Post by Phil Van Riper on Jun 2, 2005 18:48:22 GMT
Following is a newsgroup post that was recently forwarded to Isaac. "Avodah" is actually, I believe, a mail list rather than a Usenet group. The writer is Dr. M. Levin
___________________________________________________
In Avodah V14 #13 dated 10/19/2004 ********@aol.com writes:
The problem of words that have the same shoresh but different meanings>is a broader one - it includes the many examples of words that sound the same but mean different things. An example would be Ram to raise and>ram to throw, shv to sit and shv to capture. Posted by: *****@ieee.org Here the roots are not identical, are they?> Resh vav mem vs resh mem heh. Yod shin vav vs shin vav heh. This would seem to justify the triliteral-root theory and disprove the biliteral-root theory. As if that needed to be justified. Yes, I do understand that the roots are not identical; furthermore,the stress is different (Rama1 b'yom vs. ydeinu r!ama in Haa'zinu). My point is that this is very complex and confusing and constantly breaks down - its predicitve power is poor. Besides, many achronim liked the two letter root theory more. Rashi does not hold of a three letter root theory. He therefore does not employ it. He seems to hold that a word can have either a three or two root shoresh, see Gur Arye parshas Chukas (and many other places) on the word nida. Others who hold a two letter theory include R. Hirsh, Malbim in the 3rd or 4th item in Ayeles Hashachar and Menachem in the Intro to Machberes. All of them have specific twists in their views. There was a thread on this at avodah by the name Missing nun in Feb. 2003, ayen sham. I quote a post from that time. BTW, I think that the sefer yetsirah also holds a 2 word theory. All objects are composed of combinations of letters. Here is an excerpt from Ch.2 Seven doubles: Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Kaf, Peh, Resh, Tav which are to be pronounced in two tongues: Bet, Vet, Gimel, Ghimel, Dalet, Dhalet, Kaf, Khaf, Peh, Feh, Resh, Rhesh, Tav, Thav, a pattern of hard and soft, strong and weak. The doubles represent the contraries. The opposite of life is death, the opposite of peace is evil, the opposite of wisdom is foolishness, the opposite of wealth is poverty, the opposite of fruitfulness is barrenness, the opposite of grace is ugliness, the opposite of dominion is slavery. ¶ 4. Twelve simples: He, Vav, Zayin; Het, Tet, Yod; Lamed, Nun, Samech; Ayin, Tsadeh, Qof. He engraved them, hewed them, tested them, weighed them, and exchanged them. How did He combine them? Two stones build two houses. Three stones build six houses. Four stones build twenty-four houses. Five stones build one hundred twenty houses. Six stones build seven hundred twenty houses. Seven stones build five thousand forty houses. Thenceforth, go out and calculate what the mouth is unable to say and what the ear is unable to hear.
Ch.4 Par 4. Twenty-two letters: He carved them, hewed them, refined them, weighed them, and combined them, and He made of them the entire creation and everything to be created in the future.
How did He test them? Alef with all and all with Alef, Bet with all and all with Bet, Gimel with all and all with Gimel, and they all return again and again, and they emanate through two hundred and thirty-one gates. All the words and all the creatures emanate from One Name. Par 5. He created reality from Tohu [Tav-He-Vav] and made His existence out of His nothingness, and He hewed great pillars from the intangible air. If you think of the 2 letter theory as simply 2 letters you will be unable to create too many words. This is Ibn Ezra's proof for the three root theory. From the above passage it seems that many words have letters that are not visibly present. If I recall that is what the Raavad suggests in his commentary to Sefer Yetsira. We now return to the idea that certain roots contain letters that dropout, the same idea that is used in the 3 letter root theory to explain why yod, hei, vav and nun drop out. The first three imply the idea of G-dliness surreptitiously present in words; I do not know how to explain dropping nun, except that word nefila starts with nun. - M. Levin
_________________________________________________
End of mail list post by Dr. Levin
___________________________________________________
In Avodah V14 #13 dated 10/19/2004 ********@aol.com writes:
The problem of words that have the same shoresh but different meanings>is a broader one - it includes the many examples of words that sound the same but mean different things. An example would be Ram to raise and>ram to throw, shv to sit and shv to capture. Posted by: *****@ieee.org Here the roots are not identical, are they?> Resh vav mem vs resh mem heh. Yod shin vav vs shin vav heh. This would seem to justify the triliteral-root theory and disprove the biliteral-root theory. As if that needed to be justified. Yes, I do understand that the roots are not identical; furthermore,the stress is different (Rama1 b'yom vs. ydeinu r!ama in Haa'zinu). My point is that this is very complex and confusing and constantly breaks down - its predicitve power is poor. Besides, many achronim liked the two letter root theory more. Rashi does not hold of a three letter root theory. He therefore does not employ it. He seems to hold that a word can have either a three or two root shoresh, see Gur Arye parshas Chukas (and many other places) on the word nida. Others who hold a two letter theory include R. Hirsh, Malbim in the 3rd or 4th item in Ayeles Hashachar and Menachem in the Intro to Machberes. All of them have specific twists in their views. There was a thread on this at avodah by the name Missing nun in Feb. 2003, ayen sham. I quote a post from that time. BTW, I think that the sefer yetsirah also holds a 2 word theory. All objects are composed of combinations of letters. Here is an excerpt from Ch.2 Seven doubles: Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Kaf, Peh, Resh, Tav which are to be pronounced in two tongues: Bet, Vet, Gimel, Ghimel, Dalet, Dhalet, Kaf, Khaf, Peh, Feh, Resh, Rhesh, Tav, Thav, a pattern of hard and soft, strong and weak. The doubles represent the contraries. The opposite of life is death, the opposite of peace is evil, the opposite of wisdom is foolishness, the opposite of wealth is poverty, the opposite of fruitfulness is barrenness, the opposite of grace is ugliness, the opposite of dominion is slavery. ¶ 4. Twelve simples: He, Vav, Zayin; Het, Tet, Yod; Lamed, Nun, Samech; Ayin, Tsadeh, Qof. He engraved them, hewed them, tested them, weighed them, and exchanged them. How did He combine them? Two stones build two houses. Three stones build six houses. Four stones build twenty-four houses. Five stones build one hundred twenty houses. Six stones build seven hundred twenty houses. Seven stones build five thousand forty houses. Thenceforth, go out and calculate what the mouth is unable to say and what the ear is unable to hear.
Ch.4 Par 4. Twenty-two letters: He carved them, hewed them, refined them, weighed them, and combined them, and He made of them the entire creation and everything to be created in the future.
How did He test them? Alef with all and all with Alef, Bet with all and all with Bet, Gimel with all and all with Gimel, and they all return again and again, and they emanate through two hundred and thirty-one gates. All the words and all the creatures emanate from One Name. Par 5. He created reality from Tohu [Tav-He-Vav] and made His existence out of His nothingness, and He hewed great pillars from the intangible air. If you think of the 2 letter theory as simply 2 letters you will be unable to create too many words. This is Ibn Ezra's proof for the three root theory. From the above passage it seems that many words have letters that are not visibly present. If I recall that is what the Raavad suggests in his commentary to Sefer Yetsira. We now return to the idea that certain roots contain letters that dropout, the same idea that is used in the 3 letter root theory to explain why yod, hei, vav and nun drop out. The first three imply the idea of G-dliness surreptitiously present in words; I do not know how to explain dropping nun, except that word nefila starts with nun. - M. Levin
_________________________________________________
End of mail list post by Dr. Levin