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לְפַנֵּק In many countries all over the world yesterday it was Mothers Day – יוֹם הָאֵם, in Hebrew.

Here’s a song by Arik Einstein dedicated to his mother. I venture to say it might be sung for most mothers. One of the lines in the song is:

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אִמָּא, אִמָּא אַתְּ פִּנַּקְתְּ אֹתִי Mom, mom, you pampered me פינקת comes from the active-intensive פִּעֵל verb, לְפַנֵּק, which also means to indulge someone.

Other forms of this root:

לְהִתְפַּנֵּקto indulge oneself – a reflexive-intensive הִתְפַּעֵל verb מְפֻנָּק, מְפֻנֶּקֶתspoiled person, overly-indulged (referring to a male and female, respectively) – an adjective deriving from a passive-intensive פֻּעַל verb. לפנק has its source in Biblical Hebrew.

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Ami Steinberger is founder and director of Ulpan La-Inyan.