Displaying items by tag: Hebrew

Recently, Merriam Webster's Word of the Day was circumlocution:

1: the use of an unnecessarily large number of words to express an idea
2: evasion in speech

Although M-W's definition specifies "the use of an unnecessarily large number of words," there are some situations where it is helpful...or even holy.

A friend of mine recently asked if I had ever heard the claim that one of the Hebrew names of G-d (שַׁדָּי shaddai) meant "many-breasted one" or that this name revealed the female/goddess aspect of G-d.  I had never heard anything like it, so I investigated this idea and (not surprisingly) discovered it has some severe flaws.

Problem #1 is Language

The substance of this claim is rooted in the idea that shaddai stems from the Hebrew word שַׁד (shad).  While shad does mean "breast", shad is a masculine Hebrew noun that does not carry the same predominantly feminine connotation that it does in modern Western culture.  For those unfamiliar with human anatomy, men have breasts, too, albeit of different form and function.  But that's not even the problem. 

The word shaddai doesn't stem from the root shad, it stems from shadad (שָׁדַד) which means to be burly and (in a figurative sense) powerful.  How can we be sure?  Let's examine history.

I found a handy online tool to transliterate Hebrew text by Aaron Eby.

Check it out!

http://www.alittlehebrew.com/transliterate/

Thanks, Aaron! :)