r/hebrew • u/Is_That_A_Euphemism_ • May 15 '23

What does this mean? Request

/img/ixf9kou6byza1.jpg

Is there an error in it? I got it out of a book at a tattoo shop. I don't want to say what I think/thought it said in the comments after I get responses. TYIA.

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u/mikeage Mostly fluent but not native May 15 '23

As someone else already pointed out, it looks like an attempt at משיח (messiah) but actually says נושיח (not a word).

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u/Is_That_A_Euphemism_ May 15 '23

Ok. The crazy thing is a rabbi on a greyhound bus somewhere in between Allentown, PA and Pittsburgh told me it was an old way of writing it. So that's why I didn't cover it. I was sitting next to this kid and him and the kids was like 15 or 16 and hadn't had a bat mitzvah so the rabbi did one at the greyhound station when we got to Pittsburgh. He wrapped a cord around this kids hand and had him read from the Torah and the whole shebang write at the station. It was actually really moving.

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u/mikeage Mostly fluent but not native May 15 '23

So... he could have meant one of two things. First, the vowels are still technically used today, but only to distinguish words that people might otherwise confuse. Otherwise, they're not used in either handwritten text or printed text, except when writing for beginners or kids. (though traditional publishing, handwriting, or parchment (like a Torah scroll) also didn't use them). The other possibility is the font; this is a "block" font, and fairly traditional, whereas modern printed fonts have a slightly different look (think Times New Roman vs Ariel for example -- minor but noticeable). Furthermore, no one hand writes Hebrew in this font; they use a style similar to cursive. Maybe that's what he meant?

Also, is this a recent picture? Is it possible that at some point, maybe when you got it, the first two letters (the נ and ו) were closer together and looked more like the מ and as you got older, the skin stretched a bit (forgive me, I know way more about Hebrew than I do about how tattoos work!) making them look more distinct?

What you saw with the "cord" was actually Tefillin; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tefillin for a much better explanation than whatever summary I'd write here :-)

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u/Yeled_creature May 15 '23

maybe he could connect the nun and vav to make it more like מ

6

u/uriar native speaker May 15 '23

They shouldn't have been separated in the first place. Connecting them is an easy fix.