Did You Know…

Hanukah can be spelled 17 different ways!

Monday, November 30th, 2009

It’s actually a hebrew word.  It means “dedication”.  But, as they say, ask three Jews a question and you’ll get four opinions, or, in this case, 17.

We did some sluething and found, on yumshugar.com of all places, a quiz that spelled them all out:

Chanuccah, Channuka, Channukah, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Chanuko, Hannuka, Hannukah, Hanuka, Hanukkah, Hanukka, Hannukka, Kanukkah, Khannuka, Khannukah, Khanukkah, Khanukkah.

Not sure what the qualifications are for one spelling being “correct” and another not, but there you go.  Happy early Khannukkah!

Jews give thanks more than 100 times a day

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

With Thanksgiving coming up, we got to thinking about whether Jews should be celebrating this secular holiday.  The answer — we basically do, everyday!

Think about it… from the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep, it’s thank you, thank you, thank you.  Our morning prayers thank God for everything from standing to having the strength to wake up.  At each meal, we thank God for having food, and then again after the meal, for having had food.  When it’s all said and done (assuming you’ve said and done it all), the proposed Jewish day includes more than 100 “thank you’s”.

So, this Thanksgiving, know that the only thing that really differentiates this day from all other days is somewhere in the ballpark of 4,000 calories.

The bagel is shaped to resemble a stirrup!

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

That’s right! Here’s the story:

Back in 1496 there was a decree that said Jewish bakers in Krakow, Poland couldn’t produce “obwarzanek” (parboiled rolls similar to modern-day bagels) within city limits.

As a special thank-you gift to King Sobieski of Poland, after he protected the Jews of Vienna from the Turks, a local baker made a roll in the shape of a stirrup to represent the King’s favorite pasttime — horseback riding, and called it a “beugel” — the Austrian word for stirrup.

“Daven” is Latin!

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

“Daven” is a Yiddish word that means “to pray”.  We might say that we are going to “Daven Mincha”, which means that we will pray the afternoon service, Mincha.

Where did the word daven come from?  Not from Yiddish!  It’s origins are actually Latin!  It comes from the word “divine”, and helps us remember who we are praying to when we daven.

Of the 660 Nobel prizes from 1901 – 1990, 160 have been won by Jews.

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

In the end, Jews win more Nobel prizes than any other ethnicity. They win 40x more than should be expected of them, based upon their small population numbers.

“shul” actually means “school”

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

We use the word “shul” because that’s what our grandparents said… but why did they say it?

The word “shul” is derived from the Yiddish word for “school”, and helps to emphasize the importance of study in the synagogue.