how to say “goodbye party” in Hebrew
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Get talking… in Hebrew.
Our Level 1 course starts
November 20 in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
As you may know, Ulpan La-Inyan proudly works in cooperation with two organizations that serve the English-speaking community of Israeli residents and tourists: Telfed (The South African Zionist Federation) and AACI (Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel). Today at AACI, one of the employees, a friend of mine, is leaving his post to go back to school.
Here’s how to say goodbye party in Hebrew: מְסִבַּת פְּרֵדָה (meh-see-BAHT preh-DAH). This phrase is composed of two words – מְסִבָּה (meh-see-BAH), meaning party, (the ת-t at the end makes the word party of), and פרידה, which means, literally, separation.
You may already know the word for party – מְסִבָּה (meh-see-BAH), whose root is the core concept of surrounding – ס.ו.ב (s.w.b) – since a party is an event where people gather surrounding the guest of honor or another point of focus. Another well-known word of the same root are סְבִיבוֹן (seh-vee-VOHN) – dreidel.
The word פְּרֵדָה comes from the root פ.ר.ד (p.r.d), one of the many roots beginning with פ.ר (p.r) or the similarly-sounding פ.ל (p.l). These פ.ר and פ.ל sub-roots all have to do with some kind of split. This root features prominently in this week’s Torah portion, where Abraham says to his nephew Lot, הִפָּרֵד נָא מֵעָלַי (hee-PAH-red nah meh-ah-LAH-ee) – please separate from (on) me – in other words, please split.
Likewise, a פְּרֵדָה is what one might call a goodbye. And to say goodbye is …לְהִפָּרֵד מ (leh-hee-pah-RED mee…) – literally, to depart from…
Here’s Shlomo Artzi’s version of a Goodbye Song. Enjoy!
