דָוִד Magen David, prayers for the traveller, the Shema שְׁמַע, the blessing over the house, the Hebrew word mazal or mazel מַזָל, meaning ‘luck’, and the colours red and blue, which reputedly repel the evil eye, are often featured on the ...
The gods, to whom he brought many offerings, announced to him at last that he would never have a child; and they therefore desired him to adopt his sister's son, the lad Nadan (meaning "gift," like Nathan, but also possibly with a contemptuous secondary meaning, as in Ezek. xvi. 33...
Rabbi Shafran further argues that the ordination of a woman ran counter to the concept oftzniut, (modesty). It includes the idea that women are demeaned, not honoured, when they are placed in the public eye,” said Rabbi Shafran, “and that a position like the one suggested here is viola...
The meaning of "el," which is the common Semitic term, is not certain. It has been held to connote strength (in which case God would = "the strong"), leadership ("the first"), and brilliancy (Sprenger, in his "Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad," in which God ="sun"). It ...
Goldie is a very old Scottish surname dating back to the 7th century derived from the Old English personal name, ‘Goldie’ which, according to the Surname Database, “does derive from gold, the precious metal, but mainly in the transferred sense of meaning a child with golden hair, probabl...
In Judaism, it is believed that saying ‘Hamsa Hamsa Hamsa’ (meaning ‘Five’ in Arabic) wards off the evil powers. It is similar to the phrase ‘Touchwood’ in western countries. That’s why they wear this symbol of hand with five fingers as protection from negative forces. It is an...
Instead of referring to thejewish privilegeor afree passdirectly, (7) chooses more circumspect wording. The “membership card” metaphor indirectly conveys the idea of belonging to an exclusive club or society, or a privileged lobby. The intended antisemitic meaning is made clear by combining the...
I got some very interesting gifts this year, from a novel back scrubber, flamingo pajamas, and a jar of posh truffle salt to a bright fuchsia mermaid blanket from my well-meaning husband. But if there was one thing that I wanted more than anything this year –anything at all – it was...
This is the meaning of tli in the calendrical table which Donnolo inserted in the introductory section of Sefer Hakhmoni . Secondly, in Sefer ha-mazzalot Donnolo employs the term tli as a synonym of axis mundi, the central bar around which, according to the Ptolemaic tradition, the earth...
The basis of the use of cacophemisms seems to be the wide-spread fear that too great happiness may attract envy (see Evil Eye). It was thought to avert this by giving a bad name to the thing which was in reality highly esteemed. The best-known though almost isolated example of this ...