<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1601" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: Micha Berger <A
href="mailto:micha@aishdas.org">micha@aishdas.org</A><BR><BR>>>The
original name of the month is Marcheshvan, give or take some vowels<BR>--
probably Merachshevan. Akkadian roots differ from Hebrew in that the<BR>roles of
/n/ and the semivowels /v/ and /y/ switch. So, merach would<BR>be yareiach in
Hebrew, and shevan would be shemini -- IOW, it's simply<BR>"eight month",
October.<<<BR></FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT></DIV><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>>>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>I've seen this explanation before -- there was an article about it in
Jewish Action, a few years ago -- but it does raise some questions.
Akkadian is a cognate language to Hebrew, a Semitic language, but most of the
other names of the Hebrew months seem to be Babylonian names -- not
Semitic. So why would just this month (and maybe Av) have Semitic
names while all the others have non-Semitic, galus-Bavel names?
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>Also, all the other months seem to be named after Babylonian gods,
powers, forces or whatever -- why would this month alone have a name that is
only a number? Of course in the Torah ALL the months are identified only
by number (plus sometimes an additional identifying season, e.g., chodesh
he'aviv.) But if we are borrowing names from other cultures, why would we
take just this one month from the Akkadians and give it a number instead of a
name?</DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</B></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">See what's new at <A title="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" href="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" target="_blank">AOL.com</A> and <A title="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" href="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" target="_blank">Make AOL Your Homepage</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>