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cellio(By which I mean "words", not the book of the torah with the same name.)
In biblical -- and, I believe, modern -- Hebrew, "zeh" and "zot" both mean "this is" (the difference is gender), and "eileh" means "these are". A famous passage from the mishna (included in the liturgy) begins "eilu d'varim", "these are the obligations". Is "eilu" Aramaic for "eileh", or is this Hebrew and some permutation I'm not yet familiar with?
(Every siddur I've seen translates that as "these are the obligations", though it appears a more literal translation would be "these are the things". Hmm.)
And on a different vocabulary subject, is there a word suitable for use in the Orthodox community that conveys "observant" or "religious" without conveying "frum" (which seems to imply a theology, as I've heard the word used)?
Edit: I realize now that this was a little unclear. For the second question, I'm looking for a word I can use to describe myself; I am serious about Judaism and am fairly observant, but if I say "observant" in an Orthodox context I perhaps imply "by Orthodox standards and for Orthodox reasons", and I don't want to seem pretentious. (I was talking with someone at a congregation I'll be visiting in a few weeks and was trying to fend off the potential awkwardness around accepting a lunch invitation for myself when I have local-to-them relatives. I wrote (about why I'd be alone) that I'm the observant member of the family, but that might have connotations I didn't intend. Hence the question. I want to cast it as a positive statement about myself and not a negative statement about others, for reasons of lashon hara.)
In biblical -- and, I believe, modern -- Hebrew, "zeh" and "zot" both mean "this is" (the difference is gender), and "eileh" means "these are". A famous passage from the mishna (included in the liturgy) begins "eilu d'varim", "these are the obligations". Is "eilu" Aramaic for "eileh", or is this Hebrew and some permutation I'm not yet familiar with?
(Every siddur I've seen translates that as "these are the obligations", though it appears a more literal translation would be "these are the things". Hmm.)
And on a different vocabulary subject, is there a word suitable for use in the Orthodox community that conveys "observant" or "religious" without conveying "frum" (which seems to imply a theology, as I've heard the word used)?
Edit: I realize now that this was a little unclear. For the second question, I'm looking for a word I can use to describe myself; I am serious about Judaism and am fairly observant, but if I say "observant" in an Orthodox context I perhaps imply "by Orthodox standards and for Orthodox reasons", and I don't want to seem pretentious. (I was talking with someone at a congregation I'll be visiting in a few weeks and was trying to fend off the potential awkwardness around accepting a lunch invitation for myself when I have local-to-them relatives. I wrote (about why I'd be alone) that I'm the observant member of the family, but that might have connotations I didn't intend. Hence the question. I want to cast it as a positive statement about myself and not a negative statement about others, for reasons of lashon hara.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-17 12:09 am (UTC)