Hebrew Word of the Week

שָׁבוּעַ, יוׄם

Meaning: A week, a day

Translit: sha•vu•a, yom

Today’s first word, sha•vu•a, a week, comes from the word ‘sheva,’ which means seven. The connection is very clear. However, whereas the word ‘year,’ ‘shana,’ that we introduced yesterday, appears in the Bible over 500 times, the word ‘week,’ ‘shavua,’ is very rare in its singular form, and we can find only twice (in the same verse) in the Book of Daniel, which is late in historical terms. In its plural form, it is very rare and is only mentioned in reference to the ‘Feast of Shavuot’ (Feast of Weeks or Pentecost). Surprisingly, we can see that the use of the seven-day time unit, week, sha•vu•a, was not common during the biblical era, as it is the fundamental time increment nowadays. It is particularly surprising in light of the holiness of the Sabbath, which was supposed to introduce this division as a natural setting in ancient Israel. Also, the importance of the number seven should have been an additional contributor. The seven-day time increment was not given a name in the Bible up to the day of the prophet Daniel, as we mentioned.

Hebrew Word of the Day – A week, a day – שָׁבוּעַ, יוׄם (jerusalemprayerteam.org)