Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il>]

From: "Peter Kirk" <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>

> 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).
>
> -- 
Though both hrm and qd$ have the connotation "to keep separate >
consecrate", in BH, hrm generally means "to (consecrate by) destroy(ing)"
objects, animal or persons. In MH, the hif'il stem has the connotation "to
ban, boycott, ostracize". But here one would have to ask a MH specialist if
the modern connotations were invented by the lexicologist Eliez\er
Ben-Yehuda, who "imported" many roots and connotations from the Arabic.
Kol tuv,
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