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Oct 6, 2010

how to say "to battle" in Hebrew...

להלחם

With the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War in season, I figured that a good Hebrew word for you to know is to go to battle - לְהִלָּחֵם (le-hee-lah-KHEM). For example, יִשְׂרָאֵל נִלְחְמָה בְּמִצְרָיִם (yees-rah-EHL neel-kheh-MAH be-meets-RAH-yeem) - Israel battled (with) Egypt.

Note the root - ל.ח.מ (l.kh.m). It's the same as מִלְחָמָה (meel-khah-MAH) - war... as well as לֶחֶם (LEH-khem) - bread. I'm not sure whether there actually is a semantic connection between מלחמה and לחם. If you know of one, I'd be happy to hear about it.