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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Re: Davka

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  • From: Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
  • To: Karl Randolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Re: Davka
  • Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 10:53:39 -0400

I think I said something like: "The law is davka to enable us to approach
the holiness...."

Meaning that the law is ESPECIALLY (my definition), or PRECISELY (Yigal's
definition) for that purpose....

Shoshanna




Thanks, Yigal, I stand corrected.

When Shoshana mentioned that a davka was something that connects us to the
sacred, or something very similar to that (sorry, I don't have her message
before me, so if I misstated what she said, it was not intentional) it
appeared to me that "davka" is an anglicization of a yiddishization of a
Hebrew word meaning to join, adhere or stick to, much the same way "gonef"
and "tsuris" came from Hebrew.

Now I have a question, what does being precise have to do with connecting
us with the sacred?

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>

> Karl,
>
> "Davka" is spelled Dalet-Vav-Qoph-Aleph - DWQ), not with a Bet. Anyway,
the
> word in Gen. 2:24, Davaq (DBQ), means "to adhere" or "to stick". How is
this
> like the meaning of Davka?
>
> Davqa seems to come from the root "DYQ", which does not exist in the
Tanakh
> (a Dayeq in the Tanakh is a siege-wall), but which in rabbinic Hebrew and
> Aramaic means "to be precise".
>
> Yigal





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