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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Yaakov Stein <yaakov_s AT rad.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] what is SPYR ?
  • Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 21:26:17 -0400

Yaakov,

I have an inkling that SAPIR is, natural or artificial, glass and by borrowing, quartz and other clear, precious and semiprecious stones. It is remarkable that such a common material as glass is barely explicitly mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
The meaning of SAPIR may be $ABIR or CABIR for its tendency to easily fracture, by its manufacture from ZIBURIT, or for its coming in small chips, shards or flakes.
Exodus 24:10 is difficult, but I think that what is being said there is that the 74 elders of Israel imagined seeing a likeness standing, so to speak, high up on a celestial transparent slab [LEBEN-AH?] of glass, permitting them a peek from below into heaven. This is also the vision of Ezekiel.
The SAPIRIM of Song of Songs 5:14 are possibly glass beads.
The SAPIR of Job 28:5-6 is, methinks, some sort of obsidian produced by the volcanic activity he describes there:
אֶרֶץ מִמֶּנָּה יֵצֵא לָחֶם וְתַחְתֶּיהָ נֶהְפַּךְ כְּמוֹ-אֵשׁ
"The earth, though out of it comes forth bread, is in fiery upheaval underneath". This may also be the SAPIR of Isaiah 54:11.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On May 13, 2008, at 7:05 AM, Yaakov Stein wrote:

The stone SPYR is usually translated into English as sapphire,
and even during Mishnaic times the stone in the Ephod was explained
to be a blue precious stone due to its similarity to the Greek word for
blue.
Although the precise blue stone intended there and in the Song of Songs
may be unknown (many think lapis lazuli was intended),
there seems to be a different SPYR as well.

In Exodus 24:10 we find the expression LBNT HSPYR.
The classical commentators are split as to the meaning of LBNT.
Some interpret it as from LBN = white, while others say it comes from
LBNH = brick.
Neither of these fits a blue precious gem.

Similarly, Ezekiel 10:1 has a SPYR stone the size of a throne,
while Lamentations 4:7 uses SPYR in a context of white things
(depending on the reading of (DMU )

I am wondering whether from these uses we can deduce that
in addition to the regular precious stone, we have some bright
white/blue stone such as marble. In fact, polished white marble
with blue lines could be a candidate.

I am asking this because I believe that such an understanding
could clear up an obscure Talmudic passage.

Yaakov (J) Stein

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