# Aroaz and Zaora?



## Somnilocus

Someone said this: "Zaroa is a Hebrew word for "Helper" meaning "To concieve the seed" and it's likely that Aroaz means the opposite."

Is this true? Can anyone elaborate? Also, how would it look written in Hebrew?


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## Nunty

Hello, Somnilocus and welcome to the forums 



Somnilocus said:


> Someone said this: "Zaroa is a Hebrew word for "Helper" meaning "To concieve the seed" and it's likely that Aroaz means the opposite."
> 
> Is this true? Can anyone elaborate? Also, how would it look written in Hebrew?



It took me a moment, but I think I understand. The Hebrew word for "seed" is זרע, pronounced zer'a. I don't understand what you mean by "to conceive the seed", but "to sow seed" is לזרוע, pronounced lizro'a. The one who sows the the seed is הזורע, hazore'a.

"To help" is לעזור, pronounced la'azor. "He who helps" or "a helper" is עוזר, 'ozer. There is also the word עזר, 'ezer, which means "a help" or "an aid". This is the word used in Genesis about Eve, who was made as "a help" for Adam, עזר כנגדו, 'ezer k'negdo.

It looks like your source is drawing some kind of connection between the different order of the same letters in the two words, but beyond that I'm afraid I'm lost.

I hope this helps!


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## Somnilocus

Thank you!


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## Nunty

You are quite welcome. I forgot to add that I can't make out what "aroaz" is meant to be in Hebrew, or what the opposite of "to conceive the seed" would be. Sorry.


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## Somnilocus

In this case "to plant a seed" (talking about impregnating someone) would be the opposite.


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## Nunty

The verb referring to a man spilling his seed (if that's the right expression) to impregnate a woman is להזריע, l'hazri'a. I hope that helps you.


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## Somnilocus

Here is the source:

"     But notice that the root of the word “helper,” is “Azor,” spelled “Ayin,” “Zayin,”      “Resh.” Which is very similar to the root “Zaroa,” spelled “Zayin,” “Resh,”      “Ayin;” meaning “to plant seed.” And this is precisely the root of “Tazria”      in “Ishah ki Tazria,” “When a woman conceives seed” that appears at the      beginning of our Parashah. This lends support to the idea that the ability      to “conceive seed,” to have a human child grow within her, in an environment      in which the child is enveloped and protected and imbues the ideas of the      Torah, as taught, so to speak, by a “Maloch.”"

Any thoughts/ideas?


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## Nunty

I am sorry, Somnilocus, that you did not present the entire thing from the beginning. You could well have saved me (and possibly others) a lot of time. You are new here and probably did not realize the central place that context plays in our lives  

1. The passage is clearly not referring to "impregnating", but to "conceiving": the former is the male part in procreation and the latter, the female (i.e. the male impregnates the female, who conceives a child). If you had made that clear, I would not have wasted time on a lot of unnecessary information. 

2. This refers, I think, to rabbinic commentaries on a verse from Torah. It would have been appropriate for you to tell us that, so that I (and perhaps others) did not spend time trying to figure out in _modern_ Hebrew what you could possibly mean.

3. Now that you have given the context, do you have any specific questions about the language? I have already explained about "helper" and seed". The last word in your passage is given in Ashkenazi pronunciation. In modern Hebrew we prefer the Sephardi pronunciation, which is malak. The word is מלאך, which means angel.

I hope this is helpful to you. Again, if you have any other specific questions relating to the language in this passage, the others and I will be glad to help you.


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## Somnilocus

I didn't post it originally because I didn't have it... the person only gave me the source after I posted which I then added right away... I gave you what information I knew, which is:

There are two random words (appearing on something that isn't relevant to the topic): Aroaz and Zaora. It was suggested by someone that zaora possibly means "to conceive a seed" in Hebrew (although this isn't comfirmed and I'm simply trying to research it further).

I do understand how important context is when it comes to translating, as I speak other languages, but the information I had was extremely limited and just a hunch. The words could be from any language but we haven't had much luck finding information yet. Also, another problem is that one word is likely JUST the reverse of the other, and not a real word. >.<

Thank you for your help.


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