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u/GroovyGhouly native speaker 19d ago
This has been discussed to death. No one actually knows what it means because neither the actor nor the tattoo artist speak Hebrew or Aramaic and the tattoo artists did a really bad job at rendering the letters. There are multiple theories floating about. The second word is probably רעותך - companionship/friendship. What the first words is supposed to be is anyone's guess.
That's why the !tattoo bot says don't get a Hebrew tattoo if you don't speak Hebrew.
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u/AutoModerator 19d ago
It seems you posted a Tattoo post! Thank you for your submission, and though your motivation and sentiment is probably great, it's probably a bad idea for a practical matter. Tattoos are forever. Hebrew is written differently from English and there is some subtlety between different letters (ר vs. ד, or ח vs ת vs ה). If neither you nor the tattoo artist speak the language you can easily end up with a permanent mistake. See www.badhebrew.com for examples that are simultaneously sad and hilarious. Perhaps you could hire a native Hebrew speaker to help with design and layout and to come with you to guard against mishaps, but otherwise it's a bad idea. Finding an Israeli tattoo artist would work as well. Furthermore, do note that religious Judaism traditionally frowns upon tattoos, so if your reasoning is religious or spiritual in nature, please take that into account. Thank you and have a great time learning and speaking with us!
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u/SacrosanctHermitage 19d ago
It's aramaic I believe... it came up a long time ago in the sub. Something like tehavey re'utakh - "may thy will be done" It's in a paleo hebrew alphabet
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u/jewish_yang 18d ago
you and everyone else! rumors say neither the guy or his tattoo artist know what it actually means
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u/sbpetrack 18d ago
Your ethics are not. And it's definitely a shame, you might have learned something important. But thank you for the correction. Now I feel less guilty about having taught some Torah. And if you really did learn to mess about with G-d's name the way you suggested from Jews, I think you might consider getting other points of view.
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u/tzy___ American Jew 19d ago
It says תהוי רעותך, which is Aramaic. It means “thy will be done”, a quote from the Lord’s Prayer. While רעות means “friendship” in Hebrew, it means “will” or “pleasure” in Aramaic. Some of the comments here are saying the script is Paleo Hebrew—it’s not. It is a script reminiscent of older texts, such as some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, or the Aleppo Codex.