Thursday, October 11, 2007

Hamas

Hamas (actually, phonetically khamas) is a very harsh word in Hebrew. I think in English it comes out as avarice, but its impact is much more severe. This week's weekly Bible portion includes the story of Noah and the flood. In English, the reason the world was to be destroyed was because it "was full of violence" (Gen. chapter 6 verse 11, and the same words in verse 13).

In the Hebrew original, the world is to be destroyed because Vatimaleh haaretz hamas, the world is full of hamas.

No comments: