Achi - My Brother

Paula R. Stern
A Soldier's Mother
08 June '10

I hear it said so often, that simple word, "Achi" - my brother, in Hebrew, and each time, it does something to me. It is a greeting Shmulik uses with his friends, his fellow soldiers...and more, it is a greeting they use with him. I heard it in several conversations this morning as Shmulik spoke with his friends. I can't explain what it does to me to hear it; the affection I hear in his voice and today, as he was speaking to his friend and he put his friend on the speaker so we could discuss where to meet the bus that would take him to his base.

As they closed the phone, his friend agreed to speak to the bus driver to make sure the bus would stop and pick Shmulik up on the side of the road, and there it was, "See you on the bus, my brother," his friend said to him.

It's just an expression. I've heard Elie say it to others; others say it to Elie and now to Shmulik. Just an expression and yet it says so much about the relationships people build here in Israel. It is there to see in how our soldiers greet each other. There in how they speak.

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