Talk:Selah

message: Can it be added that although the word "Selah" is untranslatable, its meaning is completely obvious in context to those who understand Biblical Hebrew. It is just that the multiple concepts are not easily explained in other languages. Similarly, the comma as it is used in English has various properties (e.g., the original Greek use as a breathing mark as opposed to the English grammatical use) and would require a lengthy article to explain it - academics may argue about definitions and so on, but speakers of the language know exactly what is meant even if they find it hard to verbalise. Words like Schadenfreude are what is more commonly meant by 'untranslatable' in that they do not have a direct English equivalent, but rather, require several words to explain what is meant. (And yes, I know that Schadenfreude does translate directly to epicaricacy, but that's hardly common usage.) But I digress; the point is that the page as it stands is a translation - just a rather wordy one. 212.134.179.30 (talk) 18:58, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Untranslatable

message: The 6th beracha of the Amidah is not "selah" -  rather "selicha". Some transliterate the Hebrew "selach" (imperative verb - forgive!) as selah; so in the Amidah we have "selach lanu avinu" - "forgive us our Father"
:The article is refering to the second  to last blessing right before the prayer for peace. "v'khol ha'chaim yedukha selah".  Jon513 20:55, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: The 6th Beracha of the Amida is not Selah

message: In the song Selah by the Ethiopians, the Ras Tafari is said to hold "Selah". I have difficulty interpreting the meaning of the lyric:
Want to leave out Babylon 
I am tired of Babylon 
Want to leave out Babylon 
Oh because the Saviour hold 
Selah 
Is the Saviour "holding" the Selah? What is meant by this? Any thoughts?--Sonjaaa 17:42, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: holding Selah?

message: I find the addition of the discussion on gematria a bit jarring in context. Implicitly it places study of "the mathematical underpinnings" of the Bible on par with scientifically established lexicography and historical critical research. I would suggest abbreviating this section and/or setting it apart somehow indicating that it represents minority opinion or that it is controversial in nature. Gematria is also a separate entry and a link might be in order.
70.48.153.199David
:I agree. It needs a source, at least. I also find the use of English Gematria very strange. --agr 22:15, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Once again, Brad, gematria is not considered a reliable source (reliable sources are discussed at this link).  Gematria and other numerology is considered fringe, and not accepted as a neutral or reliable view on this site.  Wikipedia does not care about your "enlightenment," or whatever fantasies you have about Jews, Freemasons, or Rosicrucians.  Ian.thomson (talk) 16:04, 25 August 2012 (UTC)

text: What part of "no personal attacks" don't you get?  While age doesn't matter here, you've been editing since this year, I've been editing since 2006.  And as I said, age here doesn't matter, but being able to edit within site policies and guidelines (like WP:RS, WP:NPOV, WP:FRINGE, WP:NPA, all of which you have demonstrated severe problems with).  You are contributing fringe materials against the guidelines, I am making sure the articles stay within the guidelines and policies while also contributing (as can be seen at the Debtera article, which, except for two minor edits, was worked on by me).  Ian.thomson (talk) 16:45, 25 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  gematria 

message: In calah, cited as a possible etymon, what letter does the 'c' represent? —Tamfang (talk) 01:07, 9 June 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: According to the citation from the Book of Job in the referenced article, it is samekh. I will add this info in. Vilĉjo (talk) 10:37, 17 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  "calah" 

message: The article about E.W. Bullinger on Selah is incorrect. I have the complete library of Bullinger and nowhere does it speak of such confusion. One can read of this in the Companion Bible Appendix 66 II, The Works of Bullinger. Bbwjenkins (talk) 15:45, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  E.W. Bullinger regarding "Selah"  

message: Is Urban dictionary really considered a source? (footnote 6)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.73.83.113 (talk) 14:29, 25 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Urbandictionary? 

message: We should always strive to be as accurate as possible. Therefore... Selah (Hebrew: סֶלָה‎, also transliterated as selāh) is a word used 74 times in the Hebrew Bible - 71 times in the Psalms and 3 times in Habakkuh - and is a difficult concept to translate. - Brad Watson, Miami (talk) 16:41, 25 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Selah is found 74x in the Bible 

message: Apparently, there is no article on Habakkuh. How do we create one? - Brad Watson, Miami (talk) 16:43, 25 August 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: We have the article Book of Habakkuk, and I've created a redirect to that. Ian.thomson (talk) 16:47, 25 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  'Book of Habakkuh' should have its own article 

message: "Additionally, this word also means prayer in modern Arabic.[citation needed]". I erased this false (and unsourced) claim. Salah or Salat (prayer) in Arabic is written with a Ṣād, which is cognate to Hebrew Tsadi, while Selah is written with a Samekh. Yabti (talk) 10:23, 27 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Selah does not mean "prayer" in Arabic 

message: The following text was recently added to the very beginning of this article:
[begin quote]Selah means to "pause". Though David wrote musical Psalms, this is no reference to a musical dynamic, but rather to how one should "pause", to enable oneself in reflecting and stopping to think about what was just said, with the purpose to make it part of your life, before moving on to the next declaration.
March 2017 Astrid Claasen[end quote]'
Because it is unsourced, and at odds with the rest of the article, I've removed it, at least till someone can tell us where it came from. Alephb (talk) 02:31, 11 March 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  I've removed a bit of text 

message: has done the fledgling article a lot of good on 4 March 2005 by adding a pile of material from the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia. Mostly copied-and-pasted, down to the structure and much of the wording, even if he claimed it was edited ;) After 16 years though, and in accordance to what he wrote back then (good for now, but needs to be replaced with newer research), most of it should be removed. The weird "Attribution" paragraph at the bottom of the page (was it a common formula back then?), actually informing that the Jewish Encyclopedia has been used as a source, is easily overlooked and has misled some, me included, to put "citation needed" tags all over the place. The JE article is full of references to further authors and sources from around 1900, who/which are of interest for historians of science rather than modern researchers, maybe with the exception of H. Grätz. It's not the only article stuck with such massive transplants from public domain dinosaurs, but one of the worst afflicted ones I've come across. Ora et labora! Arminden (talk) 14:35, 28 November 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jewish Encyclopedia text needs massive pruning 

message: Why should the word be pronounced /ˈsiːlə(h)/? The Hebrew vowel signs make it pretty clear that the first vowel is /e/ or perhaps /ɛ/, similar to "e" in "sell", certainly not the vowel from "seal". 
--194.166.11.234 (talk) 07:28, 16 May 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pronounciation 

message: Mention should probably be made of this word's usage in the Talmud. I personally don't know enough about the Talmud to write a section, but I can give an example: Tractate Berachot Chapter 1, towards the beginning of pg. 5a, at the end of R. Levi bar Chama / R. Shimon ben Lakish's opinion on fighting against one's "Evil Inclination." Zlvaughan (talk) 21:19, 8 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Usage in the Talmud