The "Kotz of a Yod"

[John Parsons]

The Kotz of a Yod

The Hebrew word for letter is ot, which can also mean “sign” or “wonder.” Each letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet, then, may contain signs that point to wonderful truths about life.

The Hebrew text of the Torah (and Tanakh) has all sorts of mysteries that cannot be fully appreciated when considering print (and electronic) versions of the text. For example, when Jesus said that "not a jot (yod) or a tittle (kotz) will pass from the Torah until all is fulfilled" (Matt 5:18), He was referring to the "kotz of the Yod" as understood in the Jewish scribal arts of His day.





“The kotz of a Yod” refers to the upper serif of the letter Yod, the smallest of the Hebrew letters. But how can we see this level of detail without looking at the actual Hebrew text as transmitted by the Jewish scribal traditions?

Torah Scrolls must be written perfectly - according to the laws of soferut, but in Numbers 25:12 we find a textual oddity that warrants a closer look:

Why is the Vav in the word "shalom" broken?

For more information about some of the mysteries of the Hebrew Alphabet, I encourage you to look at the "Advanced Information" sections of the Hebrew Consonants pages on my site. Click here for more.

Shalom!

- John Parsons

[ugotdave]

John -

Are you saying that we can not fully understand the scriptures, nor fully comprehend the text without using the Biblical Hebrew text as a foundational source for interpretation?

If so, I fully agree!!


David Morris

[John Parsons]

Yes, David, that's what I was saying. I was not meaning to be polemic at all, merely pointing out the obvious that many of us seem to overlook (e.g., that Jesus was a Jew steeped in Jewish culture; that the Scriptures are Jewish with a long history of scribal traditions, many of which predate the coming of Jesus; that the New Covenant itself is based on the covenants given to Israel (and that the church therefore is "grafted in" to the original covenantal purposes of God), that Jesus will return to Jerusalem to set up His kingdom in fulfillment of the prophetic word, etc. etc.).

Thanks for your comment, and shalom.

- John

[Gontroppo]

I enjoyed this joke from John's website:
Learning to be Jewish
We were baby-sitting for my grandkids and my wife was playing a word game with cards with the five-year-old, Brittany Goldberg. (Yes --that's her name -- I couldn't make that one up!)

The little one had just drawn her second "O," and was trying to make a word with the other letters she had. She put them together in front of her, switching the letter cards and looking for a word she knew.

Then with a triumphal cry, she said "look Grandma, I made a word!"

When my wife looked at her cards, she had lined up the cards to spell K-O-O-B.

Beckie asked, "What kind of word is 'koob'?"

"No Grandma, you're not saying it right -- it says 'book'."

Beckie had a sinking feeling. Has the little one got dyslexia, she wondered? She said gently, "But, darling, you've spelled it backwards!"

With a sigh reserved for dumb adults, she explained, "Of course I have. I'm Jewish!"

See http://hebrew4christians.com/ for more.

David McKay
www.davidmckay.info

[John Parsons]

Thanks David, for reminding me of that vitz!

[ugotdave]

John -

Have you ever built any synopsis's in BW?

I was thinking about doing this months ago, starting with the Tanach; but you know how projects get lost, or something takes priority at the time.

[John Parsons]

Hi pastor David -- I don't even know what a synopsis in BW is.... !

[ugotdave]

John -

The Synopsis Tool allows you to open a separate window that displays the biblical text in parallel columns. Like the Parallel Window. So, you build the data base and put what ever scriptures you want in the columns, not a verse by verse comparison like the Parallel Window.

This caught my interest because it allows us to define what book, chapter, verse get loaded.

For example - Lets say that you want to find all like occurrences of Gen 1:1, you could have your synopsis table show two columns relating to this verse.

You could put Gen 1:1 in one column and John 1:1 in the other, and if you had more cross references you could add them as well.

Or how about this one, lets say your reading Jer 17:13, then you open John 8:8 and you determine that these two verses parallel each other, you just add them to your Synopsis data base. Cool stuff

Me personally, I am excited about this tool!

I guess in reality it's a glorified cross reference data base.

So, my question to you about the Synopsis Tool was that I thought you had some already built. And I was going to ask if you would share them with me.

I can tell that your seeking and have been seeking Hebraic roots, I to have been involved in the "Roots" movement for about 10 years.

[Joe Fleener]

You will find several add ons to BibleWorks includinc synopsis files @ the following thread: http://www.bibleworks.com/forums/sho...85&postcount=1.

[ugotdave]

Thanks Joe