Philologos
By Philologos
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News Shabbat Shalom
Berel Lang of Wesleyan University writes to ask if I would “consider tracing the genealogy of the Hebrew Sabbath greeting ‘Shabbat Shalom’ — specifically, when it entered popular discourse.” And he continues: “My hunch is that it is a) modern and b) secular, that is, deriving from the generally nonreligious world of Zionist pioneers in…
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Culture Shabbat Shalom – Genealogy, Origin, and History of the Quintessential Sabbath Phrase
Berel Lang of Wesleyan University writes to ask if I would “consider tracing the genealogy of the Hebrew Sabbath greeting ‘Shabbat Shalom’ — specifically, when it entered popular discourse.” And he continues: “My hunch is that it is a) modern and b) secular, that is, deriving from the generally nonreligious world of Zionist pioneers in…
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News Notions of Numerology
Lose Hanick from Toronto writes: “The numerical value of the Hebrew letters Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, which spell the sacred name of God, is 10+5+6+5. or 26. But so is the numerical value of ‘God,’ ‘g’ being the seventh letter of the English alphabet, ‘o’ the 15th, and ‘d’ the fourth. Is this purposeful or coincidental?” I suppose…
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News Pit of Ignorance
llan Levine from Manhattan writes: “Whenever I meet someone who is, or claims to be, fluent in Yiddish, I give him or her a test. I ask, ‘How do you say “armpit” in Yiddish?’ Over many years, I have yet to receive a correct answer to this question, even from people whose first language was…
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News Et tu, Wex?
Why is it that in the English language there are so many popular books about Yiddish as opposed to, say, French, Portuguese, Turkish or Hindi? And why is it that these books are invariably humorous in tone, as if Yiddish were somehow an intrinsically cute or hilarious language? For instance, log on to Amazon’s Web…
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News Till 120
Hy Rosenfeld from Phoenix writes: “This week, while lighting a yahrzeit candle in memory of my mother, I remembered that, when somebody did a good deed or performed an act of kindness, she would say — in Yiddish, of course — ‘till 120.’ I have heard this expression used by others, too. Why the specific…
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News Kadima!
So Ariel Sharon’s new party is called Kadima. For a while, it was touch and go: Some of his political advisers wanted Ah.rayut Le’umit or “National Responsibility.” But “Kadima” was deemed catchier and won the day. In Israel, the decades in which parties had dry, politically descriptive names — e.g., Mapai, an acronym for The…
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News Is British Ish Brit?
Rabbi Samuel Silver of Boca Raton, Fla., has a short question: “Is ‘British’ related to brit?” I take it that this question is tongue in cheek. The claim that “British” comes from the Hebrew words brit (or “covenant,” familiar to many of you in its Ashkenazic form of bris, a circumcision) and ish (“man”) so…
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