The Book of [Hebrew] Roots

In The Book of [Hebrew] Roots (Kitāb al-uṣūl), a pioneering dictionary of the Hebrew language, Jonah (Abū ’l-Walīd Marwān) Ibn Janāḥ al-Isrā’īlī systematically compares Hebrew roots with their Aramaic and Arabic cognates. He evidently consulted Arabic lexicographic compendia, and scholars have noted parallels to works of Muslim writers living in Córdoba at the time. Ibn Janāḥ prefers to identify three-letter roots of the Hebrew language, although he does not completely shed two-letter roots. This work was influential among later writers, both those who worked in Judeo-Arabic and those who read the Hebrew translation of this work, The Book of Roots (Sefer ha-shorashim), by Judah Ibn Tibbon.

Introduction

In the first part of the compilation the Book of Splendor, we introduced those gates of knowledge, general subjects, principles of logic, and opinions of the grammarians that are indispensable for a scholar of grammar to know and study. In this second part, which we titled the Book of [Hebrew] Roots, we will mention most of the roots that are found close at hand, in scripture. We will clarify their conjugations and will explain what requires explanation from its goals, such that we elucidate and clarify to the utmost, after we have investigated and observed as much as possible. And this is what is required in the commentary when commenting on the word of God.

I implore God to protect me from error, and I ask Him to grant me success, by His grace, in attaining that which is correct. [ . . . ]

[I]‌n the first part, I mean the Book of Splendor, [ . . . ] [the scholar] should be assured that we have made great efforts to collect and mention many structures, irregular forms, and various kinds of meanings. Many useful things are included: inflections and declensions of the language, its figurative expressions, its uses, and its defects. We did not regard it necessary to repeat all this in this second part, because we intended to make [this part] short and easily understandable. Perhaps, however, someone studying this second part will look under one of the roots for information about a certain word belonging to that root. He will meet with difficulty if it is not there and may think we were negligent, but we may have already mentioned it in the first part. [ . . . ]

You should know—may God grant you success—that the Hebrew language has many singular [words] composed of two letters, which, if they are put in the plural, or in a genitive construction with a [possessive] pronoun, their second letter is duplicated. We hold that many of these singulars derive from geminate verbs, and its [the letter’s] duplication [shadda, equivalent here to dagesh forte], when it is plural or in a genitive construction is because one of the letters is assimilated into the other, as it is weakened when it appears in some positions. [ . . . ]

Doubled tet and peh

Ve-hayu le-totafot [they shall be as frontlets (between your eyes)] (Deuteronomy 6:8): an object placed on the forehead is referred to in this way. According to the speech of the early ones: “[a woman may] neither [go out] with the ornament called totefet, nor with sanvitin” [m. Shabbat 6:1]. Its translation [totefet] is “bandage.” It reaches from one ear to the other, in accordance with their saying: “R. Abahu said, totafot that reach from one ear to the other.” For the same reason, the Targum translates bandage that is on his arm (2 Samuel 1:10) as “phylacteries [totafta] that are on his arm”; namely, because it encircles his arm. [ . . . ]

Lamed-‘ayin-nun

I will feed this people with wormwood [la‘anah] (Jeremiah 9:14): colocynth [‘alkam].

It is possible that [the word la‘anot, as it appears in the verse] The heart of the righteous utters bitterness [la‘anot] (Proverbs 15:28) [means something similar to wormwood, as in Jeremiah 9:14, and in Proverbs is a figurative usage] in accordance with [i.e., meaning the same thing as the verse]: The heart of the sage is in the house of mourning (Ecclesiastes 7:4). The sage Plato has a saying corresponding to this one: “Philosophy is worrying about death, taking an interest in it, exerting oneself for it, and being concerned with it.”

Someone might object: If that word la‘anot had been used with respect to the mouth and not the heart, [ . . . ] then you might reasonably have said that the passage brought together la‘anah and “bitterness” [i.e., which is a taste in the mouth]. But, as it is used with respect to the heart, together with uttering and saying, how can you possibly read this as “the heart of the righteous utters bitterness?”

You should answer: Regardless, this is only a figurative expression, which is one of the modes of Hebrew usage. What is meant by saying the sage “utters bitterness” is that he utters bitter things and calamities, worries and anxieties, which means that he is given to [thinking about] these things, as it has been said as well: The heart of the sage is in the house of mourning (Ecclesiastes 7:4). This is the translation of the passage: “The heart of the righteous utters worries and anxieties, and the mouth of the wicked says abominations.” The word la‘anah is used here to convey worry, as it is used in the passage: Remember my affliction and anguish, wormwood and gall (Lamentations 3:19).