Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Dear Chris,

You'll have to excuse my correction. The main use of XBL in modern Hebrew,
just like in the Bible, is for "destruction", with a very wide spectrum of
meanings. The expression "Xaval (al..." is actually Talmudic, meaning "too
bad about.."  One modern development of this is "Xaval (al hazeman",
literally "too bad about the time", which in English would be "it's a waist
of time". This can be meant either positively ("it's so good it's a waist of
time describing it") or negatively ("it's so bad it's a waist of time
describing it").
Another common use of XBL is in actual, physical destruction. A sapper
(military or police engineer who specializes in blowing things up) is a
Xablan, while a terrorist is a Mexabel. It's also used figuratively -
Lexabel means "to undermine".

Yigal
----- Original Message -----
From: "wattswestmaas" <wattswestmaas AT eircom.net>
To: "B-Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 10:03 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Response to chet bet lamed


> Dear Reiner, Karl and Peter,
>
> Thankyou one and all, everything helps.  As a side issue, just for
interest
> the word 'CHaVaL' is used in modern hebrew as a colloquial expression to
> mean 'wasting time'.
>
> As a noun it is translated as 'Trauma' (as in Traumatic experience).  the
> latter is of special interest in that one is OBLIGATED  in one's
subconcious
> responses to painful stimuli from the past to react in a pre-programmed
> manner; also one is TIED and BOUND to the past in these responses,  they
are
> also PANGS of pain (delivery pains) when one responds to such sorrows from
> the past. And aspects of one's character/maturity are RUINED  instead of
> being free.
>
> Just thought that it was indeed a clever modern hebrew word to use for
> 'traumatic'.
>
> Greetings and brachot.
>
> Chris.
>
>
>
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