 Imagine discovering that some of Judaism’s holiest, most intimate texts—the Mourner’s Kaddish, Brich Shmei Dimarei Almah, when the Ark is opened, Ha Lachma Anya at the Seder, even the ketubah—(not to mention Chad Gadya) are not written in Hebrew. They are written in Aramaic. A language most Jews cannot read. Now imagine that sitting across from you is someone who can speak it. And he’s not Jewish. He’s a Christian Aramean from the Galilee. This week on Madlik, for Parshat Vayetzei, Rabbi Adam Mintz and I were joined by Shadi Khalloul, founder of the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association and creator of a Jewish–Christian pre-military academy in Israel. And with him we encountered something rare: “Shlomo from the Galilee”Shadi begins simply:
He speaks from Gush Halav, a Maronite-Aramaic community that has lived in the Galilee “since time immemorial.” His family is indigenous to the region; their church services and lullabies are still in Aramaic. Some Aramean communities—the Syriac Orthodox—speak Aramaic at home, in the shops, at school. Others, like Shadi’s Maronite community, preserved it as a sacred language until the 1920s, much like Jews preserved Hebrew through centuries of exile. Hearing him describe it, you realize: * Shlomo is my Hebrew name… which I now know means “hello” in Aramaic :) A Necessary Aside: Colonization, Democracy, and Truth-TellingBefore we dive deeper into language and Torah, we need to pause. What Shadi says about his people’s history may feel controversial, political, or even polarizing. Shadi speaks with striking clarity about what he calls the real colonization of the Middle East:
He contrasts that with his life in Israel:
For Shadi, this is not rhetoric. And then he offers perhaps his boldest claim:
Agree or disagree, this framing is essential to understanding Shadi’s mission. This episode honors that truth—not to take sides, but to listen. A Language Shared Before Religion DividedParshat Vayetzei gives us what I called the “Torah’s Rosetta Stone.” Laban: Yegar Sahaduta (Aramaic) Two peoples. Rabbi Mintz pointed out that Aramaic was not a Christian invention, nor even a post-biblical Jewish development. Parts of Ezra and Daniel in the Hebrew Bible are written in Aramaic, because it was the spoken language of Jews 2,500 years ago. Shadi pushes the timeline even further back: Abraham’s family came from Aram. We recite it every Passover: This isn’t metaphor.
Aramaic as the Internet of the Ancient WorldThe heart of the episode is language—how Aramaic became the lingua franca of the Ancient Near East:
Everyone else brought an empire. A platform. A shared operating system.
Unlike Greek or Latin, Aramaic was never the language of conquerors. No one owned it, so everyone used it. It is perhaps the earliest example of a neutral, global medium for communication—one that allowed different cultures to speak across boundaries. Jesus in Aramaic—and the Shock of RecognitionThere are two moments in the New Testament where Jesus is quoted in the language he actually spoke. There are no Jewish sources that preserve a spoken voice of Moses or Isaiah or Jeremiah. But we do hear Jesus, the Jewish teacher from the Galilee: “Talitha kumi.” Both are unmistakably Aramaic. Shadi tells us that these two words—Talitha kumi—changed his life. As a college student in Las Vegas, he took a Bible-as-literature course expecting an easy A. When the professor reached this verse, he stopped. “This isn’t English,” the professor said. Shadi corrected him:
That moment sent him back to Israel to revive Aramaic, build institutions, reclaim his people’s identity, and strengthen bonds between Christians and Jews. A Forgotten Minority, a Loyal AllyMost Jews have never heard of the Aramean Christians of Israel. But Shadi describes a community that:
He is building schools, curricula, and even hopes to build an Aramaic town in Israel where the language can be revived as a living tongue. This is not a nostalgic cultural project. The Emotional Peak: Ha Lachma AnyaAt the end of the conversation, I asked Shadi to read Ha Lachma Anya, the opening words of the Passover Seder—words Jews around the world recite in Aramaic every year. He read it with a Galilean accent, the Western Aramaic pronunciation his community preserves. It was not pure Aramaic, he noted, but a mixture of Aramaic and Hebrew—exactly how Jews prayed and spoke for centuries. As he chanted the words, Rabbi Mintz and I were stunned. There was something ancestral, visceral, almost biological in hearing those syllables spoken as our forefathers might have spoken them.
A Bridge RediscoveredAramaic is a reminder of what preceded the divisions: Before Jews and Christians, there were Arameans. This language is not just old. It is relational. It is a map back to a time when peoples now divided were brothers—literally, scripturally, genealogically. In Parshat Vayetzei, Jacob and Laban stand before a stone mound. Aramaic is that stone. Listen to the EpisodeI invite you to listen to this extraordinary conversation with Shadi Khalloul—a man whose life bridges Jewish and Christian worlds, ancient and modern Israel, language and identity, dream and resilience. And whose community just may hold one of the forgotten keys to coexistence in Israel and the Middle East. Sefaria Source Sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/691050 Links: Israeli Christian Aramaic Association - http://www.aramaic-center.com/?lang=en Transcript Geoffrey Stern [00:00:04]: Imagine discovering that the holiest Jewish prayers Kaddish said by mourners, Baruch Shemai Demarah when the Torah is opened, Halachma Anya at the beginning of the Passover Seder, even the Jewish marriage contract, the Ketubah, are written in a language most Jews can’t read. But a Christian Aramean in the Galilee, can.. Geoffrey Stern [00:00:28]: And imagine that this same Christian not only speaks the language of the Talmud more fluently than most Jews, but also served as an IDF paratrooper officer fighting for Israel while preserving one of the world’s oldest living cultures. This week in Vayetzei, we hit the Torah’s own Rosetta stone. Laban names a stone mount in Aramaic, Jacob names it in Hebrew, and a linguistic border comes into focus. Two peoples, two histories, one shared tongue. Our guest is Shadi Khalloul who lives at the intersection. He’s building schools, training soldiers, defending Israel, and reviving Aramaic, the ancient Internet that once linked Jews, Christians and the entire Near East. Welcome to Madlik. My name is Geoffrey Stern, and at Madlik, we light a spark or shed some light on a Jewish text or tradition. Along with Rabbi Adam Mintz, we host Madlik Disruptive Torah on your favorite podcast platform. And now on YouTube and Substack. We also publish a source sheet on Sefaria and a link is included in the show Notes. This week we read Parashat Vayetzei. We are joined by Shadi Khalloul, founder of the Israeli Christian Aramaic association and the Christian Aramaic Jewish Pre-Education Military Program. He was the first Christian to become a paratrooper officer in 1995 and has dedicated his life to bettering the lives of Israel’s Aramean Christians and preserving the heritage and increasing the recognition of Aramaic culture and language. Due to his efforts, the first public elementary school in Israel to teach Aramaic was established in Gush Halev. Shadi, welcome. Let’s explore the language that still connects us. Shadi, it’s such a pleasure to have you. Hello. Shadi Khalloul [00:02:23]: Hello, Geoffrey. How are you? Geoffrey Stern [00:02:26]: Fine, thanks. So I am so thrilled. I have, and I’m sure Adam has questions that we’ve been dying to ask somebody who speaks Aramaic for our whole adult lives. But let’s start. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about your personal journey? Shadi Khalloul [00:02:43]: Yes, Geoffrey. So again, Shalom from Israel, Shlomo, as we say in Aramaic, Shloma or Shlomo from the Galilee, Israel. I am living here. I was born here. For generations we have been here, as you mentioned, together with the Jewish people. We are the indigenous people of the region. And I grew up here as a Christian Maronite, which is a Syriac Aramaic community who inhabited this region since time immemorial. And we have been also living here. And thank God we today actually still testify for our heritage, rich heritage, common heritage, together with the Jewish people in this region, which is the Aramaic Hebraic heritage. And as I, as you know and mentioned, I am Israeli citizen, proud citizen of the State of Israel, happily live in Israel, thank God I live in Israel and not in any other Arab dictatorship state around us. And I say that because I appreciate living in Israel for its Jewish democracy that allow other citizens from all backgrounds this equal democratic rights as you all know and enjoy it in Western civilizations and states as well. And so I decided to serve in the IDF as a paratrooper and I become an officer. And I led, not Christians, I led Jews younger than me under my charge, under my responsibility, I took care of them, I gave order to them, and not the opposite only. And this is a testimony of how liberal and free this state is. And I am glad to also testify that I continued and came to USA to actually reach a high education which is trying to build my American dream. And it was in Las Vegas, Nevada that people think it’s only the Sin City, but God exists also there. And in this Sin City actually God revealed for me our Aramaic heritage again. And through the Bible, the Holy Bible, he actually revealed. This revelation gave me the understanding that my role is not building American dream, but Aramaic dream. So I returned back to the Holy Land, Israel to build this Aramaic vision and to help my country Israel through this vision to build Christian-Jewish relations. So I am very now working on building this relations through our Israeli Christian Aramaic NGO that I founded this NGO through returning, by returning from USA and until now from 2007 then 2025, we achieved so many things that you mentioned part of them. One of them is permit for teaching Aramaic heritage and language in our elementary school which was not allowed under Arab Islamic curriculum. Second, I achieved the recognition of the State of Israel of our Aramaic national identity, which is the only state in the Middle East that recognize us while Arab states still reject and deny our Aramaic identity. And they try to force Arabization and Islamization. This is the real colonization that it is called colonization and not the opposite. And so Israel is the only place to recognize us while others try to colonize us through Arabization and Islamization. And third, I am, I established a school, as you call it, for Christian Jewish leadership through a program of seven month program where both youth from both sides, half, half, about 60 people live together, study together, learn together, deepen their studies about their own culture, their own identity and about other side. And by this we send them both to serve the country and defend the country together. At the end, that’s how we build positive leadership and coexistence based on loyalty to the state that allow them both to thrive and prosper in this region. So I am happy to be part of all this and speak with you about it and the obstacles we face and the vision that we are still trying to achieve, which is to continue our work for best of Israel and our Christian and Jewish relations and our Christian existence and resilience in this region as well. Geoffrey Stern [00:08:03]: Wow. Shadi Khalloul [00:08:03]: The next step is building a town, Aramaic town and Aramaic school in Haifa. And in other part, Aramaic town with a Maronite can revive their identity, their language, their existence will be strengthened and be a peace builders and bridge for peace in this region and example for how peace can exist in this region. Maybe Arabs can follow and copy this model. Adam Mintz [00:08:33]: Amazing. Now let me. First of all, what you’re saying is amazing and we wish you well and we can’t wait to follow you. But we want to focus today on the Aramaic for a minute. Can we come back for a minute? Does your community, does your family, do they speak Aramaic to one another? When you go to school, when you go to the store, do you speak Aramaic to one another? Shadi Khalloul [00:09:01]: Okay, so the Aramaic people has Aramaic language and it’s called Aramaeans. And those Aramains are. They have different churches. One of the churches is the Syriac Orthodox Church, which is still speak Aramaic. They go to school, they speak Aramaic with each other. They have a language that still preserving it, speaking Aramaic in daily life. When a born, a newborn, you know, is born, he. His mom sing for him in Aramaic, speak with him in Aramaic. When they go to a shop, they speak in Aramaic. When they go to school, they speak in Aramaic. Now the Syriac Maronite community, they pray in Aramaic. And the last people who pray, who spoke Aramaic were in. Were tested. How you call it, where they. They. They stopped speaking it in 1925 in Shari, the region which is Mount Lebanon. And since then they preserve the language as a holy language, same or similar to Jews in Diaspora, where the Jews kept preserving Hebrew language as a prayer language, as a sacred language, while speaking English or French or German or. Or other foreign languages, local languages, wherever they exist, but preserving the prayer language as Hebrew. That’s the case for Maronites. So as our community, as a Maronite community, we pray in Aramaic. We now try to revive it as a spoken language here in Israel. And other Syriac Orthodox, our brothers in the Syriac Orthodox Church, which are our own people as well, because we are Syriac Maronites, they are Syriac Orthodox, we all Aramaeans, they still speak it in daily life. And when I go to conferences to Europe, for example, to the diaspora of Aramaic diaspora that was ethnic claims in the Middle east, in Syria and Lebanon, during history time and less it’s 100 years I speak with them in Aramaic, for example. Geoffrey Stern [00:11:24]: So it’s fascinating. There are so many parallels between our peoples, but in a sense you’re doing what (Eliezer) Ben Yehuda did a hundred or so years ago when he tried to take this lashon hakodesh that was used only in the prayers the Hebrew and create a modern language. He had to just to invent a word for electricity, chashmal. And you’re fortunate that there are some communities that actually still speak it and don’t only pray in it, but you are literally reviving the Aramaic language as a spoken language. And that’s amazing. The other thing that’s amazing is I never knew my Hebrew name is Shlomo. And now in Aramaic that means hello, I love that. So I. I don’t want us to believe or our listeners to think that the relationships between our two people has always been so smooth and la dee da. There has been some tensions. We’re going to go to the Torah now and we’re going to about this Rosetta Stone moment where it was actually a peace agreement between two parties that had some friction. But why don’t you tell our listeners about your town? Because it would be easy for you to say you love being an Israeli and you want to be part of the society if your town during the 48 war was untouched. But in my research that’s not the case. You suffered at the war of independence and therefore even more inspirational in the sense of what you’re doing today. Tell us about your your town and your people and where you are now. Shadi Khalloul [00:13:03]: Yes, my original town was called Kfar Baram and this was the only Maronite, Aramaic Syriac town in Upper Galilee close to the Lebanese border or Israeli Lebanese border. This town ended up in the British mandate and it was under French mandate. And in 1924, 25 a new compulier committee moved the borders north and we ended up under British. And during the war of independence we were caught between the clashes of Arab armies that invaded Israel, invaded the land of Israel trying to wipe out the Jewish communities. And the Jews defended themselves and they clashed with them. And the Jewish army actually won that war. And in this clash between the two forces, we were caught in this clash and we were asked to leave the town for two weeks, sorry time. And this two weeks time ended up to be actually until now, 77 almost years. With promises from all government officials, from prime ministers, from Supreme Court, from everyone. You want that we will fix this problem once the situation, the security issues in the border with Lebanon and then between this Arab Israeli conflict will end. This will also end. I urge, like my forefather urged the country. We have nothing to do with this conflict. We are not part of this conflict. We are not the Palestinians, we are not Arabs. We are rather being Maronite Aramaic people. Aramaic people that share with the Jews common heritage, that share with the Jews same history, same enemies that want to annihilate us in this region. They in the letter they said, please treat us as a Jew speaking Arabic. We are. Because we are not enemies, we are Aramains. And based on that, we are still working to fix this issue in a positive way. Because my forefathers write this clearly who they are in 1949 to Ben Gurion. So I cannot now, because of what happened now try to ignore my forefathers and be siding with someone who is trying to annihilate us for centuries in this region since the Arab Islamic colonization of our lands. I know the truth. The truth will set us free. And however and how much it will take, we will keep working in the same direction and the same vision for building peace between us and the Jews as a model, as a bridge for others to follow and pass on it toward a really true peace in this region. For between the indigenous people of the Jewish and Christians of this region and other nations that today become Muslims. And they need to be taught how we can build peace. And this will be the example for them to teach them how peace can be built between us first. And they can copy it if they want. And if they don’t want, they’re to blame and not us. So that’s what I’m trying to do. Adam Mintz [00:16:43]: So just to ask you a question. So we appreciate. Thank you so much for giving us the background and for your passion. Where else are there Aramaic communities in the world world? You talked about the Church. What other countries have these communities where Aramaic is spoken and where the prayers are said in Aramaic? Shadi Khalloul [00:17:05]: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq. That what we call the land of Aram in the Bible the land of Aram. In the Bible it’s called by the Greek, Syria. It’s the same land of Israel, like the same case of land of Israel being called Palestina under Adrianus to punish the Jews and to mix, to make people confused about the origins of them and ignoring the true history of this region and the true names of the region because it’s easy for them to control. That’s what they did for us in what we call the land of Aram. When the Greeks occupied this region, they called our land Syria. And since then, the others who came after the Greeks continue using this name. But in the Bible it’s written obviously the land of Aram and the people who living there are Arameans. And the descendants of those people are the Christian native people of this land that still speak this language Aramaic. Because those Aramains adopted Christianity in the first stages of Christianity because it came from Jewish who were speaking same language like them, Aramaic. Adam Mintz [00:18:32]: So I want to talk about that for a minute. In the Jewish tradition, the speaking of Aramaic actually goes back to the later books of the Jewish Bible. In the books of Ezra, among other places, we have passages actually in Aramaic, which means that 2,500 years ago, before the Greeks, before Christianity, Jews seem to have been speaking Aramaic. And what you’re telling me is that your tradition also predates Christianity. The country of Aram is the country where people spoke Aramaic. So what you, this is fascinating, Geoffrey, and that is that the spoken language of the different people, and again, this is pre-Christianity, it’s not pre-Judaism, but it’s pre-Christianity that the different people in the region, Jews and non Jews, were speaking Aramaic. That was what we call the lingua franca, which means the spoken language of the people. Then you, your community adopted Christianity in its very early stages and you maintained Aramaic. The Jews largely gave up Aramaic. There were some communities in Kazakhstan and places like that where they, they still spoke some Aramaic, but basically we don’t have that tradition. So you maintain the tradition, but that the tradition goes all the way back. Geoffrey, that’s an amazing thing. Now, what you’re going to show in this week’s Torah portion is that Laban calls the place Ygar Sahaduta, which is also his Aramaic language. And we know that Jacob, at least he’s given credit such by the Torah, gives it a Hebrew name, Galed. So you see, Shadi, that all the way back in the time of the Jewish Bible, the Old Testament, you already see that there are different languages that Laban uses the Aramaic And Jacob uses the Hebrew. And so these traditions might go back. But if we date these stories 4,000 years ago means that already 4,000 years ago, this was the language of the region. Geoffrey Stern [00:21:05]: And more importantly. And I’m going to jump in here, because at Madlik, we like to look at the sources. And I have never studied these sources with someone who speaks Aramaic. So you got. You can’t hold me back any longer. So first of all, as the rabbi said, we have this peace agreement between our two peoples in translation from Hebrew to Aramaic, which means already that the two languages connect us. But one of the things that I’m going to argue today is that Aramaic was a language that was different from every other language in the Middle East. It was a language of diplomacy, and it was a language of international affairs. And our source here, which even according to most modern critics who love to date things much later, the critics say that here, when they make a covenant, and that’s what they did, they took the stone and they set it up as a pillar, they both called it in their own language. And in chapter 31, verse 53 of Genesis, they say, may the God of Abraham’s house and the God of Nahor’s house, their ancestral deities, judge between us. So here we have not only language uniting us, but even religion uniting us. It becomes a kesher, a connection between us. Getting back to some of the things that you said, and I just want to go over a little material and then we’ll talk. So Yigar Saduta Rashi, our classical commentary says, this is the Aramaic of Gilad. In Hebrew he says, targumo shell Gilad, the Targum that we have Onkolos, and all that literally means translation. But every Jew knew when you said translation, you were meaning the Aramaic translation. That’s how close the language was. In the Targum Yonatan, which is our transl. Here, it says, v’ karalei lavan o ger sahir vayakov karalei belishon beit kedusha. So you were referring before Saadi to Lashon Hakodesh, which is in your language. Some of you only pray in Aramaic. In our culture, before Ben Yehuda came, some of us could only pray in Hebrew. So again, we have a testament to Targum, which is translation, and we have Lashon kodesh, which is the language of our heritage. I will say there’s a tradition of Shnayimikra v’ echa Targum that every week a Jew is supposed to read the script in Hebrew twice and the Targum once. That’s the regard that we hold for Targum. And I will also say that there was something called a matargaminon when the Torah was read in public in Hebrew, because most Jews at a certain period of time didn’t speak Hebrew, they spoke Aramaic. There was someone who stood right next to them. And when the reader of the Torah said, bereshit baray elohime temaim va aretz, the matagaminum translated that in real-time into Aramaic. That’s how close our traditions are. And the idea that Aramaic was a language of diplomacy, which is what we have here, makes it a fascinating language. Because unlike most languages, and I’ll say maybe the only exception similar, is Yiddish, most languages are made by ruling powers in their day. Romans came with Latin, Greeks came with Greek. What made Aramaic important was that it transcended statehood. People talked or used Aramaic because it was a language that united everybody. It wasn’t linked to any one particular ruling party. It made it like today. English is the language of diplomacy. Maybe 100 years ago, French was the language of diplomacy in the Middle East, Aramaic was the language of diplomacy. I am going to put links in the notes not only to Shadi’s website and his charities, but also to an amazing book called Aramaic, A History of the First World language. Aramaic united the whole Middle East. Do you agree, Saadi, that Aramaic is a unique, uniting language? Shadi Khalloul [00:25:57]: Yes, indeed, I agree with you. It’s not only as uniting as a religious thing. What unite us is the ethnic background of this as well. If I go back to Abraham, you mentioned Abraham and Nahor. Nahur was the brother of Abraham and Nahor. If you go to Abraham house and to Isaac, for example, who Abraham, you know, he wanted him to get married. He sent Eliezer to Aram to get a wife for Isaac. And who was this wife? The wife was called Rebekah, the sister of Laban, the Aramean from the house of Nahur. So we are talking about a people as well that were once one people united and then developed as faith, as religions later on. And you can see also, for example, from Abraham we have Ishmael, Ishmael from Hagar the Servant, they call it Arabs, Muslims today, they all come from this Aramaic background. And let me tell you more than this. The Arabic language development was developed by script and language as a spoken language from Aramaic. So the Arabic language developed from Aramaic. The Hebrew language too was parallel to Aramaic and developed and mixed with Aramaic. And if you go to Eliezer ben Yehuda, for example, you find out that 70% of Ben Yehuda modern language of Hebrew was back from Aramaic that still existed as a spoken language. So all, like you have many. I can give you many examples, many examples of Hebrew words that originated from Aramaic today in our Hebrew language too. And I, for example, if you, if you go to a Yemeni Jew and go and hear how he reads Hebrew based on the ancient grammar of Hebrew and how you should pronounce the words and how it is pronounced in the Mediterranean or Eastern slang, you will think he is speaking Aramaic even though he’s reading Hebrew. Geoffrey Stern [00:28:43]: Amazing. So we share the sources that you just organically brought in. Genesis 24:10, it says he made his way to Aram Naharaim. Aram is Aramaic. When he says in Genesis 25 that Isaac was 40 years old when he took his wife Rebecca, daughter of Betuel the Aramean of Padam Aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. So I wanna add a little bit to some of the magic of what makes Aramaic so magical. And that is, not only was it a language of diplomacy, but it was a language of a wandering nomadic people. And that is something that unites the Jewish people and the Aramaic people. How many people, Rabbi Adam, do we talk to that talk about their diaspora, that talk about their galut? We have so much in common. But I want to bring everybody back to the Passover Haggadah. In the Passover Haggadah at a certain place, we said Arami Oved avi that. And we’re quoting a very ancient text that’s used in the Bikurim ceremony when you bring your first fruits. It’s in Deuteronomy 26. And basically the Haggadah tries to translate it differently, but the real translation is an Aramean nomad was my father. So again, the language of Aramaic was a language that superseded borders. It superseded, transcendent ethnicity. It was. I am going to go out on a limb here. Shadi I believe that Aramaic was the first Internet. I believe it was the first meta language that enabled people of different backgrounds to talk amongst themselves for discovery. Am I going too far here or do you agree with me? Shadi Khalloul [00:30:45]: You are not. That’s why the Assyrian Empire adopted Aramaic. That’s why the Persian Empire adopted Aramaic. That’s why in the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great, they tried to impose Hellenic or Greek on the people, while Aramaic resisted and kept being used until the 7th century, until the Arab Islamic conquest in the 7th century. The Aramaic, as you mentioned, was the Internet of those days. It was the connecting language between People, it’s a language where Jews spoke it until 7th century. Like, like those early Christians who developed from Judaism back then and from Aramaic. People who were pagans and adopted the Christianity from the first disciples who were Jews. We cannot deny this. This is a fact and history denying it. It’s denying the roots of Judaism and the roots of Christianity that developed from here, [not] from the Vatican, not from the Western civilization. It developed here in the land of Israel. Geoffrey Stern [00:31:50]: So in the New Testament there are two, what I would call today selfies, places where we get to hear Jesus speak in his own language. He’s quoted in Mark 5:41, where he’s talking to a young girl who’s maybe rejected. Maybe people think that there’s something wrong with her, she’s a prostitute or whatever. And he says, why don’t you say. Say it in Aramaic? What does he say? Shadi Khalloul [00:32:17]: Talita kumi. Geoffrey Stern [00:32:20]: Talita kumi. Which. And it’s quoting in Mark, the New Testament we only have in Greek. But it preserves language from Jesus himself. When he’s on the cross, he goes, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But in the, in, in the New Testament it says, go ahead.Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani this is the Aramaic translation of Psalms 22. In Hebrew it’s Eli Eli lama azavtani. And in the Targum of Tehillum it says Eli eli matul ma shabaktani. It uses the same word that the New Testament puts into Jesus’ mouth. We can say as Jews we need to know Aramaic. But Shadi, I think you would agree with me if you’re a Christian, the thrill of being able to learn a language that according to the New Testament itself, most probably Jesus spoke has to be extremely thrilling. Shadi Khalloul [00:33:29]: It is actually very emotional for me actually to think that how people connected to each other and why those wars develop, they shouldn’t be developed. We are all brothers, we all want people here. And unfortunately, this development of this region specifically during history of Middle east just make it nonsense. We are same people. We are same brothers and sister from the same forefathers. We should actually know the facts. And once we reveal this Aramaic to others, maybe, maybe we will put again and in the minds of people a little bit here of peaceful attitude. Specifically making the Arabs knowing their roots again that there were not Arabs here in this region. They were speaking Aramaic like us. And only this type of Arabism was developed in the seventh century. If they know back their roots, they maybe would better respect the Jews and the minority of Aramaic or Christians that they still exist. In this region. This is something really, I think that can make a solution and good manner for the state of Israel and for Lebanon and for Syria and for the entire region. I want to mention for you, Adam and Geoffrey, one thing about the Talita Kumi story that you need to know about this. What made me come back from United States to Israel? These two words of in the Bible. I was a student in Las Vegas my last semester. I took Bible as English literature as an easy course to earn credit and finish my degree as a bachelor degree in International Business and Finance. And I took that course and not Shakespeare as English Literature because I come from this area. I learned the Bible. It’s easy. And though we were reading the Bible and once we read this verse, one of the students, American Youth, the instructor was a professor, a Catholic professor. He said, no, don’t. Stop, stop. This is not English. This is Aramaic. That’s still written as it is, as Jesus spoke it. And you know, Jesus was a Jewish person. He spoke Aramaic language. And this is the language of the Jews back then. And he said this sentence, so it’s not English. And it kept being this. AND UNFORTUNATEL IT DIED. He said, I said, excuse me, it didn’t die. We still speak it. We still pray in this language. We still exist. He said, who you are? I said, my name is Shadi. I’m Israeli Christian. I belong to the Syriac Aramaic Maronite Church of Antioch. And this is who we are. I said, sorry, we don’t know about you. Prepare presentation next week. And I ended up preparing presentation and saying, oh my God, why I spoke. I now I need to. I prepare presentation. I already want to build my business. I have my business already and don’t have time to invest on. I wanted to have this easy course. I ended up deepening my knowledge about our roots, about our heritage, about our language, about our history. And I discovered how in common we share with the Jewish people here, how we have this beautiful heritage together and how impactful it can be on societies here in this region. And I said, wait, wait. After I gave this lecture about language and I told them the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic prayer as the only prayer actually. Jesus said, and it was in Aramaic. We still pray it in as it is. I mean, this is the Lord prayer in Aramaic, as it is in the Aramaic words and language. So I, I saw people crying. I saw people asking me how we can help your people, how we can help your language, how we can assist your community. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I ran away from my Community. I finished my military service. I came to the United States to build my American dream. These guys pushing me back to Israel to help my people and my community and build my Aramaic dream. So I ended up at the end, deciding that I will go back home and build my Aramaic dream. And that’s what I am doing. From one verse in the Bible was mentioned by you, Talitha Kumi. Adam Mintz [00:38:30]: That’s an amazing story. Wow! Geoffrey Stern [00:38:33]: So we are trapped for time because otherwise, I could continue this all day. But just as it was a thrill for your Christian brothers to hear you say the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic. Shadi Khalloul [00:38:49]: It’s a Jewish prayer. Hey, he wasn’t. Geoffrey Stern [00:38:51]: Of course, Adam and I. Adam and I understood 80% of what you were saying. It was amazing. I was ready to join your synagogue. So listen, I don’t know how big your screen is. Can you read the halachma Anya? Can you read it on the screen in. In your accents? I don’t. I’m putting you on the spot. What I am asking Saadi to do is we start our seder, the holiest, arguably holiest moment of a Jewish family once a year. And we don’t speak Hebrew. We speak Aramayach. Shadi Khalloul [00:39:27]: I would say it in my language, in my accent, because all the ha. What you say ha in Aramaic, we say ho. The A alif at the end of the word is for us translated as kamat Skatan with o. So it’s like we are Ashkenazi Jews. You remember? Adam Mintz [00:39:46]: You know? Shadi Khalloul [00:39:47]: Okay, so ha is ho lahma. Instead of saying, we say in Hebrew it’s low and not la. So we say it low. So that’s how it is. It’s pronounced for us in our Western Aramaic dialect. It’s more Galilean Direct or Jerusalem Talmud more area. So what you see here, it’s a mix of Aramaic and Hebrew, by the way, right? Adam Mintz [00:40:45]: Correct. Well, that’s the way it was written. Shadi Khalloul [00:40:47]: Aramaic and Hebrew. It’s not pure Aramaic. What I. So you have many Aramaic words and many Hebrew word mixed together. Adam Mintz [00:40:56]: Amazing. Shadi. I have to sneak out, but this was. Geoffrey this is absolutely amazing. The only podcast in history where we have someone who said the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic and read Halachma Anya. Jeff, we have to start that. Everyone’s going to read Halachma Anya in the original Aramaic. Thank you so much, Shadi, and we wish you well. Geoffrey Stern [00:41:17]: Shadi, I want to say that I teared up a little bit when you were saying that. Geoffrey Stern [00:41:22]: Because I felt like I was closer to the way my great, great, great, great, great grandfather would have said it. This is just so beautiful. For our listeners, I’m going to put a link to Shadi’s charities in Israel, amazing schools that he’s creating, pre military academies that he’s creating. And he’s going to be listed with PEF Israel soon. And I’ll put a link there when he has it. Shadi, you are my new brother. Aramaic has let us two people discover, rediscover ourselves all over again. And I agree with you. I think their potential here to create a new Middle East is possible. So thank you so much for joining us. I look forward next time in Israel to come visit you in person. Shadi Khalloul [00:42:11]: Always welcome. Thank you so much. Todah Raba.
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Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Connected Through Aramaic
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