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11
votes
2answers
144 views
Calling a Jew a “guru”?
Is it appropriate to use the term "guru" to refer to an expert in matters of Judaism or Jewish law on the assumption that it will be understood as the second definition here, or is it inappropriate no ...
3
votes
3answers
127 views
Is there a single syntactic class “פעיל” in Biblical Hebrew?
Is there a unique class of Biblical Hebrew words of the form "פעיל"?Is the putative class of Biblical Hebrew words strictly a class of nouns or adjectives?If not, is it strictly divisible into two ...
5
votes
1answer
204 views
Are the Aramaic root ק.ב.ל and the Hebrew root ק.ב.ל related?
When the word מקבילות comes up in parashas T'ruma, Rash"i defines it based on the Aramaic root ק.ב.ל, commonly found in the preposition לקבל (against or opposite) to mean physically across ...
2
votes
1answer
274 views
Issues with Wording, Honorifics, Symbols, Rashei Teivot on Tombstones
In my work on translating tombstones (Ashkenazic - Slovakian or what was once Austro-Hungarian) towns, I occasionally come across phrases or honorifics that are difficult for me to understand. I do ...
2
votes
2answers
97 views
Why does the term Eretz Yisroel never appear in the Torah?
After anylyzing the term "Eretz Yisroel" I could only find it in 3 instances in Nach. http://mi.yodeya.com/questions/5681/does-the-term-ever-appear-in-tanach
Why does the term Eretz Yisroel never ...
11
votes
2answers
146 views
Does the term “ארץ ישראל” ever appear in Tanach?
Do these words ever appear together as one phrase in Tanach?
3
votes
3answers
102 views
1
vote
1answer
53 views
צִרְעָה Pshat or definition
וְגַם אֶת הַצִּרְעָה יְשַׁלַּח יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בָּם עַד אֲבֹד הַנִּשְׁאָרִים וְהַנִּסְתָּרִים מִפָּנֶיךָ (Deuteronomy 7:20)
What is the הַצִּרְעָה mean in this posuk?
1
vote
4answers
311 views
Tzanua…Not Tznius!
People often say tznius when they mean to say tzanua. Do you know of any other examples in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Yiddish in which people use the noun but they really mean to use the adjective?
12
votes
2answers
306 views
Where did “shabat shalom” come from?
What is the source for the greeting "שבת שלום"?
Where is it earliest attested in print?
What does it mean?
8
votes
3answers
127 views
Identifying a chasid
Say you meet a stranger who is a member of a particular community of chasidus. What is the most polite and direct way to ask the person of which community they are a member? I.e. a question whose ...
3
votes
2answers
267 views
What's the etymology of the Hassidic term “b'sho'oh” for a chaperoned quasi-date?
I've heard in the Hassidic world, if two families decide that one's young fellow should meet the other's young lady, the couple has a brief, chaperoned, meeting, known as a b'shoh (spelling?), to ...
3
votes
2answers
113 views
ה' ימלך לעלם ועד to ימלוך ה' לעולם
In Parshas Beshalach (and Emet Ve-Yatziv/Ve-Emunah) it says ה' ימלך לעלם ועד, but in Sefer Tehilim (and Kedushah) it says ימלוך ה' לעולם. Why the change in language?
2
votes
3answers
110 views
difference between תולעים and רמה
In Beshalach 16:20:
וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ אֶל מֹשֶׁה וַיּוֹתִרוּ אֲנָשִׁים מִמֶּנּוּ עַד בֹּקֶר וַיָּרֻם תּוֹלָעִים וַיִּבְאַשׁ וַיִּקְצֹף עֲלֵהֶם מֹשֶׁה:
A few Pesukim later in 16:24:
...
8
votes
2answers
195 views
What's the difference between כשב and כבש?
What's the difference between כשב and כבש? Why does the Torah use both?
0
votes
2answers
114 views
What Tzar (Pain) is There in Leaving Egypt?
It says Vayhi Beshalach Pharoh Es Haam why Vayhi that indicates a language of Tzar what Tzar(pain) is there is Leaving Mitzrayim?
3
votes
2answers
103 views
cities that start with ה־
There are a good number of cities referred to in Y'hoshua, of course, and a sizable percentage (I'm guesstimating about 5%) of them start with ה־ (most famously הָעַי, I think).What ...
1
vote
1answer
41 views
יוֹשְׁבֵי דְּבִיר
In Y'hoshua 15:15, and again in Shof'tim 1:11, going to the city of דְּבִיר is referred to as "going to יוֹשְׁבֵי דְּבִיר" (something if not unique then nearly so (in Y'hoshua, anyway; I haven't ...
12
votes
8answers
560 views
What to call the 7th Lubavitcher Rebbe
Often times a few different rebbes are mentioned (either previous Chabad rebbes or rebbes of other Chasudusim) in the same talk and then the word "The Rebbe" comes in and it's ambiguous.
I have heard ...
13
votes
2answers
258 views
What does “the Talmud” mean in the Talmud?
The G'mara Bavli says in Shabas 63:
אמר רב כהנא, "כד הוינא בר תמני סרי שנין, והוה גמירנא ליה לכוליה תלמודא, ולא הוה ידענא דאין מקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו..."
Rav Kahana said, "When I was 18 years ...
11
votes
5answers
452 views
Nittle Nacht Meaning
What is Nittle Nacht?
What does the name mean?
What is its significance?
Which Halachic authorities speak about it, and what do they say?
What is the actual date for it?
How is it effected this ...
8
votes
1answer
122 views
“m'nora” on Chanuka
My kid came home from school one day insisting that the thing we light on Chanuka is not a m'nora but a chanukiya. I replied that that's the word most Israelis use now but that m'nora is a perfectly ...
3
votes
1answer
40 views
Shir Urinanim- Whats the diffrence?
In Ma'oz Tzur, it says:
וּמִנּוֹתַר קַנְקַנִּים נַעֲשָׂה נֵס לַשּׁוֹשַׁנִּים
בְּנֵי בִינָה יְמֵי שְׁמוֹנָה קָבְעוּ שִׁיר וּרְנָנִים
What is the Difference between Shirim and Rinanim?
5
votes
3answers
223 views
The Absolute Unity of G-d
As we all who know Hebrew can assert, the sufix "im" in the words usually means plurality. How can HaShem be Elohim or Elokim if He is absolutely One and the Only Lord?
1
vote
2answers
108 views
Midrash/Medrash
Can anyone explain to me the difference between Midrash and Medrash? Is one of them known to be more correct (i.e. most likely older)?
5
votes
1answer
121 views
7
votes
6answers
210 views
3
votes
3answers
191 views
What is the source of the word “Rabbi”? [closed]
What is the source of the Hebrew word "Rabbi" - which is commonly applied to a Rav, Rosh Yeshiva, etc.?
2
votes
2answers
219 views
What are the Hebrew titles for synagogue functionaries in various communities?
In every Ashkenazic synagogue I've seen, the fellow calling up people to the Bima is called a "gabbai." (Which was originally a Hebrew word for "collector", as in Tzedaka collector; I can see how the ...
0
votes
2answers
224 views
Dreidel - Nun (Neis) Gimel (Gadol) Hei (Haya) Shin (Shom) - (Pei - Po)
Outside of Eretz Yisroel when we play Dreidel we use - the Nun for Nochamol (go again), the Gimel for Gantz (empty the bank), the Hei for Halb (half the bank), and the Shin for Shtel Arain (put money ...
3
votes
2answers
85 views
Why refer to alcoholic beverages as Yash?
In many Chasidishe and Heimishe Shuls - Vodka, Whiskey and the likes are known as "Yash" which is an acronym for Yayin Saraf - יי״ש. However would it not be more appropiate to call it Yas? Then why do ...
4
votes
2answers
114 views
Are these Latin/Greek translations of Hebrew terms useful?
If you use the following Latin or Greek translations of Hebrew terms in conversation with secular people, do they tend to know what you're talking about? If so, in what contexts - a university ...
5
votes
3answers
204 views
9
votes
2answers
120 views
verb + its infinitive
Many, many times in Tanach, including Chumash, a verb has its infinitive nearby. Examples include B'reshis 2:16 מִכֹּל עֵץ הַגָּן אָכֹל תֹּאכֵל (I think that's the first example in Chumash) and ...
11
votes
4answers
5k views
1
vote
2answers
141 views
8
votes
4answers
228 views
Teiku VS. Kashya
When a Gemara does not have a solution to a question why does it sometimes it end off with "Teiku" and sometimes with "Kashya"?
6
votes
3answers
205 views
Double Yud as G-ds Name
What is the significance of the double Yud used as a stand-in for G-d's name?
5
votes
4answers
616 views
Significance of the gemara statment תיקו Teku?
Why do we say תיקו Teiku when there is no answer in the Gemara?
1
vote
2answers
114 views
Why is it called Ayin Hara?
Why is it called Ayin Hara (singular) shouldn't it be Anayim Raos (Plural)?
5
votes
4answers
271 views
Talmudic Terminology
There are a number of English language works which to one degree or another discuss Talmudic terminology, i.e. the wider implication of certain phrases commonly used in the Gemara. Can anybody suggest ...
3
votes
1answer
298 views
Kel (Melech) Chanun V'Rachum — do you say Melech?
Some siddurs have the phrase "Ki Kel Melech Chanun V'Rachum Ata" at the conclusion of Ya'aleh v'Yavo. Some have Melech in parentheses; some don't have it at all. Can anyone tell me something about ...
5
votes
3answers
232 views
Why masechet “Beitza”?
Why do we call it masechet Beitza now, and not masechet Yom Tov, as was apparently once common? Unlike the parshiot, which are named after their first words, masechtot are all named after topics, ...
2
votes
2answers
207 views
Variant vowelizations in Selichot
The repeated paragraph in Selichot that introduces the Thirteen Attributes includes the phrase "increasingly grants pardon to careless sinners and foregiveness to willful ones" (Artscroll Siddur ...
7
votes
3answers
271 views
Posek vs. Rabbi?
It seems to me obvious that certain sheilos are best dealt with by only the leading Rabbanim. At the same time colloquially we often say a Rabbi has "paskened" a sheilah when the answer is fairly ...
4
votes
4answers
608 views
15
votes
2answers
400 views
Why do we say Mazel Tov? Shouldn't we thank Hashem?
Why do we say "Mazel Tov" when something good happens to a person? Doesn't that mean "good luck?" Are we saying that what happened, happened because of luck?
4
votes
2answers
215 views
5
votes
2answers
211 views
Definition of Leitzanus
I have often seen leitzanus, mockery, defined along the lines of making a joke out of serious matters. Intuitively this is a good definition, but does anyone have a source which spells it out?
3
votes
3answers
306 views
What is “chad gadya” really all about?
Why do we sing "chad gadya" at the pesach seder? What is it supposed to be about?
Also, as a side question, is it "d'zabin aba" or "dizvan aba"?
