Philologos
By Philologos
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Culture If You Don’t Know the Way to Hell, You Can Find It on a Map
George Jochnowitz writes about “gehenna,” an English synonym for “hell” that comes, via Greek and Latin, from the Hebrew word gehinnom. This in turn derives from gey ben hinnom, “the valley of the son of Hinnom” (or simply “the Valley of Hinnom,” as it is known in English), which is the biblical name of a…
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Culture Solving a Linguistic Mystery as Quickly as ‘Poof’
It would be ironic if the single sentence for which John Kerry, an articulate politician, were to be remembered one day were “Poof!” And yet Mr. Kerry’s pithy description of a breakdown in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations whose failure surprised no one but himself may go down in history as his most memorable utterance. What is surprising…
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News Why Kitniyot Passover Fight Is Literally Full of Beans
When is a legume not necessarily a legume? When it’s a min kitniyes, might be the Yiddish answer, which could be translated as, “When it’s a whatchamacallit.” And why is that? The week of Passover is a good time to ask. As the more ritually meticulous among you are aware, legumes — which is to…
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News Moses Told Us To Dip Hyssop in Blood. Did He Mean Marjoram?
‘Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Choose lambs for yourselves, for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood which is in the…
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Culture Getting to the Heart and Sole of the Matter
Shelly Rosen, who grew up living with grandparents who spoke to her in Yiddish, writes that Yiddish words from those days are still popping up in her head — the latest of which is padeshve, which she thinks means “the sole or arched part of the bottom of my foot.” And she asks, “Did I…
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News Was Daniel’s ‘River of Fire’ Really the Milky Way
A reader signing his or her name as “ASP” asks: “In her book ‘The Passover Seder,’ Ruth Gruber Fredman wrote that the galaxy is called seder or ‘order’ in Hebrew. Is this true?” Exactly what Ruth Gruber Fredman wrote in her book, I don’t know, but seder, while it does mean “order” in Hebrew, does…
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News What’s a Jewish Town Doing in the Middle of ‘Madame Bovary?’
The other day, a French friend who lives in Israel used the expression quel capharnaüm to describe the state of her apartment after her small grandchildren had come for a visit. What she meant was, “What a mess,” but to my surprise, when I told her she had used a most appropriate word for Hebrew-speaking…
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Culture Strange Tie Between Jew’s Harps and Circumcision Clamps
Jacob Sivak, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the School of Optometry at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, writes: “The Jew’s harp is a simple but common musical instrument that I acquired a few years ago, and I am intrigued by its name. Although I can find no reference to any linkage between it and Jews…
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