what “living” and “lion cubs” have in common – in Hebrew
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לָגוּר
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In Biblical Hebrew, the word לָגוּר (lah-GOOR) means to reside somewhere temporarily or as a foreigner… or, as in the traditional English translation of the הַגָּדָה שֶׁל פֶּסַח – Passover Hagadah (hah-gah-DAH shel PEH-sahkh) – to sojourn. לגור is an active-simple פָּעַל verb, whose root is ג.ו.ר (g.w.r).
To live somewhere permanently, in Biblical Hebrew, is לָשֶׁבֶת (lah-SHEH-vet). Also a פָּעַל verb, לשבת also means simply to sit down, which is its primary meaning today.
And although in Biblical times לגור meant primarily to live somewhere for a short time, today it means simply to live somewhere. For example:
אֲנַחְנוּ גָּרִים בְּתֵל אָבִיב.
We live in Tel Aviv.
Perhaps we use the word לגור today to mean to reside, since people tend to move around much more now than they did in Biblical times – when once a family had a piece of land, they stayed there for generations. לגור reflects a transience that characterizes modern life.
So what does living have to do with lion cubs? The Hebrew word for a lion cub – really, cubs of any kind, including puppies – is גּוּר (goor).
For example:
לַכַּלְבָּה שֶׁלָּנוּ נוֹלְדוּ חֲמִשָּׁה גּוּרִים.
Our (female) dog had five puppies (literally, five puppies were born to our dog).
…and:
גּוּר אַרְיֵה יְהוּדָה (דְּבָרִים מט:ט)
A lion cub (are you), Judah (Deuteronomy 49:9)
Note that לגור is not related to the flowery expression for watch out – גּוּר לְךָ (goor leh-KHAH) in the masculine and גּוּרִי לָךְ (GOO-ree lahkh) in the feminine. The root of גור and גורי in those phrases is י.ג.ר (y.g.r), as opposed to ג.ו.ר in לגור.In any case, here’s a classic song by Arik Einstein featuring that phrase.
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