שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד׃
In Torah scrolls and many published TaNaKhs, you see Deuteronomy 6:4, commonly referred to by the short name ‘sh'ma’, printed as you see it above, with the two enlarged letters. There are some traditional explanations for this orthography.
One is that
these two letters, ayin and dalet, together spell a word which
means ‘witness’ in Hebrew and this verse has indeed been called the watchword
of Israel. There are many, many more words
associated with this two letter root including:
עד
|
Eternal
|
Exodus 15:18
Isaiah 9:6
|
עד
|
Witness
|
Genesis 31:44
Deuteronomy 17:6
|
עדה
|
Congregation
|
Exodus 12:3
Psalm 111:1
|
עדות
|
Testimony
|
Exodus 16:34
Psalm 119:129
|
עדי
|
Ornaments
|
Exodus 33:4-6
Jeremiah 2:32
|
יעד
|
To appoint, to meet by appointment
|
Exodus 21:9
Exodus 25:22
|
מועד
|
Appointed time
|
Genesis 1:14
Leviticus 23:4
|
עוד
|
Again, continuing action
|
Genesis 4:25
Psalm 139:18
|
All in all, this provides a beautiful picture of the
Father’s concept of who we are and how we are to obey Him in this world
A second reason given for the oversize dalet is given
when Deuteronomy 6:4 is compared with Exodus 34:14.
כִּי לֹא תִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לְאֵל אַחֵר כִּי יְהוָה קַנָּא שְׁמֹו אֵל קַנָּא הֽוּא׃
Many scrolls
and texts maintain an enlarged reish in this verse. If you have learned to read Hebrew, you know
that one of the most difficult differences to discern between letters is the
difference between the dalet and the reish. The word which appears here in Exodus means
‘other’ or ‘another’ or ‘different’. The
postulated reason for the oversize reish is so that we don’t
accidentally read ‘ekhad’ meaning ‘one’ as above in the sh'ma. We do want to recognize that YHWH is One, not
other, and we don’t want to worship another or a different god by accidentally
reading ‘one’ in the Exodus verse instead of ‘other’ or ‘different’.
I began to
think about whether there was a similar possibility behind the oversized ayin
and it turns out that I had happened upon it yesterday morning while doing a
totally different word study.
I was looking
up the words which are translated ‘shame’ in KJV of TaNaKh. The very first of these that appears is in
Exodus 32:25.
וַיַּרְא מֹשֶׁה
אֶת־הָעָם כִּי פָרֻעַ הוּא כִּי־פְרָעֹה אַהֲרֹן לְשִׁמְצָה בְּקָמֵיהֶם׃
This is an
unusual word for ‘shame’ and used only in this one instance. It comes from a concept of ‘scornful
whispering (of hostile spectators)’ (Strong).
There is a
related form, שמץ which is used twice, in Job 4:12 and
Job 26:14. It is translated as ‘a
little’, from the concept of ‘a little
sound’, related to the idea of whispering above. Klein’s Comprehensive
Etymological Dictionary cites Biblical scholar Tur-Sinai who “refers to the
fact that שִׁמְצָה can only denote something ‘shameful or
disgraceful’, and that שמץand שִׁמְצָה in the Talmud and the Targums are always used in a pejorative
sense …” and it is worth
noting that it comes into modern Hebrew as a verb meaning ‘slander’ or
‘defame’.
Again, if you
have learned to read Hebrew, you know that this is another pair of easily
confused letters: the ayin and the tsade. Although had the root ‘shemetz’ been
used as a command form, it would have ended in a final form and thus been more
easily distinguishable from the ayin. Still, the meanings of these two
roots stand at opposite poles. One says
‘hear! obey!’ and the other says ‘whisper!, scorn!’ and what follows these
words is the declaration of who our God is, His Name YHWH and the fact that He is One. It would be a dreadful mistake to make.
