As we celebrate Thanksgiving, the lovely holiday when families are gathered along with close friends and guests, when the spirit of this special holiday is filling us with relaxation and with sentiments of joy and love, we’ll introduce in this coming month words and phrases that concur with these fine sentiments of kindness, joy and love as we received requests to present such words for some time.
In the next few days we’ll present expressions of love and endearment that we use today alongside biblical expressions. Most of these words have not changed in thousands of years and are are used today just as they were during the biblical era.
Today’s expressions are related to one another: the first, ‘a•loof’, ‘general’ (as a military rank), and the second ‘a•loo•fi’, ‘my champion’, which is a name of endearment.
The word ‘a•loo•fi’, ‘my champion’, is the word ‘a•loof’ connected to the pronominal suffix ‘ee’ (or ‘i’) which means my. Therefore ‘a•loo•fi’ means ‘my champion’ which is an expression of endearment and not ‘my general’.
The word ‘a•loof’ is believed to be attributed to the first letter of the alphabet, Alef. Being the first, it is considered the leading letter, and hence ‘a•loof’, the general is the leading soldier. This word is probably the source of the English ‘aloof’ which describes a personality of someone who secludes him/herself to others mainly for feeling above and higher than the rest. It is quite similar to the Hebrew ‘Alef’ of first and leading but with a negative connotation. Likewise, the English word ‘lift’ is believed to be related to ‘Alef’, from the same reason of being on top, above other people or objects. The biblical title ‘aloof’ is today’s the rank of a general in the IDF.
Old Testament examples of ‘a•loof’:
‘Chief Magdiel, chief Iram. These are the chiefs of Edom’
Example of ‘a•loo•fi’:
‘But it was you, a man my equal, my companion, my close friend’
Old Testament example ‘a•loof’:
‘For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places’
Notice that in this verse all these powerful entities are in plural form.
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