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Providing Definition

A number of our students subscribe to word of the day and today’s word, appropriately, is vernal. Vernal stems from the Latin word vernus meaning “pertaining to spring.” It is related to the word “verdant.”

My love of language and words has instilled a curiosity in how words come into being. For instance, what is the meaning and etymology of ‘curious’?

cu·ri·ous

1. Eager to learn more

2. Unduly inquisitive; prying.

3. Arousing interest because of novelty or strangeness

Middle English, from Old French curios, from Latin crisus, careful, inquisitive, from cra, care; see cure.

I am curious to see if I introduce, alongside the weekly blog, a component called the Kabbalah word of the week that you, the readers, can suggest a meaning for the word. I will choose words that fit the definition of curious as, “arousing interest because of novelty or strangeness.”

If symbols become symbolic what do cymbals become? Cymbals have been utilized historically to suggest frenzy, fury or bacchanalian revels.

So what might your definition be for the word Cymbalic?  (or cymbalism). Creativity is encouraged.

Please send your responses to admin@kabbalahexperience.com

Next week I will revisit with you the process of the 50 day counting the omer which we start the second night of Passover—Saturday night April 7th (through the holiday of Shavuot—Saturday night May 26th). This will be the focus of the blog for the next two months.

1 Comment

gglwrx · March 22, 2012 at 5:31 pm

Cymbalic: I think of the high hat cymbals (if I have that right) on the trap set that you hit with a metal brush and which is so much a part of jazzy sounds. I think of the cymbals in a symphony which make a crashing exclamation at the end of a musical phrase, like a musical exclamation point. (I think I heard that if you hit them straight together rather than letting them intersect on a vertical plane you can create a vacuum that will make them hard to get apart again?) And I think of finger cymbals which hit edge to edge with a clear bell-like tone that is soothing or stimulating depending upon your technique. So cymbalic might be about intent – look at all the different moods and states they can represent. Cymbalic might describe a bright sound that varies with the artistist intent.

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