Philologos
By Philologos
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News Fateful Mufletas
Sometimes there are columns so serendipitous that they make you believe in fate. This is one of them. It was Sunday, May 1, the last day of Passover for you readers in America but the first day after Passover here in Israel, where the holiday is seven days instead of the eight that it is…
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Culture Neighbor, Fellow or Friend?
One of the best-known verses in the Bible occurs in this week’s Torah reading of Kedoshim. It is also one of the most controversial. The verse in question is Leviticus 19:18, the Hebrew of which contains the phrase “Ve-ahavta le-re’akha kamokha.” The King James Version of the Bible translates this as, “Thou shalt love thy…
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News Pasteurized Wine
An article on Passover wines in the April 12 edition of the New York-based newspaper The Jewish Week relates that an “increasingly larger number of kosher wines are non-mevushal, meaning that only Orthodox Jews are involved in the wine’s production. Mevushal wine is wine that is flash pasteurized to allow non-Jews to handle it.” “Mevushal”…
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News Seder Songs
A favorite feature of the Passover Seder for those not feeling overwhelmed by sleep or food is the music, the songs at the end of the Seder. The Haggada has four of these: “Ki lo Na’eh, Ki Lo Ya’eh”; “Adir Hu”; “Echad Mi Yode’a,” and “Had Gadya.” All four are highly repetitive, and the last…
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News Getting Wolfowitzed
‘Getting Wolfowitzed: Bolkestein as villain” was the caption of a column by John Vinocur in the March 29 International Herald Tribune. It’s not the first time that “to Wolfowitz” has been used as a verb in the English language, but it’s different from the other times. But first, who is Bolkestein and how was he…
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Culture The Anthem Question
It’s not every day that a Palestinian gets to be an Israeli national hero, but it happened last week to Abbas Suan, the soccer player who scored a last-minute goal that gave Israel’s national team a 1-1 tie against Ireland and kept it in the running as a contender for the 2006 World Cup Finals….
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News To Hurt It Can’t Hurt
‘B’seder, le’hazik zeh lo yazik,” a visitor to my house said the other day when I offered him an aspirin for the headache he’d complained of. In Hebrew, his remark was perfectly normal. Translated literally into English, however, it would sound rather strange, to wit: “All right, to hurt it can’t hurt.” In more ordinary…
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News Tangible vs. Reasonable
What is the difference between a possibility that is “tangible” and a possibility that is “reasonable”? If Israel’s attorney general, Emmanuel Mazuz has his way, it might be the difference between going and not going to jail for incitement to murder Prime Minister Sharon. In the wake of the increasingly strident agitation against Sharon that…
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