how to say “vision” in Hebrew

On one hand…


Better Place‘s Renault electric car has recently arrived in Israel. Founder and CEO Shai Agassi’s vision is “עוֹלָם שֶׁאֵינוֹ תָּלוּי עוֹד בְּנֶפְט” (oh-LAHM sheh-eh-ee-NOH tah-LOO-ee ohd beh-NEFT) – “a world that no longer depends (literally, is no longer dependent) on crude oil.” The two advantages that come to my mind are a cleaner environment and diminished dependency – תְּלוּת (teh-LOOT) – on terrorist regimes and their sources of funding.

And on another hand…


Google has been developing an autonomous, self-driving car, which Nolan Bushnell – purveyor of success stories such as Atari and Chuck E. Cheese – says “will change the world.” Such a vehicle on the roads, he says, will eliminate traffic jams, reduce the cost of fuel, and most importantly (in my mind), will prevent thousands of accident-caused deaths a year. (If one life is worth the world, as the Talmud teaches, do the math…)

Vision

Imagine a world free of road rage.

One translation of the English word vision refers to the physical phenomenon of seeing with ones eyes – that’s רְאִיָּה (reh-ee-YAH), coming from the root ר.א.ה (r.a.h).

But the translation that refers to a broad vision, such as of a safer, greener future, is חָזוֹן (khah-ZOHN), which comes from the root ח.ז.ה (kh.z.h). Another common word related to חזון is the Hebrew word for forecast. 


A safer, greener future is עָתִיד בָּטוּחַ וְיָרוֹק יוֹתֵר (ah-TEED bah-TOO-ahkh veh-yah-ROHK yoh-TEHR).

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to see Better Place and Google team up to create and market an electric, self-driving car. That’s my חזון in this matter.

Ktzat Ivrit חזון challenge

What’s your חזון for the future? I challenge you to come up with a word or phrase, translate it in Hebrew (you can use Morfix or Google Translate), and publish it as a comment to this post.

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