A Few Terms in Jewish Lingo

Shalom, this Jonathan Ginsburg of the Ezra-Habonim Niles Township Jewish Congregation. This video is to try and help people understand Jewish talk. What I mean, I will give you some terms and how they are used in Jewish to help you pronounce them and understand when Jews speak to one another. First of all, Emash kiyah, he is the guy who certifies that things are kosher and what the mashhadiyah kadazah hashkahah and when he does Hashkahah he gives something to Hakesher and when he gives the Hakesher, it means it is kosher. Kosher means really that something is fit for eating although it is used in a lot of other ways now in the contemporary society. The opposite of kosher is trayf. Trayf originally in the Bible meant something that was cut but now it means anything un-kosher, so, mashhadiyah kadazah hashkahah, he gives Hakesher to make sure something is kosher and now trayf. The mohel, is the circumciser and what he does is milah. When you hear somebody say they are going to a beres for Asconism or berith, simply means a covenant. It is really a berith milah, a covenant of circumcision. Sherket is somebody who does Shechita. Now, in Judaism it is very important to learn to clear your throat a while, the “khs.” Do not say shita, it is shechita. Shechita is the original slaughter of the animal. Sefer is the guy who writes Jewish holy things like the Torah. A sefer Torah is the same word book or a scroll from mezuzah, that is a Sefer. You will hear Jews instead of saying ov dah which is what the Scandinavian say, they say oyvey or ovdivey, things are not good. There are a lot of “sh” terms in Judaism. Some are okay, they say some are not. Shlamiyel and Shlamzoh. The Shlamiyel is somebody just has a really bad luck and the Shlamzoh will drop something on shlamiyum. Their words should not really be used. They were for the body parts but now it really refer to people that are not good people. The opposite of a mench which is literally a man but a good person is the shmakher apaths probably should not use those especially in mixed company but you are referring to somebody who is not a good guy. He is not a mench. You will often hear people used the word shlap which means they are carrying something or they are slapping around. Shiker is somebody who is drunk, and so you see a lot of “sh” words. Do not use the word shikseh or shagits—they hey refer to a non-Jewish male or female but their origins are creepy crawly abominations and so do not use the word shagits or shikseh. A goy in the Bible is simply a nation. Jews are a goy too but when people used the word goyam or goy today it has a sort of negative connotations so it is better not to say goy, just simply say non-Jew. Now, what are relatives? The Yiddish for in-laws is makhetonim or makheteniste would be a female and makhetonim are your in-laws. A ganaf is a thief from the word ghanaf of the Ten Commandments say “do not steal.” Various terms for Rabbis, rabbi is kind of general American term. Arrav would be an orthodox rabbi and a rabbee would be more of like the great rabbi amongst the Hasidim. Rabbitzin means the wife of the rabbi or a spouse nowadays since there are women rabbis and a rebbetzin would be some form of the husband of a female rabbi. In terms of kahsrut, there are basically three terms besides trayf which means not kosher. There is nafekh which is something that is dairy. Fletsekh which is something that is meat or pareve which is neither meat nor milk like eggs, fish, vegetables, fruits. Now, for synagogue, synagogue is a Greek word. You have shul which means school but the orthodox mostly used that. Temple is a word that mostly reform Jews use. The historic words were beit Knesset, the house of gathering, beit tefila, the house of prayer, beit midrash, the house of study. Now, for praying people will say daven which means to pray. Bench which is a Yiddish word for bless or birkat refers to birkat Hamazon, the grace after meals. The various items of religious worship, I have YouTubes on those, but basically to fill in out and the straps and flatteries, the boxes that Jews wear in morning prayer except the Sabbath and holidays. Talus is a prayer shawl. You will hear Jewish say Shabbat or shabbis, they are both ways of saying the Sabbath. Shabbat is Nordic. Shabbis is Azkenazic. Yontiff like a good yontiff is what you say on the holidays. It means yon tov good day or chag sameach is the day for the holiday—that is festival days. Boker tov is the word for good morning. There are a lot of names for God use, the main is Adonai or Adonoi which is one of the names of God usually the four letter type of Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh is used in the Bible. Never say Jehovah. That is like if you vocalized it, certain Christians say Jehovah. It is not a Jewish word to use at all. You will often hear the word Hakadosh Baruch Hu which means “The Holy One blessed be He.” The Bible also uses the word Elohim and El Shaddai or Shaddai, different names of God. You will often hear in the synagogue let us do a mishaberah which simply means “He who blessed” and there are a lot of different prayers of mishaberah for people who have honors, for a bar mitzvah, for a baby naming, for people who are sick. It is called a mishaberah meaning “he who blessed.” The El Maley Rachamim is a memorial prayer and there are a lot of words in Judaism based on the word of kadosh which means holy. For example, the kaddish, there are five forms of the kaddish. They all begin Yitgadal v' yitkadash. There is a half Kaddish, the mourner’s Kaddish, the full Kaddish, the scholars kaddish called kaddish to Rabanon and a burial Kaddish that is very infrequently used. There is also the prayer kedosha which is in the daily prayers, sanctification of God. Kiddish is sanctification overthe wine. It is also now used for the food that is served the after services usually on Saturday. Kadosh means holy. Kadoshen means holiness and it is usually the word referred to for marriage and the haver kadisha would be a holy group or ritual group that prepares the dead body, all forms of the word kadosh. Anyway, those are a lot of the basic terms that are good for people to know. How to pronounce and what they mean. Hope this helps.