Lesson · Rav Haim Ziegler זצ״ל

The Method of Rav Ziegler zatsal

Twenty-two meanings, and you enter words without a dictionary

A teaching of Rav Haim Ziegler zatsal · Éditions Gueoula

Translated from the French original; the French version remains the reference text.

Twenty-two meanings, and you enter words without a dictionary

“To know Hebrew it is enough to know only twenty-two meanings, those of the letters. You do not need the whole ulpan.”

Each letter carries a fixed meaning; the meaning of a word is read in the synthesis of its letters.

The check is strict: if the reading is right, every word carrying those letters must confirm it.

Two demonstrations: יד, the hand, whose value is fourteen like its fourteen finger bones; מים, water, literally “whats?”.

1 The principle

“To know Hebrew it is enough to know only twenty-two meanings of the Hebrew letters. You do not need the whole ulpan.” — Rav Ziegler zatsal

Where other languages work by convention, Hebrew, in this reading, works otherwise: the word states the thing.

2 The four supports of the method

Each letter has its own meaning. Not merely a sound, as with A, B, C, but a meaning, established by the traditional sources.

A word is read by synthesis. You assemble the meanings of its letters, and the assembly gives the essence of what the word names.

Verification is systematic. If the reading is right, every word containing those letters must confirm it. One exception and the reading falls.

Words fall into families. Words sharing letters share a movement, and form a network.

It is the third rule that protects the method: it exposes itself to being refuted by any word at all.

3 First demonstration: יד, the hand

י yod, value ten — action, the hand that acts. ד dalet, value four — the door, the opening.

יד = 10 + 4 = 14, and the human hand has fourteen finger bones: three per finger, two in the thumb.

Synthesis: the hand is action opening toward the world — and the word carries the count of what it names.

4 Second demonstration: מים, water

מים breaks into מה (mah, “what?”) and the plural ending ים.

Literally: whats? A series of questions.

And indeed water escapes simple definition: what colour? what shape? It takes the shape of its vessel and has no colour of its own.

In this reading the name of water does not describe it: it asks the question water is.

Five questions on the method.

How many meanings is it enough to know, according to the Rav?

“You do not need the whole ulpan.”

How is the meaning of a word read in this method?

The assembly of the letters gives the essence of what the word names.

What check does the method impose on itself?

One exception and the reading falls. That is what makes it testable.

What is the value of יד, and what does that number count in the hand?

Yod ten, dalet four: fourteen finger bones, three per finger and two in the thumb.

How does מים, water, break down?

Literally: whats? Water escapes simple definition.