The College Rabbi’s Jewtionary
This is my Jewtionary*
The Rabbi’s own Jewish-English Dictionary. There’s a lot of terms that get used that you may have heard and many you may not have. Still others you might think you know what they mean but you might be surprised by how I define them. There’s certainly something for everyone here. And if you don’t like how I defined something, please write. You could end up on my F.A.Q.
Bible-The Bible is a book. Lots of people have books. The book we call the Bible is what we call Tanach and what Christians call the Old Testament. It contains 24 books chronicaling the first 1,000 years of Jewish history, as well as the foundations of our theology and ethical literature. It’s long, but it’s not worse than your Chemistry textbook, and a lot more interesting.
Hebrew-Hebrew is the original Jewish language. It’s a Semitic language, close to Arabic the same way French is close to Spanish. They both sound like the speaker is choking but really it’s just that we’re making sounds with our throat that don’t exist in Indo-European languages. It’s really funny to hear the uninitiated try to reproduce some of them, but sometimes I worry they might hurt themselves.
Jews-Jews are the descendants of the Ancient Israelites, a group of related tribes who lived and continue to live along the Mediterranean coast in modern day Israel. There were originally twelve tribes but today it’s agreed that the Jews today are mostly from three of those tribes:Yehuda (Judah), Binyamin (Benjamin), and Levi. The name Judah is the source of the words Jew and Judaism.
Judaism-Judaism is the indigenous religion of the Jews which they have practiced for the past 3,300 years or so. Judaism encapsulates the laws, customs, culture, history, and thought of the Jews. Unlike in religions like Christianity or Buddhism, being Jewish means being a Jew. There are many Jews who don’t practice Judaism, but in order to really practice Judaism, you have to be a brother (or a sister I’m not sexist). Judaism also defines who is a Jew in the first place. A big nose, love of bagels, and an affinity for money does not a Jew make.
Judeo-languages: As Jews moved and were kicked around the World they brought their native culture with them. That included their native language, Hebrew as well as some Aramaic which was used by Jews in Israel for many centuries with a touch of Farsi from the time the Jews in Israel were under Persian control, which whenever I refer to Hebrew I actually mean all three. Jews in every part of the world developed a pigeon language with the language of their host culture, and some of these languages are still spoken today. This is not a comprehensive list but I’m happy to add more if someone would like:
- Yiddish-The most famous Judeo-language, the most widely spoken, and the most made fun of, deservedly so. Yiddish is a mix of High (Old) German and Hebrew. Yiddish was originally spoken in Germanic lands and was carried East into Eastern Europe where Jews living there mixed in a bit of the languages of their host countries (Polish, Magyar, Russian etc..). The farther away from Germany the Jews lived the most distinct their Yiddish became from modern German. Hungarians and Polish Yiddish speakers will actually have trouble speaking to each other despite speaking the same language. The staying power of Yiddish came partly because of the massive number of Eastern European emmigrants after World War II and more so because of the Chassidim and the Yeshiva movement that insist on continuing to use Yiddish to retain the old culture, even outside of Europe.
- Ladino-Ladino is a mix of Hebrew and Castillian Spanish. After 1492 when the Jews were exiled from Spain they kept speaking Ladino whereever they settled. There was the same type of linguistic drift with Ladino as Yiddish though from what I’ve read not as much. The Judeo-Spanish who settled in Amsterdam and France spoke a more modern Spanish type Ladino whereas the Turkish spoke an older version of the dialect. You’d have to speak to a Ladino speaker to find out more, but there aren’t a whole lot any more. Some people are trying to revive it but it didn’t have the same staying power as Yiddish.
- Judeo-Arabic-Judeo-Arabic varies with the type of Arabic spoken in the country in which the Jews lived. Morrocan Arabic is influenced by Berber and so is the Judeo-counterpart for example. I’ve never really seen it used anymore and there have been movements to at least try to preserve Judeo-Arabic Writing.
- Temani-The Judeo-Arabic of the Yemenite Jewish community. The Temani Jews have done more to try to preserve their unique culture and part of that has been to try and maintain Temani. You will find touches of it in their prayerbooks and they have songs they sing regularly on the Sabbath using Temani. From what I’ve heard it uses more Aramaic than other Judeo-languages, but I invite people to correct me.
- Judeo-Farsi-The Judeo-language of Persian (Iranian) Jews. I haven’t met anyone who speaks it.
- Bukhari-The Jews of Uzbekistan are called Bukhari Jews because their main community was centered in the area of Bukhara. Bukhari is close to Farsi so some of the words are close. There are still Bukhari Jews that I have seen speaking Bukhari, but some Bukhari Jews have told me only the people from the countryside know how to speak it. The cityfolk just speak Russian.
- Yeshivish-People joke about it now but in the English-speaking Orthodox Jewish community a new Judeo-language has arisen. It’s a mix of Yiddish and English mostly and depending on whether you live in certain areas of Brooklyn or Long Island there might be some Arabic or Farsi thrown in as well. I had a friend tell me that he was speaking English with a couple of his Yeshiva friends when he realized he had probably only used a handful of English words in the conversation. I have to watch myself from time to time to make sure I’m actually speaking English.
Torah-Torah is a word you’ll hear thrown around when people talk about the Bible. It can mean the first five books which are the Five Books of Moshe (Moses), the entire Jewish Bible, or the entire body of literature related to the Jewish religion. In it’s broadest definition it fills up rooms with books with tiny print and fancy Hebrew writing on the outside.
