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Sunday, August 11, 2024

Tikkun Olam--Sikhun Olam? Funny dialectical result

Years ago I was given an example of the difference of Hebrew "dialects" ie Sefardic and Ashkenazi Hebrew. In many languages "th" sounds as in theta devolves into an s sound as in "saith" (said like faith) in middle English became "says" (after another shift where s becomes z). This happened in Ashkenazi Hebrew too with the phrase תִּקּוּן עוֹלָם --tikkun olam in modern Hebrew. The Hebrew alphabet has two t sounds: tet and tav. The tav in old Hebrew is generally believed to be a "th" sound as in sabbath or savvat, Ashkenazi pronunciation is shabbos, where the last "s" is a raphated tav. Another example of letters that sound alike in Hebrew are the k/q sounds: כ and ק, which are said mostly interchangeably.

The consequence of this is the Hebrew conception of repairing the world 'תִּקּוּן עוֹלָם' tikkun olam in modern Hebrew is changed to סִכּוּן עוֹלָם sikun olam which can be interpreted as "endangering the world," the opposite of the intention! 


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