Religious mustard and other Hebrew acronyms

January 25, 2011 - 9:29 PM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Israeliness, Religion 

Hodaya, the most famous "datlashit" from the TV show "Srugim"

In the U.S. and most western countries, Jews tend to identify their religious affiliation through one of the major Jewish movements, be it Conservative, Reform, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Jewish Renewal, and even Secular Humanistic Judaism. Not so in Israel, where one’s religious standing is far more nuanced. In a country that loves army-influenced acronyms, a whole school of literary shortcuts and word play have sprung up.

The two simplest and most frequent appellations are “dati” and “hiloni” – “religious” and “secular” respectively. Within the religious category, however, there is “haredi” (“ultra-Orthodox”); “dati leumi” (“national religious” also known as “modern Orthodox”); “dati lite” (religious but not too stringent, as in “I’ll kiss you and still put on tefilin in the morning”); “masorti” (“conservative” but with a lower case “c” – as in, “we keep kosher but watch a movie after Shabbat dinner”); and a pejorative label used by haredim to describe anyone less frum than them: “reformim” (no translation required).

The strangest? “Hardal” (an acronym for “haredi leumi” – for those ultra-Orthodox who also serve in the army). The funny part is that the word in modern Hebrew also means “mustard.” Does that mean that they prefer spicy condiments on their glatt kosher army rations?

Where it gets really interesting is that there is a whole new emerging lexicon of terms for religion “in transition” that I haven’t seen anywhere else in the Jewish world. For the formerly religious, there’s “datlash” (“dati l’sheavar,” literally “religious in the past”) and its parallel “hozer b’shealah” (“return to questioning”). Going in the other direction and becoming religious, you can say “hozer b’tshuva” (“returning to repentance”) or “ba’al tshuva” (a true “master” of repentance).

A religious person who believes men and women should receive equal rights to be called up to the Torah would be a “datash” (for “dati l’shivyoni,” a religious egalitarianist), while someone who thinks he or she might become religious down the road (maybe after marrying a religious person – these kinds of “mixed marriages” are becoming increasingly common in Israel – would be a “datla” for “dati l’etid” (literally “religious in the future”).

My favorite of all is a new one I just heard from an Israeli friend: “Hashash” (for “hiloni shomer Shabbat” – apparently someone who is entirely secular but also keeps the Sabbath). The word in modern Hebrew also means “fear” or “apprehension” which led my friend to say to me “I have a hashash that you are really a hashash.” Perhaps she would prefer that I was a “hozer b’shealah l’sheavar” – a religious person who becomes non-religious and then becomes religious again.

Confused? Just invent one of your own!

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Foto Friday – Hanukkah light

December 3, 2010 - 2:46 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Environment, Foto Friday, General, News, Religion 

Hanukkah, like its other winter holiday counterparts, is all about light. This fact was pointed out to me once by a religion news reporter (yes, there are such beings), who also noted a peculiar human trait: that of making the best of things: as the days grow short, rather than curse the darkness, we celebrate the days with candles and light.

We light candles at Hanukkah (or wicks floated on olive oil) to honor the memory of the Temple rebuilt and its seven-branched menorah, with a nine-branched variant: one flame for each day of the holiday, plus the central, utilitarian shamash.

How sad, how sad and terribly ironic that the holiday which we celebrate with tiny points of light should be marred by the largest conflagration in modern Israel’s history. The winter drought – also history-making as Israel’s longest – made it a snap for the fire to take hold and spread in all its fury.

Tonight, as the flames begin to die down, we will light the third candle of Hanukkah and Friday night candlesticks. Sabbath will be followed by the work week where, together with our national mourning for lives lost and the destruction of our environment, there will be the inevitable finger-pointing, holding-of-accounts and passing-of-the-buck. Before the noise begins, take a quiet moment to consider light, the kind that illuminates the darkness and brings us joy.


© RomKri

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When’s the right time for a rite of passage?

October 15, 2009 - 12:32 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, health, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Travel 

It’s generally accepted that the Israeli perspective on the bar/bat mitzvah ceremony is different from its counterpart in the US.
I remember when Susie and three of her closest friends decided to celebrate their bat mitzvahs together – they were all around 40-years-old at the time.
They had been studying Torah as a group in Jerusalem for a year and a half. It all started when Boston-born Susie, who had already been in Israel for more than 20 years, started to feel that while her Jewish identity was her primary identity, which is why she had moved here, it was time for her to confront her “awe of the Torah.”
Sally, Ruti and Janet had also been in Israel for a couple of decades and for various reasons, none of the four had had a bat mitzvah back in the States. In fact, the first bat mitzvah was held by American rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, a major figure in Jewish thought and the founder of the Reconstructionist movement, for his daughter Judith in 1922.
So the culmination of 18 months of study and learning to read from the holy book was a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Kol Haneshama .
Now the idea didn’t resonate with everybody, but at that June ceremony 12 years ago no one could fail to be moved by the four women’s obvious quiet joy and pride in their achievements.
The bat mitzvahs of those forty-somethings inevitably came to mind when I received an e-mail recently, telling me about another group of delayed bar/bat mitzvah celebrants, en route to Israel.
Some of the participants at the upcoming celebration will be using walkers. Oxygen and wheelchairs will be available for emergencies. Five nurses will be traveling with the group. The average age of the participants in this particular version of the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony? Eighty-five.
Read more

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Foto Friday – Sukkot in Jerusalem

October 2, 2009 - 12:04 AM by · 5 Comments
Filed under: Art, coexistence, Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Religion, Travel 

The awe-ful part of the Days of Awe are behind us and now it’s time to party! Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is the holiday when Jerusalem gets itself all decked out…

© RomKri

…and small wooden sukkot, or tabernacles, spring up overnight…

© monti_clif

…dotting the urban landscape.

© Pes & Lev

The Municipality of Jerusalem gets into the act too, with a large public sukka – the perfect opener to this month’s Autumn Nights Festival…

© RomKri

…as well as the annual Jerusalem March, attended by walkers from all over the country…

© monti_clif

…and from all over the world!

© monti_clif

Another event taking place at this time: the International Christian Embassy’s Feast of Tabernacles festival, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary. The festivities begin today with a worship concert at Ein Gedi, continue with a week of prayer and Bible teachings, and conclude with the Jerusalem March on October 6th.

Below is a montage of photos from last year’s Feast of Tabernacles. The photos above are courtesy of the wonderful Jerusalem Shots website – always worth a visit. And here’s wishing a Chag Sameach (happy holiday) to us all!

Feast of Tabernacles 2008 Photo Montage from ICEJ on Vimeo.

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The white holiday

May 26, 2009 - 2:12 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Food, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness 

dry-bonesShavuot is approaching, and what I like about this holiday in Israel is that you can celebrate it from a variety of approaches. If you’re observant, there’s the standard ‘yontif‘ handling of the holiday, which means food, prayers, something white to wear, and heading to a tikkun on Shavuot eve to learn all or part of the night.

But as one of the three pilgrimage festivals — Sukkot and Passover are the other two — Shavuot ranks up there in Israel, with all kinds of alternative and traditional festivities that appeal to even the most secular of Israeli Jews. There are the kibbutz celebrations, which include small children dressed in white, arms akimbo in order to hold baskets of recently picked fruit and vegetables to mark Shavuot’s stance as an agricultural festival. There are the usual family gatherings, as Israelis so love to do, including tables groaning with all kinds of homemade dairy fare, since this is considered to be the ‘dairy’ holiday. (See this great JTA article about alternatives to dairy on Shavuot.)

And since Israelis also love their dairy — we have more types of yogurt drinks per capita than any other country — one of the local dairy companies, Tnuva, puts out a Shavuot magazine each year, as an insert in the local newspapers, with dairy recipes from the kitchens of their employees. Nicely done, and, I have to say, it has been the source of more than one good recipe that’s come out of my kitchen.

There are also the learning celebrations, given Shavuot’s source as the holiday celebrating the giving of the Torah, and that has led to the traditional tikkun, all-night learning that takes place on the night of the holiday. In my city of Jerusalem, a city of much learning, there are hundreds of tikkunim to choose from, held at every synagogue, yeshiva, school and place of learning. But what I’ve loved in years past is to head to Tel Aviv, where the streets are full of people dressed in white heading to all-night lectures of the more alternative type. Those can include poetry readings, yoga and Torah, discussions about the place of Torah in a secular society, or, for the more party-oriented, all-night clubbing in honor of Shavuot. For that matter, since Tel Aviv is considered the white city for its collection of Bauhaus architecture, you could celebrate Shavuot by doing a midnight tour of Bauhaus structures.

I will be making cheesecake, but I won’t be heading out for some all-night (not that I ever did) learning this year. But if you’re in J-town, I did notice some great options for the Tikkun, including an Israeli singdown and a 12:30 am walk around the Old City, hosted by the Tower of David Museum.

Happy learning and eating.

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