Two days ago, we began a series of 12 expressions and idioms that is bound to enrich your Hebrew vocabulary, both in the physical and spiritual aspects, all involving a common noun that most of us use daily without giving it too much thought. This noun is p’ri, fruit.
Out of the noun p’ri comes the verb: p’ru, be fruitful! God blesses both mankind and the animals with this fundamental blessing to ensure the continual outcome of His creation. To the animal and bird the blessing was:
“And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply in the earth’”
Mankind was blessed by God:
“And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth’”
Other well-known derivatives from the word p’ri, fruit, are ‘poriyoot’ (fertility); ‘hafraya’ (fertilization); and ‘piryon’ (productivity). English has gone farther with its adaptation of the biblical word p’ri, fruit, by bypassing the English word and going straight to Hebrew in its industrial word ‘production.’ It carries the traces of ‘fruit,’ if you remember, that in Hebrew P and F are the same letter, but directly relates to the Hebrew root letters. Do you see the P and the R in p’ri (fruit) in Hebrew?
Likewise, is the lively, colorful section in every grocery store: the ‘produce’ department. Here too, the P and the R need no explanation to connect them to p’ri.
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