Hot answers tagged english
10
I can't speak for the Jewish community generally, but I, for one, do support the use of "Jew" in non-anti-Semitic contexts, consistent with my experience that this is, in fact, a standard use of the term to which Jews do not take offense and my general aversion to unjustified taboos.
I have been an English-speaking observant Jew for over three decades now, ...
8
Sounds like it could be a case of overregularization of the copula+participle pattern found commonly in Chaza"l to express habituals (e.g. הוי מקבל את כל האדם בסבר פנים יפות). I have no historical basis for showing this spill-over to have occurred.
Perhaps it is simply a shortcut for code-switchers using a copula in a more familiar language to bear the ...
7
This story is told in Talmud Menachos (44a) about one of R' Chiya's students. The story ends up with them both doing teshuva and subsequently marrying each other.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/530129/jewish/In-the-Words-of-the-Sages.htm
7
There are several, sometimes overlapping families of terms in play:
Israel
This name was given to Abraham's grandson, Jacob, by God and means "God prevails" or "God fights". There's some disagreement over which meaning is accurate, but the source is from this passage in the Torah:
And he said unto him: 'What is thy name?' And he said: 'Jacob.' And he ...
7
As stated, Israelite is a anglicized version of a word meaning "of the nation of Israel" which referred to people in biblical and post-biblical times. Once the kingdom split after the reign of Solomon, that term which would have applied to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, would not apply to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The name "Judah" (transliterated ...
7
There's a translation of Machane Yisrael into English published as English-only (the original Hebrew is not included). It's Machaneh Yisrael (I mean, that's how they spell the title) and the copyright page reads:
Authored by
Rav Yisrael Meir HaKohen Zt"l
The Chofetz Chaim
Translated by
Machon MEMEY
413 Ashley Ave. • Lakewood, NJ 08701
...
6
This is a matter of the English language. I found this site which goes through some of the 'rules'. http://www.teachingcollegeenglish.com/2004/02/04/capitalizing-god/
In essennce, a capital first letter implies a 'proper noun', it also implies a bit of 'the one and only'. Capitalizing the word 'He' means 'that "He" which we all know, the one and only.. ...
5
According to Wikipedia and the Jewish Encyclopedia, Reform Judaism, being originally opposed to the idea of Zionism1, called the Hamburg Synagogue "Tempel" to show that they no longer looked forward to the Third Temple in Jerusalem, and that individual, local, temples had taken its place. As DoubleAA points out, none of these sources offer conclusive proof ...
4
"Jew" does not need to be rehabilitated. It is perfectly normal for Jews to use the word, and I find it quite jarring when I hear other words used instead. The fact that some antisemitic websites use the word in a derogatory sense is irrelevant to the fact that it is our name.
However, as Isaac noted, when it is used as an adjective, instead of "Jewish", it ...
4
The short answer is: we don't know. The word Temple was first introduced in the title of the organazation which drove to found the Hamburg Temple: The New Isaelite Temple Association of Hamburg, a group of 66 layman (not the leading Reform Rabbis of the time) which arranged for the opening of the Hamburg Temple in 1818.
You can read in The Jew in the Modern ...
4
The first two can be used interchangeably, although the use "Israelite" is slightly antiquated now, and is used mostly to refer to the Children of Israel in biblical times. Nowadays, the only term of those three that are used to refer to Jews is, "Jew"
As far as Judaizer, I have come across the term before, but I had to look it up, because it's so uncommon.
...
4
Many people are careful not to say a translation of one of G-d's 7 holy names (see here for the Rambam's version of them).
G-d is a translation of either A-D-N-Y or Y-H-V-H, depending on who you ask.
This is why many people use the word Hashem ("The Name") in Hebrew, or Aibishter ("One Above") in Yiddish.
See this article, which says that R' Moshe ...
4
The Shach (Yoreh De'ah 179:11) ruled that "God" spelled in a foreign language does NOT have the status of a "shem" and thus may be erased, lehatkhila. For more information, you can read this article: http://www.shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/faq/11-03-01.html
Source: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/15351/3
4
The Brisker Derech: A Practical Guide by Moshe Wachtfogel goes through practical applications of the Brisker approach. It seems to be published by Feldheim, but I could not find it on their site.
I have not read through this work, but a cursory look inside prompted me to purchase this book for a friend. I purchased it at a local book store.
3
Check out the Nefesh B'Nefesh Community Database which lets you search according to a number of criteria.
Off the top of my head (and if you're sure Ramat Beit Shemesh is out), from the information you give you might want to look into Yad Binyamin, Modiin, Moshav Matisyahu, Nof Ayalon, Efrat/Alon Shvut/Neve Daniel
3
As @DoubleAA said in the comment, Meilah is only 22 pages. The next Talmidic Tractate is Tamid. You can find the PDF here: http://www.halakhah.com/pdf/kodoshim/Tamid.pdf
Notice that the page numbering does not restart at 2A, but rather starts at 25B.
As @Alex noted in his comment, in between Meila and Tamid are the Mishnayot (with no Talmudic Commentary) ...
3
Adam Mintz has written a fine essay called The Talmud in Translation, in which he elaborates on the history of the Artscroll, Steinsaltz, and Soncino Talmuds and the various polemics concerning each.
Regarding "rejections," there have been critiques for each Talmud.
On the Soncino, there was a little controversy that concerned making the Talmud ...
3
I've never heard any objection to Soncino specifically. I've heard objection to translated editions generally — and the very explicatory ArtScroll English edition especially — from teachers: namely, that these editions make it too easy for students to make their way through the g'mara, and the student loses out on the benefits (spiritual and pedagogical) of ...
3
There are 876 Reform congregations in North America, 499 of which have "Temple" in their names, so the formal name is pretty common and it's not unreasonable to think that people refer to the others as "temples" too. As noted by DoubleAA, the first (apparent) use of the name was the Hamburg synagogue in 1818. Documentation about naming practices that early ...
2
Mashal= Parable. It is a story or comparison for the sake of conveying a deeper truth.
Nimshal= Technically it means moral. It is the deeper truth being hinted at in the story.
For instance in Aesop's fables, like the tortoise and the hare, in which a bullying hare is challenged to a race by a tortoise. The hare takes off, and confident of victory ...
2
According to this article the cheer has anti-semitic origins. It developed from a war-cry meaning “Jerusalem is fallen” - in Latin Hieroslyma est perdita .
2
Israelite is the term for the nation of Israel in ancient times as depicted in the Bible. Jew is the modern term for practitioners of Judaism. It would be anachronistic to describe the ancients as 'Jews' or modern members of Judaism 'Israelites'. I have never heard the phrase 'judaizer' before.
2
"Is there any halakhah that takes issue with translators of holy text?"
Yes and No.
The gemorah very strongly supports the translation of Onkelos, while very strongly being negative about the translation into Greek (Septuagint), calling it the worst day in Jewish History.
On the other hand, the Talmud mentions miracles regarding the translation of the ...
2
One option is Ramat Bet Shemesh. It might also be quite expensive by now, but the newer projects might be in your ballpark. It is very diverse and has TONS of English-speaking people. There is also an English-speaking community in Moshav Matityahu.
There are also more "Modern Orthodox" English-speaking communities in Efrat, Maale Adumim, and to a lesser ...
1
See the (fanciful) discussion here: http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2009/12/vilna-gaon.html
where it is suggested that the work HEP is an acronym for Haman, Amalek, Pharaoh which was said by the Jews against their foes in order to show how all previous enemies had all been defeated and so too would they. Thus it would seem to be a very appropriate Jewish ...
1
What enters in our mind should be as important as what enters in our mouth. In the same way we eat kosher, it seems to me we should read only "kosher" translations, especially when it comes to Holy Writings. I am not sure this is a halakhic question (that is the difference with food), but it seems so important that I would never read something translated by ...
1
This seems more like an opinion piece than an actual question-and-answer thing, but for what it's worth I think that Danby's translation greatly overshadows Neusner's, but have not seen Blackman's (nor any other).
Danby translates the whole Mishna himself, is slavishly faithful to the Hebrew, and although he sometimes notes alternative interpretations in ...
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