Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun The State of Israel, a modern country in the Middle East, at the eastern shore of the Mediterranean.
  • proper noun The Land of Israel, a region that is roughly coextensive with the State of Israel.
  • proper noun historical A nation that occupied roughly the same area in ancient times.
  • proper noun historical An ancient kingdom that occupied the northern part of this area, as distinct from Judah.
  • proper noun The Jews, taken collectively.
  • proper noun biblical A name given to Jacob (Genesis 32:28).
  • proper noun A male given name.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an ancient kingdom of the Hebrew tribes at the southeastern end of the Mediterranean Sea; founded by Saul around 1025 BC and destroyed by the Assyrians in 721 BC
  • noun Jewish republic in southwestern Asia at eastern end of Mediterranean; formerly part of Palestine

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Hebrew יִשְׂרָאֵל (yisra'él, "Israel"), which, in Biblical Hebrew, means "he who wrestles with God" (a Biblical name for Jacob after he wrestles with an adversary).

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Examples

Comments

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  • Israel is the male body part (on an anthropomorphic map of West Asia) that gives delight to God when it is yod-shin-resh = straight, upright. Usually it is bent, curved, as in Ya'akov. Rabbis would say this means morally straight / upright, but the Phoenicians would give a more physical explanation.

    TA'ANUG: Erotic Delights from Kabbalah to Hasidism by Prof. Moshe Idel contains this text about "Israel":

    >>... in the case of the rabbinic view, Israel, or the righteous, provide sustenance mefarnesim to God,34 but in Hasidism this becomes “Israel provides delight to God.”35

    34 See e.g., Midrash Zutta on Shir ha-Shirim, ch. I.

    35 See the collection of traditions from the Great Maggid’s circle, entitled 'Or ha-'Emmet, fol. 53c. Compare also to his 'Or Torah, fol. 27b. <<

    I reached the same "delight to God" conclusion independently via etymology. Yod-shin-resh = gives delight. Delight = aleph-shin-resh. The aleph moved from the end of the noun to the beginning, probably under the influence of Aramaic which uses aleph as a suffix for the definite article.

    Giving shin its ancient dental D/T-sound, letting the resh rotate to L (which looks like a resh rotated 180 degrees), and giving the aleph its ancient CHS/GHT-sound, shin-resh-aleph is cognate with DeLiGHT.

    January 1, 2021