Purple Prose

It all began when the rabbi said “I’m not exactly sure how to translate this word.” Me ears perked up, as much as ears can. He was talking about the word “segulah.” We use it all the time in a couple of ways, but it is hard to translate. Well, I thought, anything that isn’t easily translated is easily interpreted. Without a definitive answer, fanciful possibilities are back in play, and that’s where I find my home – in the realm of the maybe.

So what I am going to present is as maybe as you can possibly imagine. I’m going to tie together things that have no right to be in the same room and I’m going to pull ideas together which are totally unrelated in reality, all because I can or indeed, must, in order to scratch that brain itch which started tormenting me when the rabbi said that there was room for make believe. Well, he didn’t exactly say that, but that was my take away. Agree to disagree on this, people. Just go with it.

The word “segulah” has two major uses currently. The second (I know…just breathe) is as a superstition-marker. “Do that” we say “as a segulah for good health.” It is a sign, or symbol – an act which will help with something. If you want to read more about them, see this.

The first way the word is used is as a description of the Jewish people: we are an “am segulah” which seems to be a treasured people. So we have 2 meanings for segulah – some sort of sign or rite and the idea of being “treasure.” So I looked it up in my handy-dandy Klein’s Etymological dictionary. For the latter definition, he has “possession, property, treasure” from the Aramaic segulta (property) and the Akkadian sugullu, herd of cattle. Good old Akkadian. Though he doesn’t seem to address the former definition head on, as he has “to acquire” as a definition of the three letter root s-g-l one could guess that a “segulah” is a way by which to acquire a certain positive end result. That’s a stretch, and I choose never to stretch, but there you go.

I started thinking about that three letter root. That’s the problem…thinking. Strangely, I know the root s-g-l because I just happened to be reading a thread on reddit which asked about the shade of color represented by the Hebrew word “segol” (same root). The answer is purple, specifically violet. OK, by itself that isn’t very interesting unless you are some sort of color freak and if you are, I’ll thank you to stop reading my blog. We don’t want your kind around here. But what else is segol? I realized that there is a vowel point in Hebrew (representing the “-eh” sound) called the segol . As you can see, it is shaped as three dots with the single dot at the bottom. And (and this is where it gets neat and fanciful) there is also a cantillation mark for those who read the religious texts called “segol” which is also 3 dots but eh single dot is on top. Weird, right? Well, it seems that both signs are named via the Syriac “s’gola” meaning “a cluster of grapes.” Good old Syriac.

At this point, I just want to go back to the second definition of segulah (that I presented first) and discount it. I firmly believe, in what is left of my heart of hearts, that there was a cross over between the idea of “acquire” and an English term “sigil” which is a magic symbol representing a desired outcome. I don’t deal in magic, kids, so let’s just dump this term for good. Using segulah to refer to some magical power through an action to bring about a desired end seems like it is just a combination of “acquire” and “sign” (the Latin origin) so fooey on that.

Next thing, I started thinking about the shapes of the “grape clusters” represented in those reading marks. Two under and one over and two over and one under. I wonder what would happen if I put them one on top of the other…
......O
0...........0

O...........O
......0

Connect the dots and you get a six-pointed star. Crazy, right? No, not those dots. I had to add them in to crate the space between the 0 and O markers. Ignore them.

So one could say that the 2 segols, together, create a symbol which conventionally represents the Jewish people. Maybe one could even stretch it and say that we as the Jewish people need both the vowel points of modern Hebrew and the cantillation marks of the Torah in order to be complete in our identity. But hang on, there’s more.

Remember when I pointed out that segol refers to a color, purple (maybe via grapes, who knows?). Sure you remember. It wasn’t that long ago. Well, anyway, what is purple as a color associated with? Royalty! (just check out the Sumptuary Laws for more). So is there a way to connect the purpleness of royalty (or is it the royalty of purpleness) with all this?

Well, there’s a line in the Shir Hakavod that we sing on Shabbat in synagogue (more often called the “an’im z’mirot”). The line beginning with samekh reads “segulato tehi b’yado ateret” – your treasured nation should be in your hand like a crown. It appears that the Jewish nation is equated to a crown by which we can recognize a king. We establish God as royalty by being segulah, that is, segol, that is, purple in the same way that a purple piece of clothing under Sumptuary laws would signal that its wearer is royalty! Our everyday behavior is an extension of that kingship we confer on God during the high holiday service – our task is to make that part of our daily behavior, not just to wait until the days of awe.

So, now back to the rabbi’s quandary and my permission to pull it all together – segulah is about being a crown jewel, being a sign of royalty, mixing the different aspects of our character, ancient and modern, literal and figurative.