Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

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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