David Kimhi's Sefer Miklol
and Sefer Hashorashim

Kimhi acknowledges his indebtedness in this task to the sages who preceded him:

• Rabbi Jehuda of Fez, called Hayyuj, who wrote the book of weak letters and the book of double letters and
• Rabbi Jonah ibn Janah, who elaborated upon the books of Hayyuj and wrote many grammatical and lexicographical treatises.

Kimhi chose the 'short way' of writing as best for students (He cites the sages for support in this approach) and considers his role a humble one, as one who "gleans" what others have "reaped".

Sefer Miklol is a book of four parts, the last part of which was soon divided from the rest and became an independent book, Sefer Hashorashim (the Book of Roots). The remaining three parts: Verbs, Nouns and Particles, retained the name, Sefer Miklol.

Verbs comprise the forms of the verb from Kal to Hithpa'el much as a student of Hebrew would be taught today. Then follows a description of the verbs with "weak letters" and the other cases of modified forms.

Nouns [shemith] comprise a discussion of the origin of nouns, their pronominal suffixes and unusual cases.

Particles comprise pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs and other frequently-used words not listed under Verbs or Nouns.

I need to describe the 'look and feel' of Sepher Miklol:

• It is written in unvocalized Hebrew characters interspersed with some vocalized words.

• Grammatical terms are all Jewish terms with particular Jewish meanings and only roughly correspond with the grammatical terms of Latin or any other European language.

A few examples will present the charming and unusual descriptions:

• the verbs have each thirty-two "stones"

• the first "stone" is a "child" of three letters

• the fourth "row" is called "the building pu'al"

• some letters are called "mothers"

• some words have letters which are "at rest"

Kimhi's grammatical terminology was not his own creation, but was taken over from his predecessors: Hayyuj, Rabbi Jonah, Abraham Ibn Ezra, Joseph Kimhi and many others. Many of these grammatical terms are still in use today.

I know of no translation of Sefer Miklol into a modern language which has retained the order and presentation of David Kimhi to allow the uniqueness of this book to be experienced by the reader. 44

Sefer Hashorashim

The second part of Sefer Miklol, Sefer Hashorashim, is a list of the three (sometimes two, occassionally four or more) radical letters into which Hebrew roots can be grouped conveniently. These root letters are arranged in alphabetical order according to the Hebrew alphabet, from Aleph to Tau. 45

The books are in Hebrew order, that is, they run from right to left, and each page reads from right to left, top to bottom.

Under the heading of each radical letter is a description which can be described briefly as a combination of concordance and a dictionary. There are citation marks for any biblical book, chapter or verse. Kimhi expected the reader to be so well versed in the Hebrew Bible as to recognize the quotation and its context.

At no time did Kimhi give a basic meaning for the root letters. Instead he presents a number of biblical passages which illustrate the ways in which the root letters are used in different context with different shades of meaning. Where necessary Kimhi illustrates the connection between two biblical passages with a very few well-chosen words.

His intention seems to me to be to always view the root letters in their biblical context.