Chai ( he,
חַי "living" ') figures prominently in modern
Jewish culture; the Hebrew letters of the word are often used as a visual symbol.
History
According to ''
The Jewish Daily Forward
''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, '' ...
'', its use as an amulet originates in 18th century Eastern Europe. Chai as a symbol goes back to
medieval Spain. Letters as symbols in
Jewish culture go back to the earliest Jewish roots, the
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
states that the world was created from Hebrew letters which form verses of the
Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
. In medieval
Kabbalah
Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...
, Chai is the lowest (closest to the physical plane) emanation of God.
[Pelaia, Ariela.]
What Does the Chai Symbol Signify for Jews?
ThoughtCo. (accessed March 9, 2018). 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. The Jewish commentaries give an especially long treatment to certain verses in the Torah with the word as their central theme. Three examples are Leviticus 18:5 'Chai Bahem', 'and you shall live by
his faith (as opposed to just doing it), this is part of the section dealing with the legacy of Moses Our Teacher following his death. Deuteronomy 30:15 "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 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. The
Shema
''Shema Yisrael'' (''Shema Israel'' or ''Sh'ma Yisrael''; he , שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ''Šəmaʿ Yīsrāʾēl'', "Hear, O Israel") is a Jewish prayer (known as the Shema) that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewis ...
prayer as well speaks of the importance of Chai, to live and walk in the Jewish cultural lifestyle.
Two common Jewish names used since Talmudic times, are based on this symbol, Chaya feminine, Chayim masculine. The Jewish toast (on alcoholic beverages such as wine) is l'chaim, 'to life'.
[
On a spiritual (and historical) level, chai stands for being alive in front of God as opposed to being (spiritually) dead. This is derived from Tenach, Deuteronomy 30:19–20 where (the) heaven(s) and the earth are depicted as a witness for the fact that there is life and death, blessing and curse and that you (therefore) should choose Life (God), in order to live.
]
Linguistics
The word is made up of two letters of the Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet ( he, wikt:אלפבית, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew languag ...
– Chet () and Yod (), forming the word "chai", meaning "alive", or "living".[ The most common spelling in ]Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
is "Chai", but the word is occasionally also spelled "Hai". The usual modern pronunciation of this word is , while a transcription of the Biblical
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
and Mishnaic
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...
pronunciation would have likely been (with a pharyngeal consonant).
In Hebrew, the related word ''chaya'' () means "living thing" or "animal", and is derived from the Hebrew word ''chai'' (), meaning "life".
Numerology
There have been various mystical numerological
Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...
speculations about the fact that, according to the system of gematria
Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher ...
, the letters of ''chai'' add up to 18[ (see "Lamedvavniks" etc.). For this reason, 18 is a spiritual number in Judaism, and many Jews give gifts of money in multiples of 18 as a result.][
]
In Jewish culture
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
The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles.
A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...
and the Hamsa
The ''hamsa'' ( ar, خمسة, khamsa) is a palm-shaped amulet popular throughout North Africa and in the Middle East and commonly used in jewellery and wall hangings.Bernasek et al., 2008p. 12Sonbol, 2005pp. 355–359 Depicting the open right h ...
.[
Jews often give gifts and donations in multiples of 18, which is called "giving chai". 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.][
It appears in the slogan "''!''" (, "The people of Israel live!").
It is heard in ]
BBC recording
from April 20, 1945 of Jewish survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concent ...
five days after their liberation. This was the first Sabbath ceremony openly conducted on German soil since the beginning of the war. With people still dying around them, the survivors sang what would become the Israeli national anthem, "Hatikvah
Hatikvah ( he, הַתִּקְוָה, haTīqvā, ; ) is the national anthem of the State of Israel. Part of 19th-century Jewish poetry, the theme of the Romantic composition reflects the 2,000-year-old desire of the Jewish people to return t ...
". At the end of "Hatikvah", British Army Chaplain Leslie Hardman
Reverend Leslie Henry Hardman Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE HCF (18 February 1913 – 7 October 2008) was an Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Rabbi and the first Jewish British Army Military Chaplain, chaplain to enter B ...
shouts out, ''Am Yisrael Chai!'' ("The people of Israel is alive!")
In the Eurovision Song Contest 1983
The Eurovision Song Contest 1983 was the 28th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Munich, then West Germany, following the country's victory at the with the song "Ein bißchen Frieden" by Nicole. Despite their first vic ...
, which was held in Germany four decades after Shoah
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...
, Israel was represented with the song " Chai", performed by Ofra Haza
Bat-Sheva Ofra Haza ( he, בת-שבע עפרה חזה; 19 November 1957 – 23 February 2000), known as Ofra Haza (), was an Israeli singer, songwriter, actress, and Grammy Award-nominated recording artist commonly known in the Western world as ...
, which includes the line ''Am Yisra'el chai''.
Several Jewish radio stations have the word in their names, including Kol Chai
Kol Chai ( he, קול חי) is a Haredi and National Religious radio station in Israel established in 1996. The station, based in Bnei Brak, broadcasts six days a week: not on Shabbat.
Frequencies
Contributors
;Current
*David Lau
* Mordech ...
(Israel), Radio Jai
Radio Jai is a Jewish radio station broadcasting from Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was founded in 1992 by Miguel Steuermann, who is originally from Santiago, Chile. Jai is the Spanish spelling of Chai (Hebrew: חי).
Radio Jai broadcasts at 96. ...
(Argentina), and ChaiFM
ChaiFM is a South African Jewish
community radio station broadcasting to the greater Johannesburg area on 101.9 FM. It broadcasts 24 hours a day six days a week, taking a break from Friday night to Saturday night because of Shabbat.
See also
...
(South Africa).
Chai jewelry
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
wore a chai necklace while performing toward the end of his life.[ Baseball star ]Rod Carew
Rodney Cline Carew (born October 1, 1945) is a Panamanian former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman, second baseman and designated hitter from 1967 to 1985 for the Minnesota Twins ...
wore a chai necklace during his playing days;[ his first wife and daughters were Jewish, even though Carew himself never formally converted to Judaism. Canadian rapper ]Drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* ...
, himself Jewish, wore a chai necklace on the cover of ''Vibe'' magazine in 2010.
See also
* Culture of Israel
* Hamsa
The ''hamsa'' ( ar, خمسة, khamsa) is a palm-shaped amulet popular throughout North Africa and in the Middle East and commonly used in jewellery and wall hangings.Bernasek et al., 2008p. 12Sonbol, 2005pp. 355–359 Depicting the open right h ...
* Hayyi Rabbi
In Mandaeism, Hayyi Rabbi ( myz, ࡄࡉࡉࡀ ࡓࡁࡉࡀ, translit=Hiia Rbia, lit=The Great Life), 'The Great Living God', is the supreme God from which all things emanate. He is also known as 'The First Life', since during the creation of th ...
* Jewish ceremonial art
Jewish ceremonial art, also known as Judaica (), refers to an array of objects used by Jews for ritual purposes. Because enhancing a mitzvah by performing it with an especially beautiful object is considered a praiseworthy way of honoring God's ...
References
{{commons category, חי
Symbols
Jewish symbols
he:חי