The word kesher in Hebrew has several meetings. Is there any deeper
connection between them besides the more obvious which is a little
farfetched
1) knot
2) connection
3) conspiracy
: The word kesher in Hebrew has several meetings. Is there any deeper
: connection between them besides the more obvious which is a little
: farfetched
: 1) knot
: 2) connection
: 3) conspiracy
Interestingly, the noun doesn't show in chumash. As an adjective, we have
hamuqsharos/im, to describe which of the tzon Yaaqov received (30:41-42).
Rashi quotes the Targum, "habechiros" and cites two pesuqim in Shemuel
II pereq 15.
To round out the list:
About Yaaqov (again) and Yoseif, "venafsho qesurah benafsho." Also
the string tied on Zarach's hand, and tefillin (x2). Those are all the
occurances of the shoresh.
BDB http://www.greeklatin.narod.ru/bdb/_0923.htm says that the primary
meaning is to bind, citing Syriac and Ethiopic cognates.
Conspiracy comes up in #2, "league together, conspire". It would seem
they conjecture the word comes from the collaboration, and less so
what they're connecting to eachother to plan against something.
They also cite "vatiqasheir kol-hachimah" in Nechemiah 3:35, where one
would not readily picture "tying together" parts as a metaphor.
I understand why Rashi thought the translation in Bereishis 30 is
unique enough to require comment, but not how it fits altogether.
(Rashi says it does, not how.)
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha
: The word kesher in Hebrew has several meetings. Is there any deeper
: connection between them besides the more obvious which is a little
: farfetched
: 1) knot
: 2) connection
: 3) conspiracy
...
BDB http://www.greeklatin.narod.ru/bdb/_0923.htm says that the primary
meaning is to bind, citing Syriac and Ethiopic cognates.
and what is the connection to a knot
(the origin of the question was a dvar torah on the knots of tsizit)
:>: The word kesher in Hebrew has several meetings...
: ...
:> BDB http://www.greeklatin.narod.ru/bdb/_0923.htm says that the primary
:> meaning is to bind, citing Syriac and Ethiopic cognates.
: and what is the connection to a knot
: (the origin of the question was a dvar torah on the knots of tsizit)
Well, tzitzis knots less so, but knots generally bind two strings or two
ends of a string together, no?
Tzitzis knots are somewhat more like the example from Nechemiah. If
qesher includes "batiqashar kol-hachomah", perhaps it also it includes
binding pesilim into a gedil.
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha
The word kesher in Hebrew has several meetings. Is there any deeper
connection between them besides the more obvious which is a little
farfetched
1) knot
2) connection
3) conspiracy
: In Edward Horowitz's fascinating and entertaining book, "How the Hebrew
: Language Grew," he has a chapter on how sounds made in the same part of the
: mouth sometimes interchange to form words with similar or closely related
: meanings...
Also in RSRH's fascinating and entertaining commentary on the Pentateuch
and a couple of places in CW and elsewhere.
: Another example of these interconnected words (this one I've also seen in
: the Hirsch commentary on Chumash)...
See https://books.google.com/books?id=eVAAfn6Itb4C
(The real one; the google preview skips all of your examples.)
Etymological Dictionary of Biblcal Hebrew:
Based on the Commentaries of Samson Raphael Hirsch
by Matityahu Clark
This is a central part of RSRH's exegesis.
I once went through much of Bereishis and Shemos documenting which letters
RSRH considers related enough to qualify as likely to be part of the
same phonetic meta-root. I ended up with the following chart (readable
only in fixed-width-font, eg Courier):
geroniot velar dental dento-lingual labial
h,ch q | s,sh tes |
alef k | tz tav | b
ayin g | z d | p
n ------------- m
r --------------------------------- l
y ------------------------------------- v
Letters in the same column are phonetically related (eg hei and aleg)
Vertical lines separate into pairs (eg zayin and dalet, but not
dalet and pei nor tzadi and dalet [paired coumns, different rows]).
The pairs are lingual/velar (use tongue) vs not.
Horizontal lines connect the nasals (mem and nun), the approximants
(lamd and reish) and the semivowels (yud and vav).
The unvoiced letters are all in the top two rows.
Notice how hei-ches and shin/sin-samech fall into parallel positions,
and bege"d kefe"t into the same two rows.
I stopped my analysis when I had gone dozens of peraqim without
needing to change the chart any. Lost interest.
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha