Category: Biblical Hebrew
Misparim Mesaprim
Numbers Tell their Stories, Part 1
We are reviewing and extending Part 1 of this two part series. We had begun to investigate the meaning of the Hebrew numbers from one to ten. We started with an episode in the life of our forefather Abraham. “And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars...’” (Genesis 15:5). In this act of counting the stars, however, Abraham was not merely adding one number to another. Counting – lispor (לספור) is more than just a procedure of mathematical addition. The root of the word is samech–peh–resh (ס–פ–ר), which is also the root of the word to ‘recount,’ that is: ‘to tell a story.’ The Hebrew word for ‘book’ is sefer, and the word for ‘story’ is sippur. (Remember that the ‘f’ sound and the ‘p’ sound are formed by one and the same letter i.e. peh or feh – פ.)
Thus we discovered a clue to the possibility that the names of the numbers each have a story to tell. We also pointed out that the numbers have both masculine and feminine genders. In the context of this article we will pause to look only at the masculine form of the numbers.
One - Echad
Let us repeat what we discovered about number one, which in Hebrew is echad (‘ch’ is pronounced as in ‘loch’) – אחד. Most times echad (one) is used to denote simply a singular ‘one’ (see for example Genesis 42:13). But undoubtedly the most well known occurrence of this word is to be found in the Shema: “Hear oh Israel, Adonai our God is one God” (Deuteronomy 6:4). This eternal injunction and tenet of faith actually points to a union of plurality, since the word for “God,” including in the above quote, is elohim (אלהים), which is the plural form of el (אל). Thus, echad is not just a singular ‘one.’ This ...
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Adapted from
Bikurei Tziyon #62
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