Z'man Grama - Raising Up Results In Time

כ' באדר א' תשס"ח
Keolwulf 21

In traditional Judaism, women are typically exempt from "time-bound" (z'man grama זמן גרמהּ) ritual mitzvot such as laying tefillin. In other words, it is thought that women are not usually considered obligated to perform rituals which have a specific time associated with their performance. Women are told that such rituals are called "time-bound" because the rituals must be performed at a certain time (not conducive to performance by a woman), but the actual meaning of the phrase z'man grama is to "produce/cause/bring down/raise up results into time/life."

Z'man comes from the shoresh זמן meaning "time", "preparing" and to "designate for a purpose". [1]

Grama comes from two shorashim. The first shoresh is גרם meaning "lever motion", "joining limbs that cause movement", and "steps leading forward and upward". [1] From this shoresh comes the word גָּרַם meaning "to cause, to produce, or to result in." [2] The second shoresh is רמם meaning "raise from a low level", "elevating", "exalting" and "bringing to life." [1] The word grama (גרמהּ) ends with a hei mappik (הּ).

Taken together, the phrase z'man grama means raising up results in time which sustain and nourish life.

Time-bound mitzvot, then, are rituals of action as is wearing my ritual tefillin-handflower, which brought down this dream which utlimately raised up the result of protection from the evil energy of a lion attack. Thank Goddess neither I nor the boy who experienced the lion attack in a real way were killed (see links).

Move over traditional gentlemen, the Jewitches are coming.

Footnotes:

[1] Etymological Dictionary Of Biblical Hebrew, R. Matityahu Clark

[2] MorFix