Shalom! Hello! Godbye! or Peace! Can you tell what the translation is without knowing its context? The answer is no. If there is a sentence that goes, "Ani rotzah shalom," what would shalom mean in that context? Well, "ani rotzah" means "I want" so the sentence means either "I want hello." "I want good-bye" or "I want peace." Which one makes the most sense? The last one of course. "I want peace."

So now you understand, shalom is all in the context. Well, if you want to say good-bye so that everyone knows that you are saying good-bye and not hello or peace, you would have to say le-heet-rah-ot. If you want to say hello so people know you are saying "hello" and nothing else you would have to say  ha-lo, sounding pretty much the same in both languages. If you wanted to say peace, and only peace, you are out of luck. The only word in hebrew that means peace is shalom. I thought that was pretty interesting.  I hope you are all having a wonderful  kay- eetz (summer if you remember last weeks word), I know I am!

Le-heet-rah-ot!

ps. my hebrew isn't working on my computer today, sorry about that

 

Anna Bennet

Pinwheel Region IA VP