Tehillim 69 – the letter Shin/Sin – or All Left-Handed People Are Descendants of Benjamin
Tehillim 69 – the letter Shin/Sin – or All Left-Handed People Are Descendants of Benjamin
Tehillim 69:3
“...Bati vemaamakei mayim veshibolet shetafatni” - (And the stream swept me away.)
In the Hebrew alphabet, there is one letter for which the position of the dot is decisive. This is the letter ש – “Shin” and “Sin.”
If the dot is above the right prong, it is pronounced “sh” (shin), but if it is above the left prong, it is pronounced “s” (sin).
In the Tanakh, in the Book of Shoftim, we read about the only instance of a civil war among the Jewish people, when all the tribes fought against the tribe of Ephraim. Interestingly, membership in the tribe of Ephraim was determined as follows: an Ephraimite was seized at the river and asked to say the word “shibolet. The word has two meanings: “ear of grain” and “the current of a river,” or “stream,” which, as it flows, resembles an ear of grain in its shape.
In the 69th Psalm, in the third verse, we read: “And the stream swept me away” – (ve-shibolet shetafatni).
The descendants of Ephraim pronounced the word “shibolet” as “sibolet” (for their “right” had been switched to the left by Yaakov, and “shin” became “sin”).
Let us recall that Rachel’s son Benjamin (“son of the right”), like all his mother’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, also has his left and right hands reversed. His left hand is considerably stronger than his right. Judgment is stronger than mercy. His sense of being right prevails over his desires and passions.
All Left-Handed People Are Descendants of Benjamin
The Book of Shoftim provides two examples confirming this pattern.
The first is Ehud ben Gera, a judge of the Jewish people from the tribe of Benjamin – he was left-handed.
The second example is the 700 men from the tribe of Benjamin – all of them left-handed.
(Based on a lesson by Rabbanit Chava Cooperman at Ohaley Yaakov)
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Tags: The Hidden Meaning of Tehillim, Tehillim 69, Left-Handedness in Judaism, Right and Left, The Tribe of Ephraim and the Letter "Shin", All the Left-Handed Men from the Tribe of Benjamin, The Descendants of Rachel
