Hi Maeve,

I wondered the same thing. I don't know much about either language, but as I understand it, Aramaic has some similarities to Hebrew. My guess was that the words shalom, lecha, ahavti, alma, and k'dosha are all Aramaic words that are close to the Hebrew. The other possibility is that the person who replied to me (not necessarily Bikel himself) simply made an error, and the intent of the original author was indeed to employ Hebrew.

I did write a follow-up reply to the email response I received last week, inquiring about this very thing, but I haven't received a reply. If I ever do, I'll be sure to post it here, since we seem to be the only people in the world who are captivated by the song. :)

We'll have to make sure to look each other up when we get to God's Kingdom and this whole plan all makes sense. ;)

Have a happy new year!

Mark