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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] resource material was chalal-perforate/pierce?

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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] resource material was chalal-perforate/pierce?
  • Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2007 19:50:53 -0400

Yigal,

Possibly the Arabic 'sweet' is rather XALBA, descended from XALAB, 'milk', which is indeed sweet-tasting by virtue of the good amount of lactose it contains.
Since you mention it, 'braided' is KALU(A, from the root KL(, yet another member of the GL, HL, XL, KL, QL root family. It is possible that the MI-KL(AT of 1 Kings 6:32 is a bas-relief, and then KL( is in there in the sense of GL(, SL(, CL(, ML).
Nowadays we are accustomed to use KL( in the sense of braiding long hair into CAMOT, or flowers into a wreath [ZER]. As such it has the sense of KL), or KLL, as by this maneuver the braided strands are intertwined [KLL] and tightly interlocked [KL)] together.
KL( in the sense of KALA( LA-MATARAH, 'hit the target', also shares the sense of KL) and KLL, as the projectile is then successfully placed and embedded in the target. In 1 Samuel 25:29 reference is to the inclusion of a projectile in the the receptacle of a sling.
It seems to me that the biblical XALAH is a full bodied, round [XUL] and arching [KAL] baked good, ending to be in the form of a GAL XOL, 'a mound of sand', possibly of a hard outer crust enclosing [KLL] a softer inner core.
I am not sure about the ancient Hebrews offering to their God bagels and pretzels.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Sep 8, 2007, at 5:27 PM, Yigal Levin wrote:

Isaac Fried wrote:

I looked up TWOT and saw that he suggests that XALAH [of the famous
rhyme: I baked a little xalah, I baked it by myself, I put it in the
oven, I put it on the shelf,...] is some kind of bagel or pretzel
since its name implies that it is 'pierced'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University



Shavua Tov Isaac,

The fact that the what we call Xallah today is a sweet braided loaf does not
mean that the Xallah used in the Temple looked the same. While there are
other theories about the original meaning of the word Xallah (the Arabic
cognate, for example, means "sweet"), this one is certainly possible.

Do you know that our Matzah, with its rows of holes and its cardboard-like
hardness, is a fairly modern invention? Have you ever seen a traditional
Yemenite or Samaritan matzah? They look much more like what is now called an
Iraqi Pita (the big soft kind without the "pocket".

Yigal Levin

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