The term appears in the Talmud ( Yevamot 61a) when relating that there was a conspiracy behind the appointment of Yehoshua ben Gamla as the Kohen Gadol (his wife bribed the Hasmonean king Yanai to arrange for that position). Interestingly, just as keshirah in Biblical Hebrew can refer to a conspiracy, katir in Rabbinic Hebrew means the same thing. Based on this, Rabbi Yaakov Berger of Kiryat Sefer writes in Milon Leshon HaMikra that it makes sense why the Hebrew kuf-shin-reish becomes kuf-tet-reish in Aramaic (presuming that tav and tet are interchangeable). In many words, the Hebrew letter shin becomes a tav when switching to Aramaic (e.g. This Aramaic term is also the standard Targumic rendering of the Hebrew keshirah, as Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (1469-1549) already notes in Meturgaman. In one instance, it refers to something literally “tied” (5:6), while in the other two it refers to mystery or riddle figuratively “tied up in a knot” that has to be opened (5:12, 5:16). ![]() The Aramaic terms appear three times in the Aramaic sections of Daniel. In Hebrew, this root refers to “smoke” or “incense,” but in Aramaic it refers to “tying.” (I am not aware of any connections between these two meanings of the root.) The word ketirah derives from the triliteral root kuf-tet-reish. For example, in the case of a kesher (“conspiracy”), the co-conspirators willingly enter into a plot with one another (see also Radak to II Kings 9:14). Keshirah, on the other hand, denotes “tying” something in a way that whatever is being tied “consents” to that action. Similarly, Malbim notes that issur in the sense of “prohibition” refers to the idea that one’s actions may be precluded (by law or by nature) against his will. In this way, Malbim relates asirah to the term yissurim (“suffering”), which likewise denotes something non-consensual that comes upon a person against his will. For example, when a captive ( assir) is taken, he might be detained against his will, and would be forcibly “tied down” to curb his movement. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (1740-1814) ties this to the biliteral root samech-reish (“removal”), explaining that when one is tied down, one’s freedom of movement is “removed.” Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg (1785-1865) similarly explains that mussar (“moral reproach”) likewise relates to “tying” because it gives a person the ability to “tie down” his Evil Inclination and keep his desires in check.Īccording to Malbim (1809-1879), the main difference between keshirah and asirah is that asirah is done without the consent of whatever is being tied. We find a sort of parallel to this in the English expression “my hands are tied,” which means that for whatever reason I am blocked from taking a certain course of action. This connects to the idea of “tying” because when something is forbidden, it is as though it has been “tied down” and rendered inaccessible. ![]() 39:20, 40:5).Īnother word ultimately derived from this root is issur (“prohibition”), which already appears several times in the Pentateuch in the context of taking vows that prohibit certain actions or items (see Numbers 30:3-15). In fact, the word for “jail” or “place of incarceration” is bet ha-assurim, literally, “the house of those tied down” (Jud. 9:21), or “tying down” a person who was taken captive or otherwise detained (Ps. It usually appears in the context of “tying” a wagon to the animal that pulls it (e.g., Gen. The term asirah derives from another triliteral root, aleph-samech-reish, which appears close to ninety times in the Bible. For example, when the evil Queen of Judah Athaliah realized that there was a vast conspiracy determined to overthrow her, she called out “Kesher, kesher!”( II Kings 11:14). Nonetheless, the most common use of the root kuf-shin-reish in the Bible refers to a “conspiracy,” whereby a group of people “tie” together in the figurative sense in order to overthrow the government or otherwise achieve a political goal. Inflections of keshirah are also used in the Bible in reference to a less tangible “tying,” like when Judah said that his father’s soul is “tied” to the soul of Benjamin ( Genesis 44:30). These include tying a red string to Judah’s firstborn son ( Genesis 38:28) “tying” tefillin to one’s hand ( Deuteronomy 6:8, 11:18), and tying a rope in the window, as discussed last week ( Joshua 2:18, 2:21). ![]() Words hewn from the triliteral root kuf-shin-reish appear sixty times throughout the Bible.
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