Day 37 of 75 · The Beatitude roots
K-P-N
kaphna: hunger
כפן · כפנא
ܟ݁ܦ݂ܶܢ · ܟ݁ܰܦ݂ܢܶܐ
The feel
K-P-N is the root of hunger, the urgent, physical need of an empty stomach. Kaphna can mean one person's hunger or a famine across a whole land. In the fourth Beatitude, hungering for what is right carries the same force, as real as Yeshua's hunger after forty days of fasting.
The root family
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|
| kphen | simple-stem verb (stative) | kphen | כפן ܟ݁ܦ݂ܶܢ | to be hungry | to be hungry, to go hungry |
| kaphna | noun | kaphna | כפנא ܟܦܢܐ | hunger, dearth | hunger; famine |
| kaphnin | participle, plural | kaphnin | כפנין ܟܦܢܝܢ | hungering | hungering ones (Mt 5:6) |
In the Gospels the verb appears in the Pʿal, kphen, to be hungry (Matthew 4:2; 25:35).
In his voice
Matthew 5:6
Fortunate are those hungering and thirsting for what is right, for they will be filled.
kaphnin wa-tsahen l-khinuta, "hungering and thirsting for what is right." The word is the bodily hunger of famine, here directed toward what is right.
Matthew 4:2
After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
kphen, "he hungered." The bare stative verb, one word in Aramaic. Yeshua went through this hunger himself before he spoke of it in the Beatitude.
Matthew 25:35
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you took me in.
kephnet, "I was hungry." In the judgment scene the King places himself in every hungry person, fed or not fed.
Practice
Before your next meal, stay hungry for one more minute. Name one wrong you want set right as much as you want that food, then say kaphna, hunger, aloud.
Connections