Responsa zu Esra 4:8

Now that I have brought examples from the Talmud and the Mishna³⁴As the changes were made to the liturgy, the primary language style used is rabbinic (Talmud/Mishna), it was appropriate to begin with those examples. , I will show him an example from the Bible³⁵Lit. ‘holy writ’, from the Book of Ezra 4:8³⁶רְח֣וּם בְּעֵל־טְעֵ֗ם וְשִׁמְשַׁי֙ סָֽפְרָ֔א כְּתַ֛בוּ אִגְּרָ֥ה חֲדָ֖ה עַל־יְרוּשְׁלֶ֑ם לְאַרְתַּחְשַׁ֥שְׂתְּא מַלְכָּ֖א כְּנֵֽמָא׃Rehum the commissioner and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter concerning Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes [saying] as follows “to King Artaxerxes [saying-kenama] as follows:…”. The meaning of the term ‘ke-nama’ is ‘saying as follows’. The Hebrew root of the verb is nam³⁷Nam is a two letter word, as Rabbi Landau is expressing the knowledge of Rashi’s grammatical sense. This is likely incorrect, as the grammatical giant of Spain, such as Ibn Gevirol and Ibn Ezra have determined the three letter root for nearly all verbs. All Hebrew verbs (and many nouns) derive from a 3-consonant (and rarely 4) shoresh or root, which is not a word itself but which forms the basis for a number of Hebrew verbs and words that share the same root. As a matter-of-fact, the 4 letter roots are almost always repetitive sets of two letters. In this case, nam-nam which, as we saw on page 4 above, implies dozing or sleeping!, as the letter aleph (א) at the end of na-ma denotes a sense of plural. It has been repeatedly used in other places in the Book of Ezra.