![]() ![]() ![]() Well, it’s not completely Jewish, more a state of the people of Israel. The Book of Deuteronomy is the first book in the Bible, which explains the basic principles of a Jewish state. And the word’s use in the Torah can enrich the meaning of peace in our time and maybe help us in seeking a way for achieving it. But today the word ‘peace’ – ‘shalom’ has another meaning. Only surrendering could mean peaceful ending of potential war in times of the book of Deuteronomy. Somehow, the literal meaning of the verb l’hashlim is to surrender. If it does not surrender (tashlim) to you, but would join battle with you, you shall lay siege to it and when the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword.” Deuteronomy 20:10-13 If it responds peaceably (v’haya im shalom ta’ankha) and lets you in, all the people present there shall serve you at forced labor. “When you approach a town to attack it, you shall offer it terms of peace (v’karata eleiha l’shalom). In addition we find two more forms which use ‘peace’ – to call for peace (likro’ l’shalom) and to answer with peace (la’anot shalom). This word we can find in our portion ‘Ki Teitzei’. In the very same way, those of Israelis who still seek for peace with our neighbors, speak in terms of ‘making peace’ (la’asot shalom), although Hebrew has a special verb for it – l’hashlim. So many Israelis do the army (and don’t serve in it), do the Jerusalem marathon (and don’t run it) etc. In Hebrew we find a long list of not-used verbs, replaced by a pair of “do/make” and an appropriate noun. This song showed how strong is the influence of English language on Hebrew. The opening line of the song was ‘What does it mean ‘I served’? I did the army!’. Recently, I listened to a song ‘Asiti’ (‘I Made / I Did’) of Israeli performer Jimbo J. ![]()
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