{"id":82612,"date":"2020-11-03T09:41:25","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T07:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=82612"},"modified":"2020-11-03T09:41:25","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T07:41:25","slug":"for-the-tree-is-like-a-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/for-the-tree-is-like-a-human\/","title":{"rendered":"For The Tree Is Like A Human"},"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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"82612","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64450,"related_cahpter":"604","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"But what kind - a visitor from foreign lands? Or home-grown?\r\n\r\n","content":"

Psalm 37 deals with the prospects of the wicked and the righteous, and how God will deal justly with both. At times it seems like the wicked are succeeding, but that will not always be the way:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a wicked man, powerful, well-rooted like a robust native tree. Suddenly he vanished and was gone; I sought him, but he was not to be found.\u201d (Psalm 37:35-36)<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to look at the word translated here as \u201cnative tree\u201d \u2013 the Hebrew <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another translation has the phrase as follows: \u201clike a green tree in its native soil.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Both translations have <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em> meaning \u201ctree.\u201d This is unusual, because in the other 16 occurrences of the word <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em>\u00a0in the Bible, it means “an indigenous, permanent resident of the land”, and is particularly used in contrast with <\/span>ger<\/span><\/em>\u00a0– “the stranger.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The translations above, following many of the medieval commentaries, assume that the connection between <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em> as citizen and <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em> as tree is that both are well-rooted in the soil.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the Israeli linguist, Shlomo Morag, had a different theory. He says that the root of <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is <\/span>zarach<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>– which originally meant \u201cto sprout, to appear.\u201d From the sense of \u201cthe appearance of light,\u201d the root came to also mean the more common usage today \u2013 \u201cto shine.\u201d (This is why the word <\/span>mizrach<\/span><\/em> means \u201ceast\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s where the sun first shines.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The original meaning of <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em>\u00a0was “an appearance of shining and light”, but that sense was not preserved in the Bible. The usage here in Psalms was the earlier one, where it meant “sprout, shoot”. From there it was borrowed to mean one who rose and grew from the land, i.e. one who was born there.<\/span><\/p>\n

We see in Latin (and later in English) a similar connection between birth and an ethnic group of people, in the words \u201cnatal\u201d and \u201cnation\u201d, which share a common root (which also meant “to spring forth, to grow)”. So perhaps the best translation for the biblical <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em>\u00a0would be “native” (unlike citizen, which is related to “city”).<\/span><\/p>\n

The definition of the <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em>\u00a0as a person affects how we understand the <\/span>ger<\/span><\/em>\u00a0as well. If the <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is someone \u201cborn in the land,\u201d then we can understand the <\/span>ger<\/span><\/em>\u00a0as a stranger who came to the land. This is the primary usage in the Bible. But if <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em>\u00a0means \u201ca person born into the nation\u201d, then the opposite would be <\/span>ger<\/span><\/em>\u00a0as convert, which is how it used from the post-biblical period until today.<\/span><\/p>\n

But despite their disparate origins, the Torah commands us to treat both the <\/span>ezrach<\/span><\/em> and <\/span>ger<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>justly. For when they are righteous, the last verse of the psalm (40) applies to both:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe LORD helps them and rescues them, rescues them from the wicked and delivers them, for they seek refuge in Him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":82615,"id":82615,"title":"ps37-tree","filename":"ps37-tree.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps37-tree.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/for-the-tree-is-like-a-human\/ps37-tree\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps37-tree","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":82612,"date":"2020-11-03 07:40:48","modified":"2022-09-20 07:37:52","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1741,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps37-tree-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps37-tree-272x300.png","medium-width":272,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps37-tree-768x847.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":847,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps37-tree-929x1024.png","large-width":929,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps37-tree.png","1536x1536-width":1393,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps37-tree.png","2048x2048-width":1741,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps37-tree-1088x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1088,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps37-tree-381x420.png","home_baner-width":381,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"For The Tree Is Like A Human","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"But what kind - a visitor from foreign lands? 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