֲח ַּ ת, and a weather fore-
caster is a יא ַּז ַח.

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