After moving to Israel, some fellow new immigrants and I played a game: renaming places in Israel with famous names from our home cities. So, Derech Yigal Alon, the main highway in Tel Aviv, became our Sunset Boulevard and Dizengoff Square turned into Place du Tertre, and so on.

One friend disliked this game, saying it was too nostalgic. While he might be right about the nostalgia, it also felt, well, maybe a very Jewish tendency?

Haven’t checked this, but I prefer to believe the same thing explains why France in Hebrew is Tzarfat (a town in Lebanon) and Spain is Spharad (probably a place in Turkey).

A fun way to understand the political climate in the current state and time.

We can call it Government/Commandments rate.

Here are some examples:

#Israel #judaism

Is it just me or too filters in modern search engines do not show any discussions on the background of 1488 becoming a unicode for symbol א, aleph? Someone must have tried to dig this story up.

But all I see is a single post on Medium:
https://medium.com/@wimahl/unicodes-nazi-problem-58fbd4291a7f

#hebrew #israel

After becoming Israeli, I almost failed my first security check in the Ben Gurion Airport:

“Where do you live?”
“Tel Aviv-Yafo.”
“Tel Aviv or Yafo?”
“…”

Lately I’ve discovered why the distinction matters so much.

“Jaffa’s Palestinian population has articulated its identity through ‘spatializing social activity’—through art festivals, original theater, organized protests (which became violent in 1994 and 1996), fighting to return streets to their original Arabic names”.

From the (unfortunately) biased book “Overthrowing Geography” by Mark LeVine.

#israel #history

A fascinating pattern in Middle Eastern culture is the art of finding ways to honor the law while technically working around it

Example of this trick can be found in Maimonides' “Guide for the Perplexed.” Here’s how Leo Strauss describes his clever maneuver:

“The very same law, the secrets of which Maimonides attempted to explain, forbids their explanation. According to the ordinance of the talmudic sages, Ma'aseh Merkavah (מעשה מרכבה) ought not to be taught even to one man, except if he be wise and able to understand by himself.

As a matter of fact, the Guide is written in the form of letters addressed to a friend and favorite pupil, Joseph. By addressing his book to one man, Maimonides made sure that he did not transgress the prohibition against explaining מעשה מרכבה to more than one man. Moreover, in the Epistula dedicatoria addressed to Joseph, he mentions, as it were in passing and quite unintentionally, that Joseph possessed all the qualities required of a student of the secret lore”.