David, You wrote:
<Although my Arabic dictionary does not have yehab..> There was a shift from Waw in Proto- Semitic to a Y in NW Semitic languages. Therefore when looking for an Arabic lexical equivalent for an initial Hebrew Yud in a biblical root, one needs to the check the Arabic letter W. Just take a look at listings for the letter Waw in a biblical Hebrew Concordance: practically none. Same in Phoenician. In this case there is indeed a root WHB in Arabic which means "give, grant" etc. One of he noun derivations is 'hibat' - "gift, present". Similar meaning, though spelled with a Y in ancient Aramaic, is attested many centuries before Talmudic time. Obviously I just sum up here. BTW, the Wahabi movement sponsored by Saudi Arabia takes its name from this root. The Aramaic יהביך you cited from Rosh Hashana 26b was translated long ago into Hebrew as 'burden' ( "masa" ) with a Sin ). Be that as it may, there has been a long- time scholarly consensus about the meaning of most occurrences of the biblical root YHB. Uri Hurwitz -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I found this quote in the Talmud - Mas. Rosh HaShana 26b לא הוו ידעי רבנן מאי השלך על הי יהבך והוא יכלכלך אמר רבה בר בר חנה יומא חד הוה אזלינא בהדי ההוא טייעא הוה דרינא טונא ואמר לי שקול יהביך ושדי אגלאי This is translated as : "The Rabbis didn't know what was meant by 'Cast upon the Lord thy yehab, and he shall sustain thee.' Rabbah b Bar Hanah said: "One day I was travelling with an Arab (a specific Arab tribe) and he was carrying a load (טונא) and he said to me, 'Lift up your yehab and put it on (one of) the camels.' Although my Arabic dictionary does not have yehab, the root HB has these related meanings: get in motion, start moving, depart, set out, approach, attack, tackle, embark, begin, start doing something, rush / fly , rise, get up, revolt, rebel, blow, rage (storm), waft, drift; (related nouns >) gust, breeze, strong wind, gale. It seems these can be re-ordered roughly as follows: waft, drift, blow, rage (storm), rush, fly > rise (= lift up) > get moving rise (= lift up) > revolt, rebel, tackle, attack It is possible that yehab = burden / load is related in that it means "something that is lifted up" הבה in Hebrew means "to give forth (of oneself), give, contribute" הבב in Syriac means "to bloom, blossom, flourish, glitter, be showy" Perhaps, the Arabic also literally means "to give forth" in that "waft, drift, blow, rage (storm), rush, fly" are ways of "giving forth." Shavua Tov, David Kolinsky Monterey CA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Previous message: [b-hebrew] Hava Nagila Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More information about the _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
