[b-hebrew] BRCH What am I DIVING at?

Yigal Levin Yigal-Levin at utc.edu
Thu Jan 23 14:38:58 EST 2003


At 08:17 PM 1/23/2003 +0100, watts-westmaas wrote:
>Take the word: MiKVeH,(Root - KVH), Especially when used in Ezra 10:2:
>"...Yet now there is HOPE in Yisrael concerning this thing" and in Yeremiah
>14:8: "...HOPE of Yisrael, his salvation in time of trouble".  If I
>translate the word as 'Washing' (I think that I am allowed to do that) 

You can do that in Midrash. But "Mikveh" (MQWH) has nothing to do with
washing! It means "gathering" (cf. Gen. 1:9-10), and as such a gathering of
water is applied to a pool in which one washes (in modern Judaism -
specifically a ritual pool, but that's a later usage). Now I'm not sure
whether there is a connection between "gathering" and "hope", but even if
a=b, you can't infer that b=c.


Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.


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