Jewish Word Meaning Help Needed

Nemia

The word anochi means "I". There is another, more common word for "I", ani. One interpreter of the Hebrew Bible asked himself why in a certain context the less common "anochi" was used and not "ani". He interpreted it as acronym and his freely associated words were "Ana Nafshi Ketovit Yehovit" (far as I know, Yehovit is a far more obscure and rare word than anochi...).

Ana means in this context "look here". Nafshi means "my soul". Ketovit is a form of katav, write. Yehovit is a female variation of YHVE, the name which cannot be spoken.

That's all. Why shouldn't there be a clear cut answer? Nefesh is soul, nafshi my soul, nafsheynu our soul. As I said before.

The word "anochi" is still used in spoken Hebrew without any of these associations made by the interpreter. There's a well known Hebrew pop song "rak ani ve-anochi..." ("only I and I"). Ani is everyday language, anochi a bit more formal and unusual.
 

Zephyros

I agree with Nemia. Many commentators have added their own spin to different verses, there's not much debate about what the actual words mean.

However, the same Hebrew word can mean different things and the writers of the Bible made liberal use of this in their writings. For example, the serpent in Eden is described as "Eirom." In the Hebrew spelling of the word this means two things, naked and cunning. Use of words with dual meaning was a device often used to add additional meaning to what were very consise texts. In this case the serpent was intelligent but also simple, without an ulterior motive.