The Power of a Word

The Power of a Word
A Reflection on Nazir

English is the strangest language.

In English, the word "love" can mean so many things.

I LOVE my wife.
I LOVE my kids.
I LOVE the Broncos.
I LOVE that sandwich.

Each of those sentences mean something different. But they all use the same core word. They all use love.

Imagine trying to explain that difference to someone who didn't speak English. Why do we use love for all those emotions and relationships? How do we differentiate between them? How do we determine what love really means? Is it by its context? Or the words around it? Can we take its meaning from one sentence and apply it elsewhere?

Such questions are not new ones. In fact, they're rather ancient. The Talmud in fact, and the book of Nazir in particular, does a good job exploring the question: What does this word mean? and How can we determine its meaning?

It accomplishes this by looking at one word in particular. The word "yom" which in Hebrew means "days."

Now, the Sages ask, how do we determine how long of a time this is?

Is it a year? Does "yom" mean a year? Or is it a few days, like a week? Or maybe a month. Maybe "yom" means 30 days.

They wrestle with this question around another question. How long did Absalom wait to cut his hair and does this length of time prove he was a Nazarite?

That's the surface question for sure and probably not too interesting for most people.

But buried within that question is really an exploration of the power of words and their meaning. Words are powerful things. And to determine what a word means you need to look at its context, and its traditional meaning, and in the end, you have to wrestle and argue it out and even then you might not be able to put your finger on its meaning.

But words are powerful in themselves. Even a simple word like "yom" or "days."

Think about how powerful the word "Love" is in English. People have killed over that word. A guy might use it with a girl and mean one thing when he actually means something completely different.

Words are powerful things! And its best, if we're confused to the meaning of said words, to wrestle it out.

That's what the sages did...even with simple words like "yom" or "days" because, in the end, words matter!

Be careful the words you choose. They're what the Divine used to create the universe!