Hot answers tagged acronyms
16
Because "Alfasi" is really "al-Fasi". "Al-Fasi" is Arabic for "the Fezite" (Fez being the city in Morocco where he lived).
So kind of like how the word "of" gets swallowed in "USA", the word "the" got swallowed in "Rif". Wouldn't have made much sense to make his acronym stand for "Rabbi Yitzchak The".
15
In a sense it goes back at least to the Gemara. R' Sherira Gaon points out that the names of some Amoraim that begin with ר (for example: Rabbah, Rava, Rafram) are actually shortened forms of "Rav" plus their personal name: רב+אבא=רבה (or רבא); similarly רב+אפרים=רפרם; and so forth. Also "Reish" (Lakish) is a similar short form for רבי שמעון.
7
The counts are number of occurrences of the phrase in Tanach.
אחרים לעבדם ולהשתחות להם 3
איפה לפר ואיפה לאיל 2
אחד לחטאת ואחד לעלה 2
אתננה לו ותהי לו 1
אתן לזרעכם ונחלו לעלם 1
אתכם לעולם ואתם לא 1
אתכם לחרב וכלכם לטבח 1
אתך לשמה וישביה לשרקה 1
אתיכם לחרבות ומזמרתיכם לרמחים 1
אתו לאשם ואת לג 1
את למך ויקח לו 1
את לבו ויהי לעת 1
את לבו ואת לב 1
...
7
The correct words are "Hashem Yikom Damav". We refer to the murder of one person as "Shefichas Damim" , the blood being plural.
Update:
I just saw in the daf yomi that there is discussion about why the Torah uses the plural regarding the blood of Hevel (Abel) when he was killed by Cain. One answer given is because when one is killed, all his potential ...
5
This is the closest I found to your rough translation:
ודייק ותמצא קל
Sources: here, and here
This one seems the most likely, since I also found it in ערוך השלחן (Choshen Mishpat 1:3)
Two others I found (also quite similar):
ועיין דבריי ותמצאם קלים and ודקדק ומצא קושטא
5
I was once explained in Yeshiva that it can stand for ודייק ותמצא קל.
(After a little Googling, I found this)
(A little more Googling, and I found this and this)
Some of the things it might stand for:
ודייק ותמצא קל
ודוחק קצת
ודוק וקל
ועיין דברי ותמצאם קלים
ודקדק ומצא קושטא
5
Well let's see here,
If you're looking for a backronym in Tanach it's pretty slim pickings inspiration-wise.
Ezekiel 7:20:
וצבי עדיו לגאון שמהו וצלמי *ת*ועבתם *ש*קוציהם *ע*שו *ב*ו על כן נתתיו להם לנדה
and statues of their awful, disgusting things they made ...
Isaiah 38:12-13:
מיום עד-לילה *ת*שלימני. *ש*ויתי *ע*ד-*ב*קר כארי
I was ...
5
The Lubavitcher Rebbe writes that while he did not receive an explicit instruction, the custom among many old printers (many of whom were big Torah scholars) to write the simple and not the final letter(look in most gemaras on Daf Chof, for example). Practically, most letters that were written in the Chofs (the 60's) were written with a smiple chof.
I've ...
5
BS"D (or בס״ד) stands for B'sayata d'shmaya, which translates to "with the help of heaven."
B"H (or ב״ה) used in the same context at the top of the page stands for B'ezrat Hashem, which translates to "with God's help."
בס״ד is the Aramaic version, ב״ה is the hebrew version, and they mean exactly the same thing.
It may be that in other contexts, ב״ה means ...
5
Ani Ldodi v'dodi Li. Is the most common. It is supposed to be a segula for marriages occurring during the month. It is also supposed to be siman for the gates of Chesed being opened and repentance being accepted(taken from the Zohar Shiur for Parashat Re'eh found at HaZohar.net). In conjunction with that the acronym is also found in the Posuk in ...
4
The entire "official" list, as far as I know, is:
את לבבך ואת לבב (symbolizing teshuvah) - Devarim 30:6
אני לדודי ודודי לי (symbolizing tefillah) - Shir Hashirim 6:3
איש לרעהו ומתנות לאביונים (symbolizing tzedakah) - Ester 9:22
אנה לידו ושמתי לך (symbolizing Torah, a "place of refuge" for us) - Shemot 21:13
and out of order:
'ויאמרו לאמר אשירה לה ...
4
Chapter 7 of the Petach Davar to the Chumash Shai LaMorah (printed at the end of Sefer Bereshit) says the following (my translation, my emphasis):
It is known the custom of writers to put a quotation mark in words that are the names of letters, vowels, numbers, foreign words, etc. And at times to emphasize the word. And at times instead of parentheses.
...
4
I don't know the origin, but in one form or another it goes back at least to the Rambam: he began each section of his major works with the phrase בשם ה' א-ל עולם (though this has been omitted in most later printings).
There are halachic opinions that the letter ה has kedushah when it is used to represent Hashem's name (since it is one of its letters), and ...
4
My digital forensic analysis (levels adjustment):
I'm not certain about the last letters, but I'm sure there is a small צ (between the ח and first צ) and a descender under the first letter. The descender could have resulted from having been folded against the first letter, but there is no evidence of other letters transferring.
ץאא חצצ’'צ בוריץ
Maybe ...
4
A possible candidate would be the Amora אביי - whose real name was נחמני but was called אביי by the acronym for אֲשֶׁר-בְּךָ יְרֻחַם יָתוֹם. Read more details here.
Unless you want to argue it was Avraham Avinu: אַבְרָהָם, כִּי אַב-הֲמוֹן גּוֹיִם נְתַתִּיךָ
3
This is sort of a comment on the question and on other answers but has some ideas for the resolution of the question also, so I'm posting it as an answer.
I'm not at all convinced that the first thing is a final tzadi. First of all, it seems to lack the three tagin. Second, the tail could be a smudge from having been folded against another letter. (Note ...
3
Aside from the standard explanations, when I was in yeshivah I heard a jocular explanation that it stands for, going forwards and backwards, in Yiddish:
וויפיל דו וועסט קוועטשן, קדחת וועסט דו ווערן
"No matter how much you try to force an explanation, you will still be good for nothing."
3
Torah Lishmah is an interesting and atypical sefer to begin with. It was written by the Ben Ish Chai under the pseudonym Yechezkel Kachali (note that the gematria of Yechezkel = Yosef and the gematria of Kachali = Chaim, which is the Ben Ish Chai's name). For all we know, these questions were all made up by the author himself (Terumas HaDeshen style) just ...
2
Perhaps the reason we use a shortcut when referring to their names is in order to cut to the chase and say over their Torah thoughts. The intention of this brevity is in order to show true honor to them by hurrying to say over their wisdom. The implication of this is that if one is just telling over historical facts about them that do not involve their ...
1
Some speculation inspired by the comments to this question.
The verse in Mishlei (10:7) says:
זֵכֶר צַדִּיק, לִבְרָכָה; וְשֵׁם רְשָׁעִים יִרְקָב.
The memory of the righteous shall be for a blessing; but the name of the wicked shall rot.
Rashi explains:
The mention of a righteous man is for a blessing: Whoever mentions a righteous man ...
1
I'm not sure (despite your comment on the question) whether this is what you want, but many title pages of books include phrases of which certain letters are picked out to form the gimatriya of the year of publication. Along those lines, we can have
תׄהׄי נשׄמתו צרורהׄ בׄצרור החיׄיׄםׄ
(with the תה...ש...הב...יים picked out).
(Not a good answer IMO, this ...
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