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VERSE: Gn09-02a

====================== CHATHATH means PHOBIA ===================

BACKGROUND
----------
Gn09-02 looks simple enough. The verse says that God promised
Noach that
  ----------------------------------------------
  YOUR FEAR AND chathath WILL BE ON ALL ANIMALS
  ----------------------------------------------

There are 4 levels on which we can understand the Hebrew word
CHATHATH

THE SIMPLE LEVEL
----------------
Quite simply JUST BY READING THE VERSE we can infer the meaning
CHTHATH clearly is a TYPE OF FEAR.

THE INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
----------------------
We can also go further quite simply: The pair of Hebrew roots
Yud-Resh-Aleph followed by Chet-Tauv-Tauv occurs frequently
in the Bible *1 and justifies the translation of fear

THE ADVANCED LEVEL
------------------
Rashi seems to suggest a fanciful explanation. Rashi seems
to derive the meaning of CHTHATH from the root CHAYAH which
means wild animal Here is what he says
---------------------------------------------------------
CHTHATH refers to the natural fear of animals on humans.
Thus a mouse will not touch a live infant but will attack
a dead king.
---------------------------------------------------------
Thus Rashi explains CHTHATH as the AURA OF FEAR while MORAH
would be an ACTUAL FEAR. As an example if a person pulled
a gun you would have MORAH while if you were afraid to be
in a high building we would say you have CHATHATH.

Accordingly I have translated CHATHATH as PHOBIA (even though
FEAR-IN-MIND and PHOBIA are not exactly the same I regard
it as a good approximation).

THE PROFOUND LEVEL
------------------
We still have left to understand HOW Rashi knew this:
At the profound level we recall that meaning is ultimately
derived from USAGE not from ROOTS. As the LIST below shows
CHATHATH is used in the Bible to refer to NON-REAL FEARS,
FEARS IN THE MIND.

Thus Rashi
-- was translating CHATHATH as FEAR
-- also indicated the nuance of CHATHATH (PHOBIA vs REAL FEAR)
-- was consistent with Biblical usage(The ultimate test)
-- was not deriving anything from  roots (Rather the roots
-- CHATHATH-CHAYAH was a clever word play to help recall)
In short Rashi derived the nuances from Biblical usage and
used the roots (CHAYAH-CHTHATH) to help remember the nuances.

THE LIST
--------
Here are the best examples where CHATHAHT refers to
FEAR-IN-MIND (which we have loosely translated as PHOBIA)
================================================================
VERSE     TEXT OF VERSE WITH CHET-TAUV-TAUV translated as PHOBIA
========= ======================================================
Gn35-05   & The more powerful nations had PHOBIAS & didnt pursue
Eccl12-5  Old people will have PHOBIAS on the road
Job07-14  & You (God) cause me to have PHOBIAS from my dreams
Isa30-31  From Gods voice will Assyria have PHOBIAS*2
Dt01-21   Dont fear (Yud-Resh-Aleph) & dont have PHOBIAS(CTT)*1

NOTES
=====
*1 The pair FEAR-PHOBIA (Y-R-A: Ch-T-T) occurs frequently e.g.
   Dt01-21, Dt31-08, Jos01-09, Jos08-01, Jer30-10, Jer46,27

*2 Compare the story in Isa37-33:38: Assyria was not defeated
   by an army (Actual fear) but rather by Angels smiting most
   of the nation and internal strife.
=================================================================

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Volume 11 Number 20


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