Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>]

On 05/07/2003 03:38, Jonathan D. Safren wrote:

>  
>
> > Michael Millier <deborahmillier AT yahoo.com> wrote:
> >    
> >
> > > ... do you not think that KHEREM has an underlying
> > > idea of human sacrifice (to YHWH?!?!)?  From the
> > > word's various contexts, I think I'm inclined to
> > > believe so.
> > >      
>
> The original connotation of the root is "holy", similar to qd$.
> The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is today called in Arabic al-haram esh-$arif
> (in earlier sources it is called bayt el-maqdas = beit ha-miqda$).
> Sincerely,
> Jonathan D. Safren, Editor
> Mo'ed - Annual for Jewish Studies
> Center for Jewish Culture
> Beit Berl College
> Beit Berl Post Office
> 44905 Israel
> Tel. 972-9-7476396
> e-mail: moed AT beitberl.ac.il
> Tel. 972-9-7476396
>
>
>  
Yes, and a harem, from the same Arabic root (via Turkish to English), is 
a place of separation for women. But there are some important 
distinctions between the Hebrew and Arabic concepts of HRM, I remember 
seeing a paper about this a few years ago. Arabic HRM can actually seem 
to be rather the opposite of holy, e.g. haram is used of food etc which 
should be kept separate from i.e. not to be eaten and considered 
disgusting, the opposite of halal which is equivalent to kosher (except 
for a few small differences re camels etc).

--
Peter Kirk
peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/