- Shabbat and Holidays
- Sefer Bamidbar
Question
In the weekly Parsha we chapter 19, we read, to take some grass and make purification .. my question is what is the name of this grass basil or oregano or marjoram? because I read all in Russian sometimes translation is not adequate so need to go deeper into each word to double check .. please help if you have some minute so much thank you!! Yasher Koach Gadol
Answer
ב"ה
Shalom,
While I very much enjoy your questions, you remind of the story in the Talmud (Eruvin 53B) of Rav Yehoshua Ben Chanania who told:
I was once on a journey when I noticed a little boy sitting at the crossroads. ‘By what road should we go to town?’ — ‘This one’, he replied: ‘is short but long and that one is long but short’. I proceeded along the ‘short but long’ road. When I approached the town I discovered that it was surrounded by gardens and orchards. Turning back I said to him, ‘My son, did you not tell me that this road was short?’ — ‘And’, he replied: ‘did I not also tell you: But long?...
What I mean to say is, my friend, that translating into Russian is the short but long way. The long but short way is to improve your Hebrew and be able to understand a lot more.
In order to assist you on your long but short way, I will translate for you. Passuk=verse 6, speaks of cedar wood and hyssop. Hyssop by the way is very close in pronunciation to the original Hebrew "Ezov."
All the best