According to the victim, this Hebrew tattoo is supposed to refer to a biblical story about Jesus. In this story (Mark 5:41), Jesus resurrects a dead little girl, by saying to her "Little Girl, Wake Up". Jesus, of course, spoke Aramaic, and in it the expression is "Talitha Cumi".
Our victim here, decided for some reason to get "Talitha Cumi" in Hebrew. However, instead of getting her words from a Hebrew bible, which can be easily found online, she transliterated them to Hebrew herself. Need I say that she got it wrong? The resulting Hebrew tattoo is written backwards and misspelled, not to mention that it has no real meaning in Hebrew, being an Aramaic expression.
If you're very set on "Talitha Cumi" for your Hebrew tattoo, this is how you should write it:
And to wrap things up, I have to mention that burning butterfly. I mean, what's up with that? I can get a burning bush reference, but don't you find burning butterflies a bit sadistic?
Ha, I'm so used to reading backwards-Hebrew by now on your site that I hardly noticed the letter-direction(!). And little Talita was probably just 'playing dead', hiding from her Mum, after using her new magnifying-glass to torment bugs. Just a guess...
ReplyDeleteApparently that butterfly is delighted. At least that's what's written on it.
ReplyDeletethat's pretty hysterical. WHat a mistake!
ReplyDeleteI got a talitha cumi tattoo some months after I literally came from death. I want it in aremaic, but I couldn´t find it so I use it in Hebrew (right Hebrew). What did you mean when you say it had no real meaning in Hebrew? I supossed that is because of Jesus. Anyway, I'm not jew.
ReplyDelete"Talitha Cumi" is not a Hebrew expression, it's Aramaic.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same as writing "Talitha Cumi" in English. It's not wrong, just has its meaning in another language.
I got it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI'm relief that I got it right and that I didn't have an "I'm an idiot" in my back. I got it in hebrew cause in English or Spanish (Talita cumi) was so boring. Also I love the Hebrew alphabet is pretty aesthetic and Jesus was Jew and my favorite writer was jew (in a poem in her honor the poet wrote Talitha cumi to her). Also I got it in Hebrew cause I didn´t know anyone that knows Aramaic.
Thanks!
I have done a lot of research on how to spell Talitha Koum in Aramaic, and from my research it looks like what you have posted up there as the correct Hebrew spelling, is also a correct variant of Aramaic spelling. Aramaic has many variants and most of them look more Arabic (except the ancient one, which just looks archaic!), but one of them actually resembles Hebrew a lot, which would mean your Hebrew spelling is the same as the Aramaic one is.
ReplyDeleteIn Jewish religious service, of course, We do write many Aramaic expressions in Hebrew text, but pronounce them the same as Aramaic. Examples: the "Lachma Anya" referred to in the Pesach seder, "B'oraitah" to refer to Torah during Shabbat Torah service..
ReplyDeleteHebrew and Aramaic share the SAME alphabet. Hebrew borrowed the alphabet from Aramaic!! Ancient, ancient Hebrew looks very different from the more "modern" Hebrew that is in the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible.
ReplyDeleteSo although the backwardsness is still a big problem, the Aramaic is most definitely not. Ah the irony!!
Thanks!
ReplyDelete