A Near-and-Dear Pipe Post
I read on Shabbat a cool paper on the meaning of the word "tzinor" (צינור) as it appears in Tanach. The paper, titled "ויגע בצינור", is by linguist Tzion Okashi and was published very recently in a festschrift for linguist Dr. Uri Melammed, "לקט אורות: אסופת מאמרים לכבוד ד"ר אורי מלמד בהגיעו לשיבה", Yerushalayim 2024, pp. 253-263. The tzinor was most famously mentioned by David in relation to his conquest of Yerushalayim. The near-and-dear bit in the post's title refers to the blog's banner, which is a drawing of a midrashic imagining of another of David's conquests, that of an Amalekite city (see more here ). Both conquests featured Yoav ben Tz'ruyah in a lead role. The word tzinor in modern Hebrew means "pipe" but in context doesn't make sense as the meaning of the tanachic word. Shmuel 2:5:6-9 : "The king and his men set out for Jerusalem against the Jebusites who inhabited the region. David was told, “You will ne...