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I have a relative with the name סימא and she has been unable to find a Possuk in Tanach that starts with a Samech ס and ends with a Aleph א. Is there such a Possuk? The lists that are elsewhere do not have a verse that begins with a Samech and ends with an Aleph.

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  • did you check the back of the artscroll siddur? Cause none exists there.
    – avi
    Sep 13, 2011 at 12:47
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    did you try searching one of the Torah programs that can check for you?
    – Ariel K
    Sep 13, 2011 at 14:17
  • Although many sidurim include p'sukim for only some of the possible pairs of letters, there is at least one that lists all (for which a pasuk exists). Alas, I don't remember which sidur it is, but perhaps you can find it. I think it's an Israeli sidur.
    – msh210
    Sep 13, 2011 at 16:10
  • Yes per the Sheimos Gittin in Shulchan Aruch it is spelled with a Samech. Feb 10, 2012 at 15:27

4 Answers 4

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I used the Bar-Ilan Program to search for verses beginning with Samech and ending in Aleph. No hits.

Substituting a Sin for the Samech, we retrieved 8 hits, among them:

תהלים פרק פו פסוק ד

שמח נפש עבדך כי אליך אדני נפשי אשא

Substituting a Heh for the Aleph, we got 12 hits, among them:

במדבר פרק יד פסוק יט

סלח נא לעון העם הזה כגדל חסדך וכאשר נשאתה לעם הזה ממצרים ועד הנה

תהלים פרק מח פסוק יג

סבו ציון והקיפוה ספרו מגדליה

משלי פרק ד פסוק ח

סלסלה ותרוממך תכבדך כי תחבקנה

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Backing up Barry; using mechon-mamre's text and my own script.

There are, according to my script, no verses at all that start with a samech and end with an aleph.

If we follow Isaac's suggestion and allow Sins (no, sinning is bad! Don't allow it!). Okay here are some you probably don't want:

שום תשים עליך מלך אשר יבחר יהוה אלהיך בו מקרב אחיך תשים עליך מלך לא תוכל לתת עליך איש נכרי אשר לא אחיך הוא

Thou shalt certainly choose for yourself a king ... but not a foreigner.

שפתי כסיל יבאו בריב ופיו למהלמות יקרא

The lips of a fool cause fights

I agree with Barry, Psalms 86:4 is your best bet:

Gladden the heart of your servant, as on You G-d I rely

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It's also okay to have a posuk that actually contains the person's name. So why not, for example, Tehillim 56:9: נֹדִי, סָפַרְתָּה-אָתָּה: שִׂימָה דִמְעָתִי בְנֹאדֶךָ; הֲלֹא, בְּסִפְרָתֶךָ.

[I know the spelling is different, but if the point (as stated in the seforim) is to "help one remember one's name in the world-to-come," this would probably do the trick.]

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    Using the same equivalence, one could search for a verse that starts with שׂ and ends with א.
    – Isaac Moses
    Sep 13, 2011 at 14:55
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Riffing on Dave's idea, the famous verse Deut. 31:19 comes to mind:

וְעַתָּה כִּתְבוּ לָכֶם אֶת הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת וְלַמְּדָהּ אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שִׂימָהּ בְּפִיהֶם לְמַעַן תִּהְיֶה לִּי הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת לְעֵד בִּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל:

And now, write for yourselves this song, and teach it to the Children of Israel. Place it into their mouths, in order that this song will be for Me as a witness for the children of Israel.

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    Actually, that was the first one that came to mind, but the mappik was too disconcerting.
    – Dave
    Sep 13, 2011 at 14:07

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