Blood

If you are not yet familiar with the Hebrew sound system (perhaps it’s time for you to close this gap and do so), the sound of the ‘a’ in the transliteration ‘dam,’ (transliteration is the sound of Hebrew words written with English or other Roman characters) is like the ‘a’ in the words mama or papa.

Various words and verbs (actions) are connected to each other by a shared ROOT.

Roots of all words and verbs are made of three letters that serve as a core meaning. This is like a nucleus of related organs (words) connected by a UNIQUE common DNA core to each concept. For example, the root ‘katav’- ‘Kaf,’ Tav,’ ‘Vet’ (KTV sound) is the Hebrew nucleus of all these words: write, letter, desk, correspondence, dictate, engrave, address and more.

So far we discussed the key word and name ‘Adam’ (Adam, man) and the word that is directly related to it a•da•ma (earth, soil, ground). These two words sound almost identical except for the ‘ah’ sound at the end of the word a•da•ma. The close connection is laid out in the biblical description of what man was made of:

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”

Today, we present the third link in this amazing chain: ‘dam’ (blood). Blood, an essence of human life, in its Hebrew form is built into the name Adam, further solidifying and strengthening the biblical story of creation in a way you won’t find in any other language on earth.

Note that the word blood in plural (da•mim) is also the word for money, payment, or retribution. The Bible recognizes the connection between the two by relating money to livelihood. And, indeed, money is a means of securing the necessities of life. You don’t need much of an imagination to reflect on how much blood has been spilled over money throughout history.

Most English translations of the Bible took the word ‘da•mim’ too literally by presenting it as blood and at times causing a distortion in meaning of simple words such as ‘payment,’ ‘penalty,’ ‘retribution,’ or ‘restitution.’ For example, in the following verses you need to read further to find out between the lines that the issue here is ‘payment’ and not blood:

“If a thief is found breaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall no blood be shed for him. If the sun has risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the theft be at all found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double”