In Hebrew: 'Get Well Soon'

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February 7, 2013, 12 PM ET

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הַחְלָמָה מְהִירָה, רְפוּאָה שְׁלֵמָה

This entry is for Jeremy H. and for Savta. It's flu season in Israel, and the hospitals have been overfull recently with flu patients. The traditional Jewish way of wishing someone a speedy recovery is saying רְפוּאָה שְׁלֵמָה

, which means, literally, a complete healing. But a more common expression in Modern Hebrew is הַחְלָמָה מְהִירָה

- literally, a speedy recovery. החלמה

comes from the active-causative הִפְעִיל verb, לְהַחְלִים

- to recover. מהירה

is the feminine form of the adjective, מָהִיר

- quick, speedy, fast. We use מהירה and מהיר, as opposed to מְהֵרָה

and מַהֵר

, because we're calling the recovery quick - whereas מהרה and מהר mean quickly, speedily,and fast as an adverb. For example:

הֵם מְאַחֲלִים הַחְלָמָה מְהִירָה לְכָל הַחוֹלִים. They wish a quick recovery to all the sick people.

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