יַהֲלֹם

The word "יַהֲלֹם" (yahalom) appears in the Bible as one of the gems in the breastplate (hoshen) that adorned the High Priest's garments (Exodus 28:17-20). Since the biblical description does not provide specific information about the nature of this stone, over the generations there were various interpretations regarding its identity. The use of the word "yahalom" to describe what we now call a diamond began apparently in the Middle Ages. The first to suggest this identification was probably Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra in the 12th century, who wrote in his commentary on Exodus 28 that "a great Spanish scholar said that yahalom is what is called 'almas' which breaks all stones and pierces crystal." "Almas" was (and still is) the Arabic word for diamond. Following Ibn Ezra's interpretation, Martin Luther translated "yahalom" as Diamant in his German translation of the Torah (1534), and in the same year, Joshua Boaz also interpreted the yahalom similarly in his book "Shiltei HaGibborim." A few years later, the King James translation to English also translated "yahalom" as Diamond. During the Haskalah period, when Jews began to write about secular subjects in Hebrew, they needed a Hebrew term for diamond. Some used the foreign word (diamant), others used "שֹׁהַם" (shoham, Judah Leib Ben-Zeev in "Otzar HaShorashim" from 1808), "בדולח" (bedolach, Simon Bloch in "Shvilei Olam" from 1822), or "שמיר" (shamir, Dr. Ludwig Karpeles in "HaTzfira," 1891). But in the mid-19th century, Joseph Scheinhak in his book "Toldot HaAretz" (1859) used "yahalom" as a Hebrew alternative to the German Diamant, following the identification in "Shiltei HaGibborim," although he notes that there is doubt about the identification. Following him, during the 19th century, various writers also used "yahalom," alongside the other translations, until in the early 20th century, the use of "yahalom" prevailed after all the lexicographers of the 20th century decided to use it.