Amalia W wrote: I have very few resources at home to settle an argument on the meaning of the word ?????? in Deuteronomy Chapter 6 verses 4-10. One said that it means a box and another said that it is ornament (Even Shoshan) . I said that it is neither, it is how it was taken literally.
I am guessing that the word whose meaning you are seeking is in Deut 6:8, tet-tet-feh-sof ToTaFoS. The JPS translation is "frontlets". The customary translation today is "phylactery", a Greek word φυλακτήριο of unknown origin that is usually translated as "amulet, talisman". But the question remains: What was the meaning of the Hebrew word at the time it was first written. In his Et*ymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language *(for readers of English), Ernest Klein wrote: 1 band, frontlet-band, 2 PBH phylactery. [Of uncertain origin. Perhaps formed from taf-feh-taf-feh-vav-sof, from taf-feh-taf-feh , Pi of nun-taf-feh (=to drop), whence nun-taf-yod-feh-heh (= pendant), cp. taf-feh-taf-feh-sof.] The *Online Etymological Dictionary *traces the word "phylactery" to Greek *phylax* (guardian, watcher, protector) a word of unknown origin... and says The Custom of wearing it is based on a literal reading of scripture (in) Deuteronomy 11:18. I note that Klein uses the spelling with a vav found in Deut 11:18 and not without a vav as in Deut 6:8. My own thought is that Hebrew sometimes reverses a word to produce its antonym. For example: The parsha (weekly portion of the Torah) Miketz (Genesis 41:1 - 44:17) describes the travels of Joseph's brothers to Egypt. When they stood before Joseph, they did not realize he was their brother. One reason is that Joseph spoke with them through the interpreter, המליץ, haMeiLiTZ as if he did not understand Hebrew. This word occurs only once (*hapex legomenon*) in *Tanakh* with this meaning, at Genesis 42: <http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0142.htm>23. The oral tradition says the מליץ MeiLiTZ was Menasha, Joseph's older son. Egyptian was written with hieroglyphics / pictures. The Hebrew root for image <https://translate.google.co.il/?hl=en&tab=wT#iw/en/%D7%A6%D6%B6%D7%9C%D6%B6%D7%9D> (make a picture) is צלם TZeLeM. To translate from Egyptian to other languages is to un-picture, hence, the reversal toמליץ MeiLiTZ. Deut 6:4-9 begins with the SHeMa3 prayer which is a 5:7:5 haiku in Hebrew, older than any attested Japanese haiku. Verses 6 and 7 emphasize the meaningfulness and importance of "these words". So it is possible that tet-tet-feh is a reversal of peh-tet-tet which means to prattle, chatter, babble ... that is, to utter meaningless words. So, perhaps ToTaFoS = important, meaningfui words. Israel "Izzy" Cohen
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