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A MISUNDERSTOOD WORD
By Samuel Krauss, Vienna.
Not only the Greek and Roman loan-words in the
Talmud and Midrash, to which I have devoted a separate
work, but even quite common Semitic terms of the same
literature are still misinterpreted, for the simple reason that
the facts and data constituting the life of the ancient Jews
are given no consideration.
This somewhat bitter truth will be illustrated by the
following example :
R. Nathan of Rome, author of the 'Aruk, has preserved
for us, among many other treasures for which we are indebted
to him, an old Midrash (from the Yelamdenu), 1 which
reads as follows : no bai^r> nnjn 'ens pj»e>n apy nvn mo^a
paw pane' aca /onan twaa nwn i»j?d haw ynbtf. 'n
jmitsn D^ip^> a^pD ysi d^vn m» •ok mina o»pMjn wjuj nwwj
In this otherwise simple statement it is only the word
nVJUJ that offers some difficulty. The lexicographers are
perplexed. Levy disregarded it altogether and does not
quote it at all. Kohut endeavours to explain it by the
Greek KQivuvla=communion. It is hardly necessary to prove
that this is wrong. Kohut, it is true, supports his opinion
by quoting a similar Midrash to the same passage in
1 'Aruk, p 6 (ed. Venice 53 a, ed. Kohut II, 315).
2 Cant. 8. 13. The citation includes D^Tan and does not, as Kohut
believes, end with D'OH.
Ill
112 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
Canticles, 3 which reads thus : vtbv&\ i3N tFon pip nnJttSO
i?)jb tmwpo J?&, and accordingly WJ1M should be on a par
with D'Han. But Kohut himself remarks that in the Rabba
passage the difficult word was omitted because the copyists
failed to understand it. Who will vouch then that they
have rendered correctly the sense of the passage by the use
of ftnin ? To me it is evident that there are several hag-
gadic explanations to the same verse in Canticles ; * the
one made use of the expression nVJlM , the other employed
DH3PI. These are indeed similar but not identical terms.
Ben Jehuda, the author of the very useful and scholarly
dictionary of the entire Hebrew literature, 6 admits openly
that the etymology of the word is unknown to him, yet he
believes that he hit upon the sense by translating it with
' class '. He is right in giving JTWJ as the singular.
It is the merit of Jastrow to have come much nearer to
the meaning of the word. 6 He derives it from psa = couch,
and translates the sentence as follows : ' when the students
at college sit 'l 'i arranged by couches (school forms).'
According to this interpretation an allusion is made to
a definite arrangement of seats in the rabbinic schools, and
it is conceivable that the haggadists would utilize just such
a feature of the scholarly life, since indeed the latter was
especially dear to them. The similarity with the sentence
that one should read (the ])0& nxnp or other biblical
extracts) in conjunction with friends (D'nan) suggests itself
at once, since haberim are primarily men of the learned
3 Cant, rabba to 8. 13.
4 As a matter of fact there are several interpretations in Cant, rabba,
loc. at.
nnayn ptJ^n \bo, p- 8n.
6 Dictionary of the Targumim, &c, p. 258.
A MISUNDERSTOOD WORD — KRAUSS 113
guild, and since this word is actually found in the scriptural
text as well as in the fragment of the Yelamdenu.
We continue now on this road and explain rWUJ as
a feature of the ancient scholarly life. The Neo-Hebraic
idiom is built upon the vocabulary of the Aramaic lan-
guage, 7 and hence it must not be surprising if we have
recourse to the Aramaic also this time. WMUJ or snwj
means in Aramaic or Syriac a little garden, garden of the
house, hortulus? Formations like 1V31M (fr. pi) are e.g. nwn
(fr. W>n), nhb& (fr. 9?&), and JVJIH (fr. 33l).° As a matter of
fact the Hebrew JVlWJ 10 has been combined by Segal with
the Aramaic NrWlM . The plural nvoua is formed exactly as
the plural nvM>n. With this the grammatical side of the
word is sufficiently explained. But there is also no reason
why the meaning should be sought elsewhere than in the
word itself; the word denotes, as stated above, a small
garden, a bed.
From the life of the ancient rabbis it is necessary to
know that they exercised their preceptorial activities in the
open field and in gardens. 11 I have proved 12 that the
expression WW rn"l1E> 'in single rows', occurring in the
arrangement of seats for the rabbis is to be explained in
this way, that the assemblies of the rabbis actually took
place in vineyards, where the sitting in rows was a natural
consequence. In the open field such an arrangement of
7 M. H. Segal, Mftuaic Hebrew (Oxford, 1909, reprinted from JQR. for
July, 1908), p. 8.
8 Levy, I, 348 ; Kohut, II, 313 ; Jastrow, p. 258.
9 See Segal, op. tit., p. 65 f.
10 p"P bv rWIM, b. Berakot 43 b.
11 See my Talmudische Arch'dologie, HI, 205.
12 ' Die VersammlungsstiUte der Talmudgelehrten ' in Lewy-Festschrtft
(Breslau, 1911), p. 2a.
VOL. IV. I
114 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
seats is called irpcunal Trpcunai (Mark 6. 40), in Hebrew
perhaps rttJViy TWVJ. To these expressions, formed always
by the iteration of the word, there is now added as third in
number our equally doubled JlYOttJ nfSOi ' in form of small
beds '. The word thus obtains its meaning without force.
The meaning of the whole Midrash is now as follows :
The passage in Cant. 8. 13 speaks of listening to the
voices of those who sit together as friends (D'Han). The
mere word nnan reminds the haggadists of the learned men
who raise their voices either in the school-house or in the
house of worship. The Midrash ad locum has haggadic
sayings for both of these alternatives. Yet it is preferable
to think of the seating arrangement for the scholars in the
school-house, and it is in reference to this that the haggadist
says: 'Those who sit there in form of small gardens, 13
indulging in the study of the law — to them I (God) descend,
listen to their voice, and hear them.'
,s I. e. in groups or classes.
