Sunday, September 30, 2012

Orthography of the Sh'ma



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.