ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – LITTLE TWIGS – CHAV חב
Mark 12:30-31, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandments greater than these.”
There is a little play on words here that Jesus was using, a very subtle change of words. Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is and He answers that you should love the Lord God with all your heart. Jesus was quoting a verse that was quoted every day by every orthodox Jew in his morning prayer which is Deuteronomy 6:5. In Deuteronomy 6:5 the word love is ahav. Ahav is pretty much your standard word for love in Hebrew. Then Jesus quotes Leviticus 19:18 where we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Again the Hebrew text uses the word ahav.
Yet, Jesus was not speaking Hebrew, He was speaking a Northern dialect of Aramaic. The Aramaic, although a sister language of the Hebrew, is still a different language. It is a more comprehensive language. Classical Hebrew has only about 7,500 words, Aramaic has many more words, hence one word in Hebrew can have a very broad range of meanings and when you render such a word in Aramaic, you have a variety of choice. In the Aramaic text, the Pershitta the language that Jesus spoke, He uses two different words for love. Jesus was taking advantage of the broader language of Aramaic to express the ancient classical Hebrew word ahav (love).
You see the scribes were really dealing with an age-old question. If you ahav (love) God with all your heart, soul, and mind, then how can you have the same love ahav for others. Logically, you must love others less than God if you give God such priority in your love. You cannot love God and man equally. In other words, is a man to love his wife and children more than God, equally as God or less than He loves God?
Would you like Chaim Bentorah as your personal Hebrew teacher?
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When Jesus answered their question, speaking Aramaic, I could just see the Scribes’ faces light up like a light bulb (or torch in those days). Jesus used two different Aramaic words which both are equivalent to the Hebrew word ahav but give a better understanding of ahav. If you translated these Aramaic words into Hebrew, you would most likely use the single Hebrew word ahav. In reference to loving God with all your heart, Jesus used the word rachem which is to love someone as much as they love you. This is a love that is returned and is equal to the love that is given. We are to love God as much as He loves us. That fits the Hebrew word ahav. In regards to loving your neighbor, Jesus used the Aramaic word chav which is very similar to the Hebrew word ahav except you use a Chet rather than a Hei. Jesus was using a little play on words that scribe would easily pick up. Chav is spelled Chet, Beth which is a Semitic root word found in most of your ancient Semitic languages. It has its origins in a stick burning in a fire. Chav has been used for a stick and/or for kindling. In other words, chav is a kindling love. Any good Boy Scout will tell you that kindling is used to start a fire. A roaring bonfire starts with just little twigs with bigger and bigger sticks added as the fire catches on. All started from some little chav (twigs, kindling).
You see to love God is easy, because He already loves us; we just need to return that love. Ah, but to love your neighbor, that is not so easy. They often do not love you to begin with and that is why Jesus uses the word chav and not rachem with your neighbor. You need to love your neighbor when they do not love you. If you persist in loving your neighbor, even when they resist your love, you will be like those little twigs that keep warming up that bigger branch, even to the point where they are totally exhausted. Yet, those twigs will warm up those bigger branches to the point where they will catch fire and begin warming up larger branches. Where there is no love among your neighbors, God has called you to be the chav the kindling to start a bonfire of love in your neighborhood.
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Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
beautiful article on love, an fire , an loving others, all these fires terrible fires in california, (many travestys occuring, the pandamic) God who is love is arresting our attention, he is love an just , we must bow down very low to such an awesom loving father
In the book “Practicing the Presence of People” (by Mike Mason) (a sequel to “Practicing the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence), he states if we looked back and remembered how we dealt with the most irritating and unloveable person we encountered in the past two weeks, it would reveal how we love God because that person is made in the image of God. The only way we can love that person is by receiving the love of God for that person. It’s a good, easy read. I think you’d like it.
Thank you!
Thanks Chaim. This is awesome. And so appropriate for me today. My bible reading was mark 12 today. And I’ve been asking HIM about a needy family and how I should be helping. I guess I need to be that kindling you spoke of. What a great visual.
Hi Chaim – Your insightful study exposed another facet for me. If we are to love our neighbors with a kindling love, then perhaps we are to first love ourselves with the same kindling love? It sounds like chav is a continual action, and perhaps the source of that kindling is the rachem we share with God. So, in order for me to chav myself and then my neighbor, i first need to experience rachem with Abba.
Thank you again for the word studies l appreciate them and look forward to reading them each day. Is it ok to ask a question about fire as l have been studying about our God being a consuming fire in Hebrews 12:29. Ezekiel 28:18 in the middle talks about a fire being brought out from the King of Tyre. Are these fires the same according to the Aramaic/Hebrew languages or are the letters different?
Is this fire coming for the lukewarm church, the one Jesus is spewing out of His mouth for drawing the little ones away from relying upon Him so that they would rely upon the arm of the flesh?