בבקשה Bevakesha

It is one of the first Hebrew words I learned way back in 2007 when all I could say was, “Hi”, “thank you”, and “please”. And I thought, “Wow, what a long word just to say ‘Please’.” Little did I know the greatness of this four-syllable word! Yes, you can use it to polite-ify a request, though Israeli’s rarely do. Just as in American English you can imply a “please” by other word choices and intonation (e.g., “Could you hand me the salt” vs. “Pass the salt, please”), politeness is included in requests in ways other than “Bevakesha” often. (Although with my broken Hebrew, I still rely on it pretty heavily—along with a plead-like smile). But oh the wonders of Bevakesha.

I think every language has some very useful words. In Italy, you pretty much say Prego whenever you have nothing else to say. In the states, I use Cool, Okay, and Hey in a similar way. In Japan, Sumimasen was my fill-in-the-blank phrase. Bevakesha is such a word. It can be used in situations where in America I would use a wide variety of words and phrases. I have mentioned the “please” function. It is also the response to “Thank you”. It is what servers say when they place your food on the table. It is the word to say when you need the driver’s attention, to pass your ticket/money to him. You can use it to get through a crowd. Store clerks welcome you into the store with it. When you’re ready to order, or likewise, when the ice cream scooping lady is ready to take your order, it is a handy word.

I hadn’t noticed how versatile a lexeme it was until people started translating it for myself and other English speakers. When I would speak in English, “Thank you” and they answered, “Please”, I would look around for what they might be requesting. When they placed before me my Israeli salad and said, “Please”, I blinked and mentally translated. I got on the Sherut (a taxi/shuttle type thing), and said, “Slicha” (“Excuse me”) to get the driver’s attention to hand him my money, and the next person to board used “Bevakesha” for the same function. I made a mental note. When I handed my money over in exchange for my ice cream and the lady smiled and said, "Please," I smiled and reached for my spoon.

It truly is a wonderful word. Bevakesha.