What Does “Psalm” Mean in Hebrew?

Abstract

It is generally believed that the psalm is an intimate communication between the individual and God. The interdisciplinary semiotic approach reveals a string of meanings and conditions for the Hebrew text: 1. In Hebrew the word psalms [tehilмm] derivates from the root He–Lamed–Lamed that produces the words to praise; to shine, i.e. the root of the Hebrew words for shining and psalms includes instructions for those who intend to sing psalms: the psalmist must flash forth light; 2. From the perspective of semiotics of colors, every time the root He–Lamed–Lamed is used, the text radiates macro–white. It is because light is a prototype for white; 3. The HebrewWord View (Hebrew language and Hebrew spelling) presents a warning. In Hebrew there exists a very similar root, Het–Lamed–Lamed, generating the words [halаl] to profane, to defile, to pollute, to desecrate, to wound, to kill. Thus the border between to shine, to praise and to profane, to defile, to desecrate is very thin - just as the border between the short [h] and the non–short [h]. This warning is not passed into the Indo-European and the Finno-Ugric texts the way it is in Hebrew, because of the interlinguistic dissymmetry.4. Another case of interlinguistic dissymmetry is the Biblical basic color term for blue [tehиlet], which has non short [h] spelled with the letter Haf. Numbers 15:38–40 commandment to meditate on the blue color [tehиlet] of tassels (during the worshiping) helps to obey the commandments and to accomplish the state of emission of spiritual light when singing psalms [tehilмm]. 5. These signs are now decoded and this allows for a better understanding of the Bible and hermeneutic interpretation