the press’s way of saying “passed away” in Hebrew
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חָנָן פּוֹרַת (khah-NAHN poh-RAHT) – Hanan Porat – one of the heroes and leaders of the religious Zionist movement, passed away the other day after a long battle with cancer.
The colloquial expression for passed away, in Hebrew, is נִפְטָר (neef-TAHR) for a male and נִפְטְרָה (neef-teh-RAH) for a female. These are conjugations of the infinitive לְהִפָּטֵר (leh-hee-pah-TEHR), a verb of the נִפְעַל (neef-AHL) variety. Don’t confuse this term with לְהִתְפַּטֵּר (leh-heet-pah-TEHR), to resign – it could create an uncomfortable moment. להתפטר is of the reflexive-intensive הִתְפָּעֵל (heet-pah-EL) verb form.
נפטר is what most people say, but the more literary term used by the press when announcing someone’s passing is הָלַךְ לְעוֹלָמו (hah-LAHKH leh-oh-lah-MOH) for a male and הָלְכָה לְעוֹלָמָה (hah-leh-KHAH leh-oh-lah-MAH) for a female. The term means, literally, has gone to his/her eternity, where עוֹלָם (oh-LAHM) maintains its original Biblical meaning as eternity, as opposed to the late- and post-Biblical meaning of world. The image evoked is that of a person entering his/her final and eternal resting place. A variation of the term first appears towards the end of the relatively-late Biblical book of קֹהֶלֶת (koh-HEH-let), Ecclesiastes.
