Morah said
I said
It's pretty clear from all the meforshei hachumash that I've seen that they learned like you.
Well sure it's the root of many words but that's not what it means.
I assume it wasn't מנוקד?
I guess this is a fundamental question - one which I'm far to ignorant in the intricacies of לשון הקודש to answer: Is a שרש by definition an actual word, which is then the basis of other words? Or is a שרש more abstract, where it is by definition the sum of its parts (ie it is a concept that is described by the words that derive from it)? I guess I lean toward the latter, in which case it's not so much that the word הָיָה can be translated into those 3 English words, but rather that the שרש of היה is used in the Hebrew words for those 3 English words.