Number Two

Shetayim (m), Shenayim (f) - ב

 שניים         שתיים


Not much to say about the number two in a Jewish context, unless you count the male and female halves of everything in nature, and the process of endless bifurcation, manifested in Genesis 1, which is the means by which the universe perpetuates itself: cell-division, in mdern parlance. Two is the number of dualism, and it is recurrent in the Christian and the Zoroastrianism views of the world, though Christianity likes to claim that it is monotheistic.

In Ugaritic, as in Yehudit, water always takes a dual form (e.g mayim - מיים - for the water in the well or the river or the rain; Shemayim - שמים - for the elements that liquidise the heavens): so there are 2 floods, 2 oceans, 2 deeps; as well as male waters and female waters.

When Kothar-wa-Khasis built the rain-god Ba'al's house, he was forbidden to open any window through which the amorous Yam (Sea) might catch sight of his two wives, Padriya (the flashing one, presumably Lightning), daughter of Ar (Or in Yehudit = Light), and Taliya (Dew) daughter of Rabb (Distillation). The house-walls were clouds.

Beyond this, the many instances of two brothers, and Ya'akov's two principal wives, and... but this is scrabbling around like a gematrist looking for codes. The number two simply isn't significant enough to merit more than these few lines.



Copyright © 2020 David Prashker
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The Argaman Press




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