I am always fascinated at how the Hebrew language conveys more meaning than meets the eye. The Hebrew language is a root-based language, meaning all words in the Hebrew language are mostly constructed using three main consonants. Since there are a finite numbers of roots, there are, therefore, many words that share the same roots. This means that words may be connected in a particular way.

Let’s take, for example, the word conscience. In Hebrew, the word is matzpoon, written in Hebrew as מצפון. There is another word that shares the same root of three letters: tzadik, pay, nun (צ.פ.נ); that second word is matzpen (מצפן), which means “compass.” So, the Hebrew language is teaching us something very special.

What is a conscience? It is that inner voice or feeling telling us the direction of where we want to go, i.e., the difference between right and wrong. I truly believe that human beings are born with this ability, the ability to know intuitively where they need to go, both spiritually and physically. Often, Jewish writings indicate that if you really listen to what your conscience whispers, you will know the correct next step to take.

Although in English these two words conscience and compass have nothing in common (at least not in their spelling), in Hebrew they are very much interrelated. By using our matzpen, or compass, we can know the direction of where we are going, and if we follow our matzpoon, or conscience, we will get there with no regrets.

Wait, there is more! This three-letter root also makes up the word that means “hidden,” tzafoon! What does this all mean? What do these words have in common: conscience, compass, and hidden? Consider this: sometimes our conscience is hidden from us and sometimes where we need to go is hidden from us. Knowledge of having these three Hebrew words connected means that we need to work hard to uncover what is hidden in our lives and then bring this discovery to the surface so it can guide us