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When we think of the word גְּאֻלָּה geula - we typically think of a divine redemption or salvation, perhaps with a messianic bent. It could be spiritual or it could be physical, but God is the one doing the redeeming. However, the root גאל - "to redeem" - doesn't have that meaning exclusively. In the Tanakh, we find it frequently referring to redemption by humans: redemption of land, or redemption…
The phrase דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ derekh eretz appears hundreds of times in rabbinic literature. Literally meaning "the way of the world," it has multiple meanings. Generally, they are divided into these three categories: accepted manners, etiquette, and customs work, occupation, livelihood a euphemism for sexual relations Shmuel Safrai in his essay The Term Derekh Ereẕ / מובנו של המונח 'דרך-ארץ' and David…
The root (or perhaps better to say roots) ענה anah is generally said to have four meanings in Hebrew. Klein identifies them as follows:: answer sing afflict occupy Let’s look at each of them and the words deriving from them. Answer This includes the senses of “answer, reply, respond”. It’s the most popular use of the verb in Hebrew today. A particular type of response is responding as a witness,…
Is there any connection between the words ra’al רַעַל - “poison, toxin” and re’ala רְעָלָה - “veil, scarf”? There are three primary theories. Let’s review them. The first suggests a connection between the root רעל and the root ערל, via a metathesis (a rearrangement of the letters). The adjective עָרֵל arel means “uncircumsized”, and this theory proposes a common sense of both roots meaning “to…
In Hebrew, the verb רחץ rachatz means “to wash” or “to bathe.” In Aramaic, it means “to trust” or “to rely.” Is there any connection between the two? Let’s start by looking at the Hebrew root. It appears frequently in Biblical Hebrew — 72 times throughout the Tanakh . When talking about physical washing, as opposed to metaphorical cleansing, it refers to washing the human body, as in bathing, or…
The word אֲגַרְטָל agartal , meaning "vase" in Modern Hebrew, doesn’t look like a native Hebrew word. But it actually has a biblical origin. It appears in only one verse, in a list of vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar from the Temple in Jerusalem and then returned by Cyrus: וְאֵלֶּה מִסְפָּרָם אֲגַרְטְלֵי זָהָב שְׁלֹשִׁים אֲגַרְטְלֵי־כֶסֶף אָלֶף מַחֲלָפִים תִּשְׁעָה וְעֶשְׂרִים׃ "This is the…
A casbah is a citadel or a fortified quarter of an Arab city. Does it have a cognate in Hebrew? Casbah (sometimes spelled kasbah) entered English from French, which got it from North African Arabic, where kasba meant "fortress." In Hebrew today it is spelled קַסְבָּה . In Arabic, in addition to fort/citadel, kasba can also mean " reed, cane, pipe. " There are two theories as to how the two…
Today is Balashon’s 20th anniversary. I didn’t want to write a typical post about a single word or root, so I’m doing something different: an interview-style Q&A. I’ll ask myself the kinds of questions readers might be curious about - how the blog started, who it was for, what kept it going, what the numbers look like - and answer them as honestly as I can. It’s part nostalgia, part curiosity, and…
If you’ve been wondering about Balashon email updates, here’s the good news: they’re working again. I wrote up the background and why this has been complicated here: https://www.balashon.com/2025/11/email-updates.html To subscribe now, you can use the subscription box in the sidebar (it uses the same link), or subscribe directly here:…
Just a test.