[Mesorah] two questions about words

[Michael Poppers]

Re אבוקה  ,  our friend Google
<https://www.google.com/search?q=avuka&oq=avuka&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1255j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8>
brought this Webpage for the group's consideration (and I thanked it for
its consideration): http://www.balashon.com/2007/12/avuka-and-ptil.html .

On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 3:48 PM, Mandel, Seth via Mesorah <
mesorah at lists.aishdas.org> wrote:

> Although the name of this group quite literally means that we are talking
> about the T'NaKh, I am taking the liberty of addressing a couple of
> questions that have been perplexing me about Chazal Hebrew.  If the
> managers of the list think it is not appropriate, I will send it elsewhere.
>
> The first is the word אבוקה, meaning a torch.  The word does not appear in
> the T'NaKh; instead, there is a word לפיד, which occurs about a dozen
> times.  The Targum translates that a בעורא. and no forms of אבוקה appear in
> Aramaic.  The Rambam, following the usage in Chazal, has the word אבוקה
> several times, and the word לפיד only once, in Kelim 18:6, which quotes
> the Mishna in Kelim.  From the Rambam's comments, it appears that אבוקה was
> the word for a torch, and לפיד in the Mishna refers not to a normal
> torch, but to a implement made out of pottery consisting of a long stick
> with a couple of metal containers on top that hold burning rags.
>
> I am not asking about what that word in the Mishna means.  From all the
> other sources in Chazal it is clear that a normal torch, made out of wood
> or some other materials with burning rags or without.
>
> But what is the source of the word? It does not exist in any other
> language as far as I have been able to determine, not any Aramaic, not
> Greek, not Latin.  No one seems to know.  At most there are some
> conjectures that perhaps it is from the root חבק, but het does not turn
> into an aleph anywhere else.  I even asked the Akademiah of the Hebrew
> Language, and they did not have any information.
>
> I am happy to hear any ideas.
>
>
> My second question is about another word in L'shon Chazal, the forms of
> the verb ארע. The word appears a few times in l'shon Chazal, for instance
> in the Mishna B'rakhot 4:2
>
> רבי נחוניה בן הקנה היה מתפלל בכניסתו לבית המדרש וביציאתו תפילה קצרה...
> אמר, בכניסתי אני מתפלל שלא תארע תקלה על ידי
>
> The Kaufman ms. of the Mishnah punctuates it as a Qal verb:
>
> תֶאֱרַע
> Another ancient vocalized ms. has תֵארַע. Jastrow, based on the German
> dictionaries, insists that the verb is always in the Nif‘al.
>
> Many dictionaries claim the verb is from the verb ערע, which is very
> common in the Targum, and it means "to happen," and is always in the Pa‘el
> (equivalent of the Hebrew Pi‘el.  That verb means "to happen, occur," and
> so it matches the meaning of the verb in L'shon Chazal.  So they theorize
> that there was dissimilation, and that the first ‘ayin became an aleph.
> The Syriac form, however, is also ארע.
>
> The Aramaic verb is in the Qal.
>
>
> Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel
> Rabbinic Coordinator
> The Orthodox Union
>
> Voice (212) 613-8330     Fax (212) 613-0718     e-mail mandels at ou.org
>
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>
>
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