Footnotes

1. start. Or “opening,” “commencement.” Trad. “beginning,” but techillah is a derived noun from the causative form of hll, which can consistently be rendered “start.” More dynamically, we could push this as far as saying that the fear of Yahweh is the “initial cause” of wisdom, and certainly the first principle from which all other wisdom is derived. Cf. Proverbs 1#7 which describes the fear of Yahweh as the head (trad. “beginning”) of knowledge. ↩

2. All-Holy. The Hebrew says qedoshim, a plural, which generally would mean hallows (holy-ones). However, contextually it is evident that this is a plural of majesty, similar to many uses of elohim. I have therefore taken the liberty of representing the intent of the plural with the word “all.” ↩

3. distinguishing. Trad. “understanding,” “insight,” but bina is derived from bayin, “between,” and properly refers to the ability to distinguish between things. I have chosen to use a gerund here, since it functions as a noun, which bina is; distinguishment in English unfortunately means the quality of being distinguished, rather than the quality of being able to distinguish. ↩