Since I got into the language topic in my previous post, I thought I'd write some more about it.There are two languages that can be
associated with the Jewish people. First, there is age-old Hebrew –
the language we know the First Testament was written in. Then there
is Yiddish, evolved from a cocktail of languages in Central Europe
around the 10th century. Yiddish also uses a Hebrew-based
alphabet but interestingly enough, it is not an official language in
Israel: Hebrew and Arabic are.
When learning about Judaism or talking
with Israelis, you quite often run into words that can't be
translated. You just need to know what they mean. I am not entirely
sure from which language these words come from, but there are a lot
of them.
To name a few examples... Menorah does
not translate to candlestick. Mezuzah is not a doorpost case.
Yarmulke/kippah is not a small hat. Hamsa is not a hand. Kosher is not
fit/permitted. Rabbi is not a priest. Shiksa is not a non-Jewish
female. Ke'ara is not just a plate. Mikvah is not just a bath and freier is much more than just a loser. All of
these items, people or concepts need to be referred to with their
original word – they just don't translate into your local language.
The original words carry so much more meaning than any other foreign
word could begin to describe.
In Finnish, we also have words like that.
But I can only think of two at the moment: sisu and perkele.
I've had quite a hard time memorizing
what everything means and there are plenty more words out there. But
I am getting there. One day I will ask my boyfriend to throw me a pop-quiz
on these special words. I'll let you know my score.
Mind you, to make things a little more
interesting, Israelis often swear in – yes – Arabic! Just see the below
example by Natalie Portman...
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