Mastodawn

Jewterpretor Feb 17, 2023

QRT #JWHIA https://babka.social/@jewwhohasitall/109818863484307343

Going back a bit to a recent #schoolLetter, #DearPrincipal this time. Some #names, a #holiday, a #song, and #woke.

Let's go!

#Berkowitz (also #Berkowicz, #Berkovich, etc) /ˈberkɔvɪt͡s (Yiddish), ˈbɝkəwɪts (English) = Ashkenazi Jewish #surname literally meaning “son of little bear.” Borrowed into English from Yiddish. Derived from the Yiddish #given #name #Berke...

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🇺🇸 JewWhoHasItAll (@[email protected])

Dear Principal Berkowitz, I am writing to strenuously object to the decision that was just released, to prohibit Tu B’Shvat parties in our #school this year. As a #teacher, I care for all of my students. I’m sure that you, like me, have many happy memories of #class Tu B'Shvat #parties from childhood. 1/10

Babka Social

Jewterpretor Feb 17, 2023

 ·Berke = Ber + ke

 ·Ber = bear (a #calque, i.e. direct loan translation, from the Hebrew name #Dov (= bear) 

·ke = a Yiddish #diminutive suffix, mostly reserved for names, borrowed from Slavic languages

 ·(o)witz = #patronymic #suffix, the Germanized/Yiddishized version of Polish “wicz” and Russian “vich,” meaning “son of”

Berkowitz = Ber + ke + (o)witz [bear+ little + son of]

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Jewterpretor Feb 17, 2023

Tu B'Shvat:

#tu /tu (Hebrew, English)/ = 15. In English, usually limited to notable days in the calendar (e.g. Tu B’Shvat, Tu B’Av), sort of like “ides” (e.g. Ides of March = March 15th, but we don’t regularly count “ides” for 15). In Modern Hebrew, the word for 15 is chamisha-'asar (literally “five-ten"), so what's "tu"?

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Jewterpretor Feb 17, 2023

Before the adoption of #ArabicNumerals into Hebrew script, the standard way to write numbers in Hebrew was with #HebrewNumerals, which work much like #LatinNumerals (y'know, V = 5, X = 10, so XV = 15). Rather than separate number symbols, numerical values were assigned to letters of the alphabet. Writing numbers meant writing a particular string of letters.

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(The rest of “tu” is mostly borrowed from @ignatzpippik:)

So 1 is written as alef, the 1st letter of the alef-bet (=alphabet); 2 as bet, the 2nd letter; and so on up to 10, yod , the 10th letter. We can’t go on like that forever because we only have 22 letters in Hebrew script, so starting at 11 we’ll write yod-alef (= “ten one”), 12 is yod-bet (= “ten two”), etc, through 19. The letter after yod will be 20, the one after that 30. Cool! BUT there’s a big problem in the teens…

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Jewterpretor Feb 17, 2023

Following that pattern, 15 should be written “ten five”, i.e. the 10th letter (yod) followed by the 5th letter (hay). NO! You can’t do that! Yod hay is already a word, and not an ordinary word, a name of the deity. Using it in the middle of a math problem would be taking the name of the Lord in vain! You wouldn’t be able to do math without breaking one of the Ten Commandments! But suppose the answer to a math problem is 15 — you need a way to write it…

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Jewterpretor Feb 17, 2023

so instead of “ten five”, 15 is written as “nine six,” i.e. “tet vav.” The letter tet represents /t/, and the letter vav represents /v/, /w/, /u/, and /o/, so the combination tet-vav is pronounced “tu."

b' (also #be, #bi) /bə/ (Hebrew) = prepositional noun #prefix roughly equivalent to "in", "at", and "with"

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Jewterpretor Feb 17, 2023

#Shevat (also #Shvat) /ʃəˈvat (Hebrew & English)/ = 5th month of the Jewish #CivilYear, and 11th month of the #liturgicalYear. The word is borrowed from an Akkadian word meaning "strike," probably in reference to seasonal heavy rain in that region at that time of year (January-February in the #GregorianCalendar)

Tu B' Shvat = "15 in Shvat" [15th of Shvat], the New Year of the Trees. Also called Rosh Hashanah La'ilanot (= "head-of the-year for-trees", i.e. New Year For Trees) ...

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Jewterpretor Feb 17, 2023

Historically, this date marked the "fruit harvest year" for the purpose of tithing and taxation (compare the modern concept of "fiscal year"). Today it is celebrated in Israel as an ecological awareness day.

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Jewterpretor Feb 17, 2023

4 types of symbolic fruits: At Tu B'Shvat it is traditional to eat/experience four types of fruits/ plant foods, which depending on interpretation are said to represent different concepts: e.g. seasons, or levels of the physical and spiritual world.

the categories are:
1. plant foods with edible interior and inedible exterior (traditionally nuts and coconut, but also banana, melon, etc), representing winter, and asiah (=the realm of action)

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Jewterpretor Feb 17, 2023

2. plant foods with inedible pits (e.g. dates, stone fruits, olives, avocadoes), representing spring, and yetzirah (= realm of formation)

3. plant foods you can eat whole (e.g. blueberries, figs, grapes), representing summer, and briah (= the realm of creation)

4. plants with the best scents, scent being invisible to the eye (close your eyes and sniff, e.g., cinnamon, mint, rosemary, etc), representing fall, and atzilut (= the realm of pure g-dliness)

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Jewterpretor Feb 18, 2023

nothing religious about it: depends who you ask. Start by separating ethnoreligious observance into cultural behavior vs. supernatural belief (a vastly oversimplified dichotomy, but assume for the moment). Culturally, many Jews can (and do) celebrate Tu B'Shvat without supernatural belief: it's a celebration of seasons, trees, fruit, and ecological conservation; it's "not religious."

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Jewterpretor Feb 18, 2023

But historically there is a "religious" aspect to the holiday, i.e. traditionally it also celebrates aspects of supernatural belief with respect to the physical and spiritual world, and aspects of the relationship between people and G-d. For Jews who do have traditional supernatural belief, this holiday does have "religious" meaning.

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Jewterpretor Feb 18, 2023

For many members of minority religious groups in #MedinatAmerica, e.g. observant Christians, participation in Tu B'Shvat celebrations cannot be purely non-religious, because the holiday is a complete package: the fruit/trees/seasonal symbolism as well as its historical origins and religious symbolism; and the holiday and religious symbolism do not belong to non-Jewish religious tradition and belief.

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Jewterpretor Feb 18, 2023

In the real-world, Christian-hegemonic US (and beyond), this happens all the time with holidays of Christian origin: e.g. many parents and educators argue that schools should be able to celebrate Valentine's Day because it's "not religious." However, just like Tu B'Shvat, there are both "religious" and "non-religious" aspects to the tradition and celebration of Valentine's Day, whose origin is the feast day of a Christian saint...

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Jewterpretor Feb 18, 2023

...and folks from non-Christian backgrounds (rightly) point out that the holiday is actually a package deal that includes BOTH of those aspects.

People didn't used to complain? They absolutely did -- to each other, and within their own communities. As we strive to make public services, including public school, more accessible to minority and minoritized groups, we have simply become more aware of the complaints.

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Jewterpretor Feb 18, 2023

The parents who are complaining aren't trying to be spoilsports. They are trying to fight for inclusion for their kids, who deserve access to public school and classroom parties just as much as kids who belong to cultural majorities.

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Jewterpretor Feb 18, 2023

the song, and more names, coming later.