What is written on Darth Vader's Chest control panel?

Question

As I said on the blog, I finally went to the Star Wars Identities Exhibition in Montreal.

There, I took this photo of Darth Vader's Chest control panel (You could get it in higher resolution here) :

Darth Vader's Chest control panel

So, what is written under those buttons?

Oddly enough I compared the lettering to aurek-besh alphabet(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star-Wars-aurek-besh-alphabet-chart.svg) and the letters don't really match up. The letters actually look Hebrew to me (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_alphabet) — onewho, Aug 28 '12 at 16:56
@onewho, I was wondering why no one had whipped out an aurek-besh yet. — ardent, Aug 28 '12 at 17:14
Coffee, Hot Chocolate and Mocha. But where is the dispenser? — Xantec, Aug 28 '12 at 17:22
Definitely Hebrew. Although the middle inscription seems to be up side down. — Dima, Aug 28 '12 at 17:44
I took bottom one (עדשלבה), and tried to translate it: ... it doesn't look like it's a real word, the translation just gave me the word back with English letters: "Adslva" (personally I read it as: 'dshlvah) — onewho, Aug 28 '12 at 17:46
It probably says - "One to rule them all, one to find them, one to bring them all, and to the dark side guide them!" — Secko, Aug 29 '12 at 01:32
@CamelBlues - clearly not. They were occasionally able to form a coherent political consensus. That conclusively proves that could not possibly be Jewish. — DVK-on-Ahch-To, Aug 29 '12 at 17:22

score 61 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 16 '20 at 09:31

61

TL;DR

It says nothing coherent.

Translation

I am an Israeli, fluent in English and Hebrew is my mother tongue.

Although the translations are true it is not what is written on the shield.

First line

The first letter of the first line is a mirrored א

"Aleph", Wikipedia

Second line

The second letter of the second line is an upside down ח or ת

"Tav (letter)", "Heth", Wikipedia

The fourth fifth and sixth letter מצש has only one remote meaning in Hebrew which is מצ"ש - meaning the part of Saturday which is no longer considered Sabbath (after sundown).

The second line has only one letter which can be read as Hebrew which is מ as can be seen here vader's chest panel

Third line

The third line has two words:

The first עד means until
The second word is שלכה which can mean walked.

Notice merit is spelled שזכה the difference is the second letter ל or ז

"Lamedh", Wikipedia

"Zayin", Wikipedia

As for phonetics the words can't really be read.

The first 'word' can be read as

at (sounds like @)

The second word is

Mooutazssh (Moo-za-ash)

The second line cannot be read on my link on the original link it's

TzitzMilag - tz-i-mi-laagg

It has no meaning and can't be read.

The third line can be read as

A'ad Shelacha.

edited Jun 16 '20 at 09:31

Community

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answered Aug 28 '12 at 23:07

raam86

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So the conclusion is? ... It says nothing coherent? – James Khoury Aug 29 '12 at 00:04
@raam86 Second line on OP image is clearly upside-down ציצמלג (which is meaningless), your image is different and it looks like upside-down ימנהמ – Sandman4 Aug 29 '12 at 08:21
It is not different just higher res. With a lot of imagination I can see ימנהמ but the י is off and so is the last (two?) letters – raam86 Aug 29 '12 at 10:03
@raam86 Sandman4 is right, the images are different, you could get it on an higher resolution here – DavRob60 Aug 29 '12 at 11:45
@Sandman4 Sorry about that. You are absolutely right. It is ציצמילג like you said. – raam86 Aug 29 '12 at 13:27
@raam86 Thanks for your input! This is great to have a native speaker of Hebrew to clear this out. The only missing part to completely refute the "His deeds will not be forgiven, until he merits" theory is to explain if the "phonetics of the wording" mentioned in DVK's answer make any sense. Could you update your answer to explain that? – DavRob60 Aug 29 '12 at 14:42
So... the vendor was dyslexic? – Paul Dec 14 '16 at 21:48
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Or maybe it's just hebrew script in the galaxy far far away language – raam86 Dec 15 '16 at 08:42
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Is it possible that it's using ancient Hebrew rather than modern Hebrew? – TheIronCheek Jan 03 '18 at 17:20
@TheIronCheek Biblical Hebrew and Modern Hebrew are different, but they're not that different. – Akiva Weinberger May 16 '22 at 20:35

DVK-on-Ahch-To · Answer 2 · 2012-08-28T17:55:44.497

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According to SW Wikia discussions:

he control panel from V and VI bore Hebrew lettering that can be translated as "His deeds will not be forgiven, until he merits".

Someone fluent in Hebrew was able to corroborate that based on Star Wars Blueprints: The Ultimate Collection, by DK publishing as well

There is also a fairly extended discussion on the page where Wikia links as a reference (Wayback machine link, search for "Hebrew"). It seems that most or at least some of the research dates back to rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc newsgroup.

Yahoo Answers has phonetics of the wording (not corroborated or referenced):

ein ma'asav = his deeds will not
nisslachim = be forgiven
ad shezacha = until he merits

They also note that the middle line is upside down.

Extra several pages of discussion are at STAR WARS Technical Commentaries.

edited Aug 28 '12 at 17:55

answered Aug 28 '12 at 17:50

DVK-on-Ahch-To

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מעשיו לא יסלחו, עד שהוא ראוי = "His deeds will not be forgiven, until he merits"... Letter for letter it doesn't match with the image. – onewho Aug 28 '12 at 17:54
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The text from the "Yahoo Answers" answer clearly does not match what's in the photograph. But given that the middle line is upside-down, and that one of the letters on the top line is upside-down as well, I'm assuming that the person who actually put the lettering the costume didn't know any Hebrew. It's probably better to ask what the text is supposed to say than what it does say; and your answer might well be the answer to that. – ruakh Aug 28 '12 at 19:17
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The middle might be upside down, but even so, it does not resemble "nisslachim" Not even a single letter matches. – soandos Aug 29 '12 at 05:36
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@ruakh - this is an important enough note that you should consider a separate answer – DVK-on-Ahch-To Aug 29 '12 at 14:07
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@onewho - - this is an important enough note that you should consider a separate answer – DVK-on-Ahch-To Aug 29 '12 at 14:09
@ruakh: Given that it doesn't make much sense for there to be Hebrew on Darth Vader's control panel, the decision to modify the letters could have been deliberate. – Lèse majesté Apr 27 '14 at 08:14

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 27 '14 at 12:00

People, remember: It's a prop. Whoever made it back in 1975 decided it needed labels but knew that they would never be readable, so they stuck on something that was clearly not meant to be readable.

Given raam86's statement that the labels are hebrew it is highly likely that the prop maker was jewish enough to know the alphabet and decided to mix it up a bit. Given the number of easter eggs in many movies ( E.T. appears in one scene in this franchise) I'm slightly surprised it doesn't say Coffee, Hot Chocolate and Mocha.

If I had a life support suit like that, I would DEFINITELY have those three buttons. :) (Personally, I would have Mocha in the middle, mixing the coffee and the hot cocoa.) — Codes with Hammer, Dec 15 '15 at 20:19

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 20 '22 at 21:21

This is addressed by Leland Chee (AKA Lobot) in Star Wars Insider 103. Apparently the letters are random nonsense and have no meaning whatsoever.

Q. What do the Hebrew letters on the chest box of the classic trilogy costume for Darth Vader say?

Ask Lobot: During their extensive research for the upcoming Star Wars Blueprints book, illustrators Chris Reiff and Chris Trevas consulted with multiple sources and concluded that the "Hebrew" characters found on various versions of the Darth Vader control panel amount to absolutely nothing. The writing is all just gibberish with many of the characters reversed, upside-down, backwards, incomplete or a combination of those. The letters themselves are different on the different versions of the unit.

As to why they appear there, one of the theories is the letters were actually reused from a Raiders of the Lost Ark prop, as the letters did not appear on the Vader costumes from A New Hope