HaShalom Bacha Me'od

HaShalom Bacha Me'od* Amichai Silberman

The verbal and physical expression of the greeting "shalom" signals a transition from one kind of situation or interaction to another. Therefore, one can interpret this event as capturing the passage between the state that one is about to abandon and anticipation of the state that one is about to enter. Even though the act of saying shalom lasts only a moment, this highly condensed social event deserves our close attention. I have arranged this group of pictures of missed opportunities in ascending order. The first illustrates an optimistic greeting; its content: the shalom declared by family members leaving for work !in the morning. The paintings that follow represent increasingly unreciprocated exclamations of shalom; therefore, "hashabm bacha me'od."

*This is a play-on-words of the title of an Israeli children's song