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250 months ago

Pete Amirault (a guest user) asked this question:

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250 months ago

   wrote:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one

My comment:

1) "One" is pronounced, in both classical and modern Hebrew, "echad." "Echod" is the Ashkenazi (European-Jewish) pronunciation, but then it would also be "Adonoi" rather than "Adonai."

2) "Echad" is the form in the core Jewish affirmation of faith, which appears in Deuteronomy 6:4. I have never heard or seen the form "yachid" ("only" or "single," as correctly stated by Ms. Moses)which is grammatically acceptable but in this context would sound strange, to say the least, to just about any Jew. .

3) As the Hebrew equivalent of "to be" does not appear in the present tense but is implied, the second phrase of your quote signifies a separate statement ("the Lord is our God"), and is not just a qualifier of the Lord as described in the following phrase ("The Lord is one.")

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

250 months ago

   wrote:

Spot on.

250 months ago

   wrote:

I don't know anything about hebrew, but found interesting the use of punctuation in the two answers which alters the meaning ever so slightly.

The asker rated this answer best

250 months ago

   wrote:

Hear, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one

My comment:

Echod = one
Yachid = single or one or only

In effect, both versions mean the same thing, but the word "echod" is the word that appears in the official prayer.

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

250 months ago

   wrote:

I've never heard of 'yachid' being used here: it's ALWAYS 'echad'.

250 months ago

   wrote:

PS. It's echad, not echod (which is Ashkenzai mispronunciation).