In hot sharav/Hamsin, scorching summer days in Israel, people are desperate to find a shady outdoor spot. So the municipalities have been providing mitslalot “public shaded areas.” The word is obviously related to tsel “shade; shadow; protection”* (plural tselalim). The mi- is a prefix that usually indicates a place where something is done, as with mis’adah “restaurant” (from the root s-’-d “to eat”); mikhbasah “laundry” (k-b-s “launder”).
Other related words include tsalal “become shady, dark” (Nehemiah 13:19); tselalit “silhouette”; hitslil/hetsel “cover with shade”; hatslalah “shadowing”; tselali “shady, shadowy.” Closely related are tselem “(dark) image, likeness”; matslemah “camera obscura”; tsalmavet “shadow of death” (Psalms 23:4); tsalah “to roast, grill, make dark (red meat).”
*As in “God is your shade / protection (tsillekha) at the right hand” (Psalms 121:5), betsal’el “Betsalel” (in God’s shelter), and perhaps Tsillah/Zillah (“God’s protection”).
Yona Sabar is a professor of Hebrew and Aramaic in the department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA.
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