In the Eurovision Song Contest 1983, which was held in Germany four decades after Shoah, Israel was represented with the song " Chai", performed by Ofra Haza, which includes the line Am Yisra'el chai. At the end of "Hatikvah", British Army Chaplain Leslie Hardman shouts out, Am Yisrael Chai! ("The people of Israel is alive!") With people still dying around them, the survivors sang what would become the Israeli national anthem, " Hatikvah". This was the first Sabbath ceremony openly conducted on German soil since the beginning of the war. It is heard in a BBC recording from Apof Jewish survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp five days after their liberation. It appears in the slogan " ʿam yisraʾel ḥay!" ( עַם יִשְרָאֵל חַי, "The people of Israel live!"). Mailings from Jewish charities usually suggest the amounts to give in multiples of chai (18, 36, 54 dollars, etc.) rather than the usual multiples of 25. Jews often give gifts and donations in multiples of 18, which is called "giving chai". The Chai symbol can be worn by Jews as a medallion around the neck, similarly to other Jewish symbols, such as the Star of David and the Hamsa. In Jewish culture Maccabia medals with Chai symbol For this reason, 18 is a spiritual number in Judaism, and many Jews give gifts of money, charity and donations to Synagogues (often seen as a price for certain roles in the sabbath and holiday prayers) in multiples of 18 as a result. There have been various mystical numerological speculations about the fact that, according to the system of gematria, the letters of chai add up to 18 (see Lamedvavniks etc.). In Hebrew, the related word chaya ( חיה) means "living thing" or "animal", and is derived from the Hebrew word chai ( חי), meaning "alive". The usual modern pronunciation of this word is, while a transcription of the Biblical and Mishnaic pronunciation would have likely been (with a pharyngeal consonant). The most common spelling in Latin script is "Chai", but the word is occasionally also spelled "Hai". The word is made up of two letters of the Hebrew alphabet – Chet ( ח) and Yod ( י), forming the word "chai", meaning "alive", or "living". The Jewish toast (on alcoholic beverages such as wine) is l'chaim, 'to life'. Two common Jewish names used since Talmudic times, are based on this symbol, Chaya feminine, Chayim masculine. The Shema prayer as well speaks of the importance of Chai, to live and walk in the Jewish cultural lifestyle. "Verily, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil, in that I command thee this day to love the L ORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances then thou shalt live." There is nary an ancient Jewish commentator who does not comment on that verse. Three examples are Leviticus 18:5 וָחַי בָּהֶם 'Chai Bahem', 'and you shall live by ' (as opposed to just doing it), this is part of the section dealing with the legacy of Moses after his death. The Jewish commentaries give an especially long treatment to certain verses in the Torah with the word as their central theme. According to 16th century Greek rabbi Shlomo Hacohen Soloniki, in his commentary on the Zohar, Chai as a symbol has its linkage in the Kabbalah texts to God's attribute of 'Ratzon', or motivation, will, muse. In medieval Kabbalah, Chai is the lowest (closest to the physical plane) emanation of God. Letters as symbols in Jewish culture go back to the earliest Jewish roots, the Talmud states that the world was created from Hebrew letters which form verses of the Torah. Chai as a symbol goes back to medieval Spain. Chai or Hai ( Hebrew: חַי "living" ḥay) is a symbol that figures prominently in modern Jewish culture the Hebrew letters of the word are often used as a visual symbol.Īccording to The Jewish Daily Forward, its use as an amulet originates in 18th century Eastern Europe.
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