The ''Hashmallim'' (חַשְׁמַלִּים ''Ḥašmallīm''; sing. Hashmal, חַשְׁמַל ''Ḥašmal'') are angelic entities in
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...
.
The word ''hashmal'' appears in the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" '' Ezekiel 1:4-5:
Hashmallim occupy the fourth rank of ten in
Maimonides
Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Tora ...
's exposition of the
Jewish angelic hierarchy
In Judaism, angels ( he, ''mal’āḵ'', plural: ''mal’āḵīm'', literally "messenger") are supernatural beings that appear throughout the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), rabbinic literature, apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, and traditional Jewish li ...
.
The
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...
translates ''hashmal'' to ηλεκτρον (''elektron''), which means "amber" in English. Later, ''hashmal'' became the
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the H ...
word that translates to the English word "electricity." Jewish poet Judah Leib Gordon coined the modern Hebrew word, in his 1878 collection ''Gabashta''.Gilad, Elon. "Word of the Day / Hashmal." ''Haaretz''. 24 April 2013. 24 June 2013.
See also
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Merkabah mysticism
Merkabah ( he, מֶרְכָּבָה ''merkāvā'', "chariot") or Merkavah mysticism (lit. Chariot mysticism) is a school of early Jewish mysticism, c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE, centered on visions such as those found in the Book of Ezekiel chapter ...