Question: The verbs “to call” and “to read” are spelled exactly the same in modern Hebrew: לקרו??. My question is whether in the Torah this verb is also used with the same two meanings? I wonder if this is a pure coincidence or an indication of a strong semantic connection between the two acts in the Jewish cultural context: Anything that can be called should be also written.

Answer: It seems that they are connected as Likrot meaning “calling out loud” and Likrot meaning “reading out loud” have the same root idea.

We find this concept all over the divine language of Hebrew (as mentioned numerous times by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in his commentary on Torah and demonstrated in Rabbi Matityahu Clark’s dictionary of the Hebrew language). Another example is that a cow is called a Parah, similar to a fruit which is called Pri. A cow is the most “fruitful” of animals in that it supplies the most milk, meat, skins, etc of any animal.

Another example is Chet-Lamed which when used together in a root word means weakness or lacking firmness. E.g. Choleh – ill person, Chalal - dead body or empty space, chalav - milk, cheilev – fat., etc.

Rabbi Meir Goldberg,
Rutgersjx.com