Jewish Word | Semicha—When a Rabbi Becomes a Rabbi
Semicha is a Hebrew word that means “leaning” and a widely used synonym for rabbinic ordination.
23
Jan
17
Jan
The Meaning of ‘Semicha’
How did a word that means “leaning” become the way to describe the act of becoming a rabbi?
15
Nov
Jewish Word | ‘Almah’ Grows Up
After working for seven years at a Jewish parenting website, Molly Tolsky wanted to create a space for an audience she herself identified with: young Jewish women focusing on careers and their place in the world who weren’t necessarily thinking about marriage or children.
20
Jul
Special Edition | The Making of a Jewish Word
Technology inexplicably fails us often enough that we need a word for the occasion.
04
Apr
Jewish Word | Why We Say ‘Next Year in Jerusalem’
Seders all over the world this Passover will end with the words L’Shanah Ha Ba’ah b’Yerushalayim—“Next year in Jerusalem.”
19
Jan
Jewish Word | Shmita: A Sabbath for the Land—and Ourselves
Flapping proudly in fallow fields, large green and yellow banners in rural Israel proclaim: Kan Shomrim Shmita (“Here We Keep Shmita”).
23
Nov
Jewish Word | The Hairsplitting Complexity of ‘Talmudic’
More often than not, the word “Talmudic” isn’t about the Talmud.
28
Oct
Jewish Word // Dybbuk
A Ghost from Our Past
by Sala Levin
Fans of the film-making, Minnesota-bred brothers Joel and Ethan Coen were transported back to the old country in the opening scene of the 2009 film A Serious Man. A couple—clad in full shtetl garb—is visited by a man believed to be dead. The woman declares him a dybbuk, a figure unfamiliar to most 21st-century filmgoers, but one quite at home in the horror movies it predates.
The word dybbuk is a Yiddishized adaptation of the Hebrew root davek, meaning to cling or to cleave, and the basis of the contemporary Hebrew word for glue. The term first appears in Genesis, where it’s written that a man will “leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be as one flesh.” Dvekut, in kabbalistic thought, is “a kind of ecstatic state...
21
Sep
Jewish Word | The Joyful Power of Hallelujah
In American culture, the word “hallelujah” is so associated with Christian prayer and music—and overall rejoicing and jubilation—that people often forget it is originally Hebrew.
08
Mar
Jewish Word | What Is Cancel Culture—and What Does Judaism Say About It?
Comedian Kevin Hart was bumped from hosting the 2019 Oscars for years-old homophobic tweets.