The Torah twice describes the manna as resembling the
gad seed (Ex. 16:31, Num. 11:7), but the meaning of the word
gad is not readily understood. Targum Onkelos leaves the word untranslated in both cases, instead aramaicizing the Hebrew word
gad into the Aramaic
gada. Other commentators suggest identifying the Hebrew word
gad with known plants such as “coriander.” In this essay we will discuss multiple words for “coriander” in Hebrew and other Jewish languages. Afterwards we will cite several alternate commentators who explain
gad as something other than “coriander.”
While Targum Onkelos leaves the word
gad untranslated, Targum Yonatan (to Ex. 16:31 and Num. 11:7) translates it as
Ibn Ezra writes that â
gerâ is an expression of disconnection.
Advertisement
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (to Genesis 12:14 and 23:4) notes that the root
gimmel-reish yields words with four distinct meanings: â
ger,â â
gurâ (fear), and â
megurahâ (storage container). The core meaning of all four, he writes, is detachment from oneâs roots:
A
ger has detached himself from his place of origin; a
gur is a newly-weaned lion cub detached from its mother which must now fend for itself;
gur is fear, as if the very ground on which you were standing was yanked out from underneath you; and â
megurahâ (or â
megirah,â closet/drawer in Modern Hebrew) is a silo used for storing harvested grain, i.e., grain that was detached from the ground.
Haftarah of
Shabbos Shirah, Deborah, and Barak sing G-dâs praises for delivering the Canaanite general Sisera into their hands. Towards the end of the
shirah, they say, in reference to Siseraâs mother anxiously anticipating her sonâs triumphant return: âShe gazed through the window (
chalon) and she sobbed; Siseraâs mother [peeked] through the window (
eshnav)â (Judges 5:28).
This verse contains two words for window: â
chalonâ and â
Advertisement
Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim of Breslau (1740-1814) traces the etymology of â
chalonâ (which appears 31 times in the Bible) to the two-letter root
chet-lammed, which means circular movement and the empty space within a circle. Other words that derive from this root, says Rabbi Pappenheim, include: