Subtitle – Art, by God
Who else? Who can make a thing as mighty as a tree?
And nurture it with spindly, stringy objects man calls needles or straw.
And when the spindly fibers have spent their days, form a carpet upon the ground.
Ah, but the LORD (יהוה) is not yet through. A modest rain comes, his teaching.
And created are swirls and patterns and a beauty that only the One can make. Patterns in our lives.
Straw on Sand
- by יהוה
Remember to be aware of all that goes on in your life. God is teaching.
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This was the extent of the entry, but I have a request. I have just recently entered two new Appendices 9 & 10, explorations toward comprehending the Hebrew understanding of the words אם Mother, and אב Father. The two Appendices share with you the root words that include these Two-Letter Words. It is based upon the recent work we have been looking at with the cognate permutations.
The method is the very same method used in EDBH to come up with the idea of a “Cognate Meaning.” I’m showing an example of how this works. See the root עבהhere from p.178 of EDBH:
Clark/Hirsch look at the roots in brackets [pc(A3) לבה hide; חפה cover; חוה protect; חבא hide; חפא secret; אפה cover: הבה bring; עפה darken; עפא hide; אבה submit; עועconfuse; אוה crave] and attempt to distill the meanings of all of those roots into one spectrum of meaning, a couple of words, or a short phrase. In this case, you see they have come up with the two extremes of a spectrum of what might be called “the existence of something,” be it physical or spiritual. One end of the spectrum is to reveal and the other end of the spectrum is to hide. There is no judgment attached here, simply hiding or revealing, although in some cases, it is made clear that there is a positive and a negative end of the spectrum. At this point, we can say they are the two ends or extremes of a spectrum.
You may want to play with some of the entries that have been posted before on LogAndSpeck (or more if you have the book) to get used to the method. These are simply pc=phonetic cognates. When one moves the method further into cognate permutations, there are many more words in the list to consider with any combination in the three-letter roots. It becomes even broader when we look at two letter words, so the list grows longer, trying to condense to an overarching thought. The idea, again, is to get an idea of how God’s language in the Hebrew Scriptures look at these words, and how the Hebrew people understood them. In particular we are looking at the concepts of Motherhood and Fatherhood, or another way of putting it is “Motherness” and “Fatherness.” What qualities are in these two concepts, what is the range of understanding? Is there a spectrum of some sort for each of these, and what are the extremes of the spectra? What are qualities in a Father (for example) that are looked for, and can there be excesses in either direction? How might we define a “good Mother” and a “bad Mother?”
For any of you who are familiar with the teachings of the Enneagram, you may see some familiarities here. Different “Types” have certain characteristics, and there are positive attributes in those characteristics but there is always a caution for each type, when the trait is carried to an extreme.
So, I am asking you, as the reader, to go through the exercise of reading down the meanings of each root with its cognate meaning. At the bottom of the root groupings are a list of the cognate meanings to simplify it. You can do it simply as an exercise for yourself, but I bet you see qualities in people in your life as you go down the list. I, the author of this website, have purposely chosen to remain anonymous because it is not about me, but about God’s word. For those of you who know me personally, I would love to have you e-mail me your thoughts on a word/words or phrase to encapsulate the lists for Mother and Father. For those who do not know me, you can post a response here on the website, or just hold onto it for your own learning. More than anything, I hope it is an enlightening experience for you. God creates art in many ways through the teaching made available to us. I have not posted my phrases yet, though I may in the future. For now, I don’t want to prejudice your thoughts.
The two-letter words listing at the beginning of the posts were started from a listing in the above Application by Zev Clementson, which was available in 32-bit format but sadly has not been upgraded to 64-bit. My investigations have carried the work on Two-Letter Words further.
And, as is generally the case here, the root definitions are listed from the Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (EDBH) Clark/Hirsch.
My own work has been in combining the wisdom of many who have gone before, and hopefully is some help in understanding. Mine is a small part. God’s work is mighty.
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Trees
Joyce Kilmer – 1886-1918
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
This poem is in the public domain.
Joyce Kilmer was born on December 6, 1886, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The author of Main Street and Other Poems (George H. Doran Company, 1917), he was killed while fighting in World War I.
Similarly with words. The words and parables of God are teaching, bringing beautiful patterns in our lives.
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Ⓒ copyright LogAndSpeck November 2022. Please cite if copying.