{"id":34676,"date":"2018-07-22T13:21:48","date_gmt":"2018-07-22T10:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=34676"},"modified":"2022-02-13T10:55:42","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T08:55:42","slug":"the-ark-the-world-and-the-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-ark-the-world-and-the-word\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ark, The World and The Word"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[361],"acf":{"old_id":"34676","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34009,"related_cahpter":"6","type_929":"2","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Our words can be our arks, housing thoughts, emotions, and the visions of our souls on a stormy sea in search of shelter ","content":"

When compared to other languages, English for instance, Hebrew has a relatively limited treasury of base words. However, the rich tapestry of Hebrew syntax is unequaled in its operational pliability and that is an invitation for multi-levelled meanings in creative speech.<\/span><\/p>\n

Verse 16 of Genesis chapter 6 provides a fine example. God commands Noah to build a skylight a cubit wide (a foot and a half) at the top of the ark’s slanted roof. The term in Hebrew is “tsohar latevah<\/em>“. The first Hebrew letter in the word “tsohar<\/em>” (skylight) is a <\/span>tsadi<\/em> <\/span>(\u05e6) which is a sibilant sound like “ts”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The letters in the Hebrew alphabet that sound similar create an interlacing fabric of meaning that reveals the undercurrents in the text.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen carefully:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. “Tsohar<\/em>“, a word full of light, is connected in modern Hebrew to “tsohorayim<\/em>” – noontime.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Change the “ts” to a “z” sound and the word becomes “zohar<\/em>” \u2013 brightness, glory, emanation of light.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Change the “ts” to a “t” – “tohar<\/em>” \u2013 purity, innocence.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Change the “ts” to an “s” -“sohar<\/em>” \u2013 prison, as in the Joseph story; the imprisoned could not see the light of day except through a small skylight.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What was Noah’s ark? A prison in which human decadence shut out the light of day? A time of innocence and renewed purity? A receptacle for the vision of an Abraham who soon would revolutionize human consciousness?<\/span><\/p>\n

    But there is more.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, read the tapestry of the text as a reflection of the emanation of light in human speech. The Hebrew word for ark, “tevah<\/em>,” also means “a word”.<\/span><\/p>\n

    On occasion our words are a closed prison waiting to be set free. On occasion they are our arks housing thoughts, emotions, and the visions of our souls carrying the fullness of our being on a stormy sea in search of shelter in the depths of personal meaning or in a gift to someone that human speech can express.<\/span><\/p>\n

    But always, as the Baal Shem Tov would have it, with a skylight that infuses human speech with compassion and a sense of renewal.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Such are words of the Tanakh.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":101929,"id":101929,"title":"-6208bec0989ab--6208bec0989acgen6-skylight open inspiration.jpg","filename":"6208bec0989ab-6208bec0989acgen6-skylight-open-inspiration.jpg.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6208bec0989ab-6208bec0989acgen6-skylight-open-inspiration.jpg.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-ark-the-world-and-the-word\/6208bec0989ab-6208bec0989acgen6-skylight-open-inspiration-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"6208bec0989ab-6208bec0989acgen6-skylight-open-inspiration-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":34676,"date":"2022-02-13 08:18:08","modified":"2023-11-19 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