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"Mi yodeya" or מי יודע in Hebrew means "who knows," where "mi" means "who" and "yodeya" is the masculine singular participle for the verb "know." This phrase is featured in the popular Passover song "Echad Mi Yodeya" and on the Q&A site for Jewish life and learning Mi Yodeya.
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"Nittle nacht" is the Yiddish reference to the night going into Christmas. (It was observed on different dates, depending on if you lived in a Catholic/Protestant country, or an Eastern Orthodox [Christian] country; the former have Christmas on December 25th, thus "nittel nacht" starting at sunset December 24th; the latter have a different calendar.). ...
16
In Hayom Yom (17 Teves), the reason given (in the name of R' Shalom Dovber Schneersohn, fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe) is "to avoid adding vitality." The point is that the person whose birthday they're celebrating on this day was a Jew, and since on a person's birthday his mazal (spiritual source) is stronger, we don't want the spiritual benefits generated by our ...
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It's at least as old as the Sh'la (around 1600), according to Taame Haminhagim, kuntres acharon 94 to paragraph 396, which says in the Sh'la's name, via the Baer Hetev OC 307:2: "Someone visiting his friend on Shabas should not say, e.g., 'good morning' as on a weekday, but rather 'shabas shalom' or 'shabas tov', to fulfill 'zachor es yom hashabas'."
It ...
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"L'chatchila" means "from the outset", meaning that before one did action 'x' the halacha was that it was forbidden. However, if one was not familiar with that halacha and did action 'x' without knowing that there was a problem, then "b'di'eved" ("after the fact") the halacha might be different, meaning the consequences of what was done would change.
In ...
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The "Modim anachnu lach" in davening is a quotation from Divrei Hayamim I 29:13. "L'cha" becomes "lach" because of the etnachta, which is a pause in the pasuk.
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"Emunat Chachamim" Comes from Avot 6:6 where a list of 48 ways of achieving Torah wisdom are mentioned. There are many commentatries on Avot in general and this mishna in particular, all saying slightly different things. However..
Traditionally, this phrase is meant to mean that you must trust those people who are wiser than you to give over the tradition ...
14
Indeed, a keen observation. This observation is made as well by Abarbanel and Malbim, who both explain that the first time, Shmuel ran to Eli, as he was Eli's servant and he was motivated to serve him properly. However, when he went to Eli, and it turned out Eli had never called him in the first place, he was a bit embarrassed. So the second time, he was ...
13
I understood the term to mean designated, differentiated or set aside for a purpose. So Kiddush-קידוש would be the verbal declaration that designates the day of Shabbat and differentiates it from all the days that precede it (see the Rambam on the Mitzva of Kiddush). The קדושת היום would be the legal designation of the day. The בית המקדש is a place ...
12
Don't know the earliest attestation of menorah for what we light on Chanukah, but it is mentioned parenthetically in Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 671:7 (and from there in Aruch Hashulchan 671:25), where it's talking about how to set up the menorah in shul. All of the rest of their references to the Chanukah lights indeed use the term נר(ות) חנוכה. I'd guess ...
12
According to Radak (Yehoshua 1:1), this is grammatically proper for "ben" to become "bin" when it and the following word are small and connected together in speech.
Other examples where "ben" becomes "bin":
דִּבְרֵי אָגוּר בִּן יָקֶה הַמַּשָּׂא (Mishlei 30:1)
וְהָיָה אִם בִּן הַכּוֹת הָרָשָׁע (Devarim 25:2)
שֶׁבִּן לַיְלָה הָיָה וּבִן לַיְלָה אָבָד (Yonah ...
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I've heard and seen this idea, in stories / biographies of people careful with how many words they used. but I could not locate an online source. The closest so far is:
"When a man speaks and expels hevel (breath) from his mouth - this breath is his lifeforce (chiyuso). The proof of this is after the soul has left the body, there is not left in him ...
12
In his commentary to I Kings 6:7:
ומקבות" - דלוט"א בלשון רוסיא"
Although it seems quite likely that this is a later interpolation; it doesn't appear in early prints of Rashi.
In several places, though, Rashi refers to לשון כנען, which was a popular term at the time for the Slavic languages (based on the equation of "Slav" with "slave" and the ...
12
The Torah commands us regarding emotions all the time, e.g.: "Don't bear a grudge", "don't hate your fellow in your heart", "don't harbor resentment when you give [charity] to him", "because you didn't serve Hashem your Lord with happiness and a glad heart", "don't despise the Edomite, for he is your brother; don't despise the Egyptian, for you were a ...
11
This idea, that it's based on a mistaken expansion of 'בשב (meaning 'בשמואל ב) to mean בשבת, comes from R. Baruch Epstein's Mekor Baruch.
However, it is demonstrably untrue. The custom of alternating between מגדיל on weekdays and מגדיל on Shabbos is mentioned by Avudraham, who lived in the 14th century. (He doesn't mention the custom of doing so on Yom Tov ...
11
The statement of Maimonides to which you refer is from his Yad Hachazaka, Repentence [or: Return] chapter 3. There he writes (in my own loose translation):
Everyone has merits and sins. Someone whose merits are more than his sins is a tzadik. Someone whose sins are more than his merits is a rasha. Half and half, he's a benoni [=middle person].
So, ...
11
HaSeder Ha'aruch (134:9-13) collects several answers to this question:
The wise son says "אתכם" since he did not personally hear the command, and he is referring to the generation which left Egypt. Since he mentions Hashem -"Which the L-rd, our G-d has commanded" he is not excluding himself. However, the wicked son who does not mention Hashem in his words ...
10
"Mazal" stems from the root "nazal," meaning "to flow." The basic meaning of the word, then, is not "luck" but rather "something that causes a flow." (It is therefore applied to the heavenly bodies, which in classical Jewish thought are the conduits designed by G-d to exert certain influences on earthly affairs. This then became conflated with the pagan idea ...
10
According to Merriam-Webster:
Etymology: Yiddish yarmlke, from Polish jarmułka & Ukrainian yarmulka skullcap, of Turkic origin; akin to Turkish yağmurluk rainwear
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Here is an exhaustive (but not necessarily complete) list of earlier lexiconic sources for Talmud:
Sefer HaAruch, Rabbeinu Nasan Ben Yehiel,
Sefer HaTishbi from R' Eliyahu Bachur, or this link
Sefas HaYam, or this link
K'lalei HaTalmud of Rav Yosef Karo,
K'lalei HaTalmud of Rav Betzalel Ashkenazi,
In the back of any Vilna Edition of Maseches B'rachos,
...
10
Here is every occurrence of the phrase in Tanach:
Samuel I 13:19
Kings II 5:2
Kings II 5:4
Kings II 6:23
Ezekiel 27:17
Ezekiel 40:2
Ezekiel 47:18
Chronicles I 22:2
Chronicles II 2:16
Chronicles II 30:25
Chronicles II 34:7
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A core belief of Judaism is that there is only one God.
This is a bad translation. The Hebrew is:
אֲנִי-אָמַרְתִּי, אֱלֹהִים אַתֶּם; וּבְנֵי עֶלְיוֹן כֻּלְּכֶם.
The word אֱלֹהִים can mean "God". It can also mean Judge, Idolatrous god/power (note the distinction between God and gods), Important Person.
In this context, others translate it as ...
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, ...
9
One issue is how a rabbi is ordained (semicha as we know it), which is effectively a professional license.
A semicha such as "Yoreh Yoreh" (to "instruct" in matters between man and G-d, such as food kashrut) or "Yadin Yadin" (to "judge" in matters between man and man, such as a contract dispute) generally conveys a license to pasken -- and even make ...
9
A couple of other possibilities:
"the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt"l (or some other appropriate honorific)" - my preferred form on this site and elsewhere
"the late Lubavitcher Rebbe"
In conversation with non-Lubavitchers, "the Lubavitcher Rebbe" is probably unequivocal enough for most purposes (and in conversation among Lubavitchers, "the Rebbe"). It's much the ...
9
Wikipedia says it's "probably derived from the Old High German kraepfo meaning grape." However, I would think it's more likely related to crepe (French for a type of pancake that's often filled, much like a krepel).
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From Jastrow, page 299:
This seems like a better, and more straightforward, etymology. There is a clear basis in Ezra 7:23:
כג כָּל-דִּי, מִן-טַעַם אֱלָהּ שְׁמַיָּא, יִתְעֲבֵד אַדְרַזְדָּא, לְבֵית אֱלָהּ שְׁמַיָּא: דִּי-לְמָה לֶהֱוֵא קְצַף, עַל-מַלְכוּת מַלְכָּא וּבְנוֹהִי.
23 Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the ...
9
Ramban on the verse I mentioned (Ex. 3:8) offers two possibilities:
It simply means that the land is "wide" enough to accommodate the entire Jewish people. (This is especially so in light of the Gemara's statement (Gittin 57a) that Eretz Yisrael "expands" when Jews are settled in it.)
It is a land that contains "wide" plains and valleys and lowlands, ...
9
The Alter Rebbe of Lubavitch, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, explains in the beginning of Tanya that if you take the Rambam's words (which are also Rashi and Tosfos' words) at face value, they create several contradictions.
First, they contradict Rabba, who called himself a beinoni despite the fact that he never stopped learning, to the extent that the Angel of ...
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I think you are mixing up 3 different phrases.
1 ברוך אתה ה Baruch Attah Adonai. This phrase is commonly translated as "Blessed are you Lord," meaning "you, the Lord, are blessed" a statement of fact. It is used to begin most ritual blessings.
2 ברכו את ה המבורך Barechu et Adonai HaMevorach. This phrase means "Bless the Lord-who-is-Blessed." "Bless" here ...
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