Chaos Declares, ‘Let There Be Balagan!’ |
When he was asked if there were Hebrew words that he admired because they have no counterpart in English, Etgar Keret suggested balagan, denoting chaos that’s inspired.
Like tohu vohu, it has philologically much merit, despite lack of deficiencies appearing to be quite absurd, though from its DNA emerges what is right, God’s building block when He created from this word its bright antithesis, exclaiming loud: “Let there be light!”
It’s a collective noun that’s plural, which made light effective, prevented by lack of deficiencies from being defective.
Etgar Keret’s book Suddenly, A Knock on the........