Page 177 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
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156 COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
So why should “hole” be included as part of the word “black” in Hebrew?
This is anyone’s guess. One can explain that holes found in the ground (like deep
wells) are expected to be black . However, more adventure-seeking people may
offer other explanations for the Hebrew “black hole.”
Addressing the “hole,” the second syllable in the two-syllable Hebrew word for
“black,” as possibly significant in any way might seem outrageous and as forcing

the desired in a twisted way. That might be so until one explores further some
other words derived from the same sequence of letters, and in the same order,
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as “hole” (chor). It turns out that the same word, occasionally pronounced
differently, is the source for many other words in Hebrew, with different meanings,
all implying … “white .”
Note these examples:

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• Chavar (a verb, same letters as “hole”) means “he became white ,” as
in: “Therefore thus says the Lord … Jacob shall not now be ashamed,
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neither shall his face now grow white [yachaviru ]” (Isa. 29:22; see also
Dan. 7:9).
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• Chur (a noun, same letters, different pronunciation), means “white
material” (for example, Est. 1:6, 8:15).

In our modern world, we would easily understand associations between black ,
white, and (black) holes. How is it that the same associations are so prominently

observed in corresponding Hebrew words that express the same concepts?
In other words, how is it that white (representing light with all its colors) ,
black (absence of light) and hole have, in the Hebrew language, nearly identical

sequence of letters, in the same order?

A final observation with respect to “darkness” is the way this concept is alluded
to in Isaiah: “Forming light and creating darkness: doing peace and creating evil:
I the Lord am doing all these” (Isa. 45:7; author’s translation, italics added for
emphasis). Let us recall the worlds according to Jewish tradition, which we
alluded to earlier (subsection 1.3.2). There are four such worlds, structured in a
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hierarchical fashion: the world of atzilut (the uppermost), the world of creation,
the world of forming, and the world of doing (or making). Humans live in the
lower two worlds: we can give form, and we are capable of doing. However, we are
unable to create, since the latter, in biblical discourse, implies making something
“jump” into existence out of nonexistence.
Given what we now know of the root of the Hebrew word for darkness,
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choshech —namely, that it implies deprivation (in this case, lack of light)—one
may wonder how is it that the prophet Isaiah refers to darkness as “created.” This