Lahat-Light / The Hod Connection

In brief follow-up to my previous post regarding deliverance from a burning house, it is interesting to note that the etymology of the word lahat להט (from Bereshit 3:24 which refers to the fiery ever-turning sword that guards the way to the Tree of Life) is also the root from which the English word light is derived [1]. The path by which we arrive at the word light is:

להט to old English leoht to middle English liht to modern English light. It makes more sense phonetically that the word "light" is originally and directly derived from this Hebrew root as opposed to the Indo-European root leuk as some authorities have suggested.

It is possible however, that the root להט (meaning to burn intensely) did indirectly evolve in parallel into leuk by way of acquiring the additional transformative etymon להק, which means to "gather together for (intense) study". Naturally, intense study transforms darkness into light [2], "lights up the mind", and brings illumination. This connection is supported also by the fact that the letter hey ה (in the center of להק) is the origin of the English vowel e [3], which can carry the short sound eh. Vowelized with a kubbutz (associated significantly with the feminine sefirah Hod [4]) under the ק, the pronunciation of the root להק would be leuk.

Given this association of the word light and the roots להט and להק with Hod, we can see that reconstructing light's pathway into existence via Hod may offer us insights pertaining to reconstructing Hod on a national level. Baruch Hashem.

Footnotes:

[1] The Word, Isaac Elchanan Mozeson
[2] אתהפכא חשוכא לנהורא, ithapcha chashocha lenehora
[3] Mysteries Of The Alphabet, R' Marc-Alain Ouaknin
[4] Meditation & Kabbalah, R' Aryeh Kaplan

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