The Hidden Moreka pt1

by Harry Goldtmann
04/14/17
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Over the past few weeks, I have been studying two verses found in Isaiah 30:20-21, and hopefully this will be the writing I publish. This study has shown me I have much to learn in the ancient Hebrew language as these two verses are full of imagery and hidden meanings.  Narrowing the focus of the depths of this verse, I want to concentrate first on the word that caught my attention when I read these verses in the NASB version, your Teacher and compared it to the KJV and NKJV, your teachers.

And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. NKJV

 Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher.  NASB

At first, I thought this would be an easy challenge, for I knew in Hebrew, adding an “im” to the end of a noun made it plural, but I learned this is not always the case. In reviewing the Hebrew word used for your teachers or your Teacher, I found the word Moreka was used by Isaiah.  If this is a singular noun, then this verse might be Messianic, and the grammar rules I found, show this to be a singular first person noun.

The first thing I tried to solve this puzzle was to use a Modern Hebrew translator, which returned the following: your teachers, teacher, schoolmaster, master.  I then reviewed several different renderings by various scholars, which the majority use the word Moreka in the singular form.  In various translation’s I saw Moreka for this verse translated as:  your Director, Sovereign Teacher, and a Jewish rendering as Your Master.

A common use for the word teacher is from the root word Lamad, but Isaiah chose a different root word, Yarah. Yarah in its root form means to teach how to shoot or throw, which the imagery of the word is tied to another word sin, chattim, meaning to miss the target or mark with the imagery of an archer.

I now go into my Hebraic toolbox and will break down the word letter by letter. In Hebrew, each letter is a word, and rabbis and sages through the ages have studied the significance of letters in words.  Some believe God built a concordance in words by the meaning of the letters.  Jesus taught letters as found in Jn 7:15.  Would this help decipher if this Moreka is plural or singular?

Moreka

מוריך

20 10 200 6 40 = 276

Using the significance of the letters, (Mem) reveals knowledge of God, His mercy and lovingkindness, His connection with heaven and earth (Vav) with a Leader of Repentance (Resh), someone we can look up to for hope (Yod), a gift to be shared with all the world (Final Kaph). Since the letters themselves can have various meanings, I may have been bias in selecting what I chose.

Another method taught is to use the numerical value of the word, and search scripture where the same value is used. Some might consider this coincidences, but through these coincidences, I have learned and pieced together some neat relationships with scriptures and words.  This method is believed by some to have been used by the Apostle John in Revelations when he gave the mark of the beast a number, 666.

Moreka has the numerical value of 276, and the first word I chose was the word וירני u-yarani (and He Taught me) found in:

Proverbs 4:4: And He taught me, and said to me, "Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live." NKJV

Following the rabbit trail, this is very similar to what Christians refer to as the Messiah, Jesus, when he taught in Matthew 19:17, “but if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” NKJV

Another word ירוין yaruin (they shall be satisfied) found in Psalms 36:8, which is made by rearranging the Hebrew letters of the first word u-yarani.

Ps 36:8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of your house; and you shall make them drink of the river of thy pleasure. NKJV

Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst again, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14 NKJV

After exhausting my tools, I refer to a former Baptist preacher who was a Hebrew professor in a Seminary in Chicago. I found he had written a few articles on these verses, and some letters to rabbi friends.  He teaches that in Hebrew, a plural word does not mean the same in Hebrew, and can be plural but singular.  Sometimes, the plural form elevates the status of the word, so the use of the word Moreka here doesn’t mean your teachers, not even your Teacher, but it’s elevating the status of the teacher to a “Master Teacher.”

Personally, I am now strongly leaning to this Moreka being a Messianic passage. Being inquisitive, I ask why is this Master Teacher hidden?  The Hebrew word for hidden is knaph, which can have the image of a hen hiding her little chicks.  It can be for a winged animal, but in primitive Hebrew I found it can also represent a seed in the ground (hidden) that will sprout.  I’m going to deviate from the Hebrew professor in what I see in this verse, as rabbis and sages teach there can be 70 shades of meaning of a verse, but still one main meaning.

Knaph can represent a seed that will sprout. I think back to the scriptures where Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are branches.” John 15:4.  Like a seed, this Master Teacher will no longer be hidden or concealed, but was revealed publically.  When He was revealed to the world, He sprouted, and those who believe in Him are attached to the vine that continues to grow.

In the next writing, the remez (Hebrew hidden meaning) of this Master Teacher is found in verse 21.