Hebrew

Preposition

שֶׁל • ‎(shel)

1. Of, belonging to, owned by, pertaining to.

Usage notes

• Phrases headed by של are mostly analogous to English attributive noun phrases and noun phrases plus the clitic ’s. In particular, while של often means “of”, phrases headed by של can only modify noun phrases and similar syntactic entities; adverbial uses of English of must be translated with a different preposition, usually מ־ ‎(mi-).
• Words identical to pronoun-including forms of של often result from the straightforward composition of ש־ ‎(she-, “that, which”) and ל־ ‎(l'-, “to”).
• In formal or archaic Hebrew, attributive uses of של are often replaced with noun compounds (in which one noun is in the construct state), and predicative uses are often replaced with simply ל־ ‎(l'-).

Inflection

Etymology 2

Verb

שַׁל • ‎(shal)

1. masculine singular imperative of נָשַׁל ‎(nashál)
   • Exodus 3:5, with translation of the King James Version:

     שַׁל נְעָלֶיךָ מֵעַל רַגְלֶיךָ

     shal n'aléch meál raglécha

     put off thy shoes from off thy feet

References

• Respective commentaries of Rashi and Abraham ibn Ezra to Exodus 3:5.