Day 38 of 75 · The Beatitude roots
Ṣ-H-Y
tsahya: thirsty
נצהא
ܢܶܨܗܶܐ
The feel
Ṣ-H-Y is thirst, the body's need for water, sharper than hunger and impossible to ignore. At the well in John 4 the word moves from the throat to the whole person. Beside hunger in the fourth Beatitude, it makes wanting what is right a matter of survival.
The root family
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|
| tshe | simple-stem verb | tshe / netshe | צהא · נצהא ܨܗܐ · ܢܶܨܗܶܐ | to thirst / will thirst | to thirst; "will never thirst" (Jn 4:14) |
| tsahya | adjective | tsahya | צהיא ܨܗܝܐ | thirsty | thirsty (Matthew 25:44) |
In the Gospels this root appears mostly as the Pʿal verb tshe, to be thirsty (John 4:13-14; 6:35), and once as the adjective tsahya, thirsty (Matthew 25:44).
In his voice
Matthew 5:6
Fortunate are those hungering and thirsting for what is right, for they will be filled.
wa-tsahen l-khinuta, "and thirsting for what is right." Thirst stands beside hunger, yesterday's root, and both have the same object.
John 4:13-14
Yeshua answered her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst again. The water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to life of hidden time."
netshe, "will thirst." At the well the same verb says that thirst comes back and that whoever drinks the water Yeshua gives will never thirst again.
John 6:35
Yeshua said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever trusts into me will never thirst.
la netshe, "will never thirst." Hunger, yesterday's root, and thirst, today's, are both answered in one sentence.
Practice
The next time you are truly thirsty, wait thirty seconds before you drink, and name one thing you want set right. Then drink slowly and say tshe, thirst, aloud.
Connections