This section will be devoted to Scriptural words and their meaning. We will not only establish the etymological roots of these words, but we will reveal how many English words are actually Hebrew words. Everything and anything you might want to know about the Hebrew language will be discussed and presented in this section.E-mail us if you want to know what a particular word is and we will be happy to post it here for all to read. If you are interested in it, maybe many others are, too.
ASHERLeah's second son through her maid Zilpah was called Asher. The meaning of the name of this son is, like all the others, found in the text in which he is first mentioned.
B'reshiyth 30:14 Asher's name is rooted in the Hebrew word for happiness or blessedness. His name is spelled with an aleph, a shin and a resh. This word, and it's cognates, can be found in many other places in scripture, some which may delight you. The 119th Psalm, my favorite, contains 176 verses, divided up into 22 sections of 8 verses each. Each section of 8 begins with the letters of the Hebrew alephbet beginning in Mizmor 119:1 and following the order of the alephbet. The first 8 verses of this Psalm all begin with the first letter, aleph. The first two verses begin with 'Blessed are'. The word blessed is not the typical Hebrew word baruk, we are accustomed to saying in our blessings. It is asher. Other cognates of this word can be found in the English translation as 'my goings' (Mizmor 40:3), to 'make rich' (Z'kharyah 11:5), and 'tithes' (B'reshiyth 14:20). It is no coincidence that Ya'akov's prophecy over Asher is that out of him, his bread shall be rich and he shall produce the King's delight (B'reshiyt 49:20).
Shalom Alecheim!
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