se'or means sourdough starter
Interesting.
"I had trouble connecting one particular word, shmarim שמרים -"yeast", to this set."
The root of the Arabic 'yeast' is chet-mim-resh. I have no doubt that it is the same root as that of 'wine' and 'ferment'in Arabic.
Well the root חמר is also one thing we mafkir before pesach: כל חמירא. Whether Dan. 5:2's חמרא is wine or not is disputed...
You're right, this does work in complement with my comment to http://www.balashon.com/2006/04/...04/
chametz.html . I know that in Septuagint and Vulgate bibles, the word in question is translated as ζύμη and fermentum respectively. At one point I knew the Classical Latin word for starter, but at the moment I cannot recall if fermentum had that sense or not.
While we're on the subject of Latin, as soon as you said "Night of Vigils" I thought of the various Latin words from which "vigil" is derived: these all can mean either "watch" or "stay up all night."
Joel: What is "mafkir?"
Also, if it is not difficult to explain to a non Hebrew speaking person, what is " כל חמירא"
Todah
I am referring to an anullment (thus the Aramaic word mafkir) of chametz in one's possession that is said prior to Passover. See http://parsha.blogspot.com/2004/
...definition.html for instance. חמירא is one of the things which, if inadvertantly in our possession, we annul.
At the ancient time, where have you taken some yeast? From the previous bread preparation only. A part of the non-baked bread was kept (!) separately.
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