interpolate

In Jewish tradition

Interpretation: Scholars say an editor added a division to Sefer Yetzirah, not knowing what the original meant by its letters. In the primary lessons: in the lessons a teller adds a local detail or a new scene into an old tale that was told before

Meaning

To put extra words, lines or a new piece into a story or text, often between parts that were already there. tree →

Examples

• He interpolated this division in the Sefer Yetzirah without knowing that by ns:s the original Sefer Y'etzirah meant vowels. (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914)) tree →
• The teller interpolated a joke into the old story. tree →
• She interpolated her own verse between the lines. tree →
• Later writers often interpolated new episodes. tree →

Note

nothing for maths; in maths, to interpolate means to estimate a value lying between two known numbers, but it does not change a count by itself