HEBREW WORD STUDY – FREEDOM –  BAMARACHAV בסרחב
Psalms 118:5 “I called upon the Lord in my distress; the Lord answered me and set me in a large place.”

I am feeling distressed lately and I am having a hard time understanding why a wide or large place will relieve my stress. The word for large place is rachav which means a large space or large place. Rachav is preceded by a Mem and Beth. I have found no grammatical explanation for the Mem. The Beth is a preposition for in or on so the Lord sets him in a large place. The Pathah under the Mem would suggest a definite article so you would render this as in the large place.

A clue is found in the word for distress, which is qabah which means something tight. When you are in distress you feel a sense of tightness in your chest or just emotionally. You feel hemmed in, surrounded, up against a wall with no way out. In such distress, God brings you to rachav, a large place where you can breathe and stretch out. You see in ancient times people lived and slept in one room of a house. Often entire families ( I mean aunts, uncles, cousins etc) crowded into these rooms to sleep. It was the safest, but very uncomfortable. There was often not enough room to really stretch out and be comfortable. Thus, rachav, a large place became a metaphor for a place that was large enough to stretch your legs, relax and be comfortable. When you feel qabah – tight you need a rachav large place to stretch.

I believe Rabbi Samson Hirsch the nineteenth-century linguist and Hebrew master explained it the best. A rachav is best used for a place of comfort and relaxation as stretching out relieves that tight qabah feeling.

I have been feeling really stressed lately, hemmed in by obligations and responsibilities and I have been looking into another week of living in silence. But what I am looking for is to find a place of solitude in a wide-open area where I can just stretch out my arms and feel a sense of freedom. I noticed Rabbi Hirsch also finds the word freedom in rachav. So I am waiting upon the Lord to show me a rachav, a wide space to spend a week of silence where I can stretch out and be free from my qabah – stress.