Recently a painter came to do some work in our house and he said to me "You don't look like a Yehuda. I thought it was a female name!" I told him it's very Israeli masculine but he was still bewildered. I said "Forget it, just call me Jeff."
Welcome to TSD, Jeff. Have you tried any menthol shaving creams? I hear there pretty cool. (LOL Welcome back Mr. Freeze.) Herm
So... since there's only one vowel between them, does 'Yehuda' also mean something close to the same thing? (I know some Yiddish, but my Hebrew is lacking. I could never manage a Bar Mitzvah. )
Ah ok, perhaps you're thinking of Ehud Barak who was a former prime minister of our country from 1999-2001? No, it's a name on its own with a different meaning. In the Bible Ehud was a judge. In Hebrew Ehud means united.
Du bist a Yid? (Are you Jewish?) My Yiddish is perfect - don't worry, my parents made sure I learned it! lolll The way I daven (pray) is strange to a lot of, in fact to almost all Ashkenazim I know because I was trained in the Sephardic Nusach. In Hebrew nusach means "accent" and although I can follow an Ashkenazi service it's a lot easier for me to follow a Sephardic one. In fact, very often at the synagogue which I go to which has an almost exclusive Moroccan-Jewish congregation I quite often fill in for the regular cantor, especially for the High Holidays. Here's an example for you. This prayer "Ashir Shirati" is sung during Shavuoth and I was asked to chant some of the prayers and this was one of them. When we were leaving to go home, a woman who was sitting beside my wife told me I sang magnificently - my voice is a deep baritone and according to her my wife was looking at me adoringly and had tears in her eyes! When I went back to my seat several men shook my hand, kissed me on both cheeks, and said "Vayishkoach" to me which means "May you have strength."
No, but considering my dietary restrictions (allergies/intolerances), I might as well be (Pork, shellfish, allergies, etc) I'm 45 now, and I've spent the last 25 years with the majority of my customers being Jewish. Several Israelis, one Palestinian (Born in the Mandate of Palestine, pre-WWII), Ashkenazi, Sephardi, practicing Orthodox, Orthodox but not fanatical about it, Reform, one Messianic Jew (that was a surprise), and a host of non-practicing. I'm about as 'up' on Judaism as anyone who isn't a 1) Jew, or 2) scholar. In other words, I know enough to be dangerous. Most of them agree that I'm meshuganah. What's looney is that I've had two or three of them that _were_ the stereotype. *sigh* several of the wives keep trying to feed me every time I stop by to fix a PC.
It's that it's automatic. This is years into explaining that I don't eat at anyone's house because of dietary issues. It's just a bit wearing sometimes. My uncle does the same thing with his automatic "hey, want a beer?" when I visit. (That's more a Canadian thing, though)
Lolllllllllll My mother, mother-in-law and my wife are always trying to force food on guests. I weigh 250 lbs (thank goodness not an ounce of fat!) and while I generally have a big apetite there are also times when I just don't feel like eating, much to the chagrin of these wonderful women!
None of you have lived until you've had a friend's Polish grandma (who spoke no English, and I almost no Polish) curse you out in Polish for not eating enough which she took as a sign that I thought she was a lousy cook. Oy vey!
"What do I care that you don't eat! So I slave in the kitchen all day!" (Jewish guilt trip. I think it's shared with Polish and Italians. With Irish, it's "More for me!")
My Italian grandmother was a trip... on the one hand, it was, "Here finish this. I don't want to have to put it away." This was then followed up -- in almost the same breath -- with, "Now, you better start watching what you eat or you'll get fat." Could someone please define "mixed signals" for me?!
My neighbor in Haifa who was a Galitzianer ( A Jewish person from Galitzia, a region in eastern Poland, now largely a part of western Ukraine) and many times his son, who was a very close friend of mine would invite me for supper. His babeh (Yiddish for Grandma) and I would have nice, long conversations in Polish, Yiddish, German, and Russian. To this day I remember the old lady watching for me to finish off my chicken soup with lokshen (noodles) and she would immediately re-fill my bowl, and dump some more bread at my place. She would tell me "Es, es, mein Kint, es!" (Eat, eat, my child, eat!) I think I was fourteen at the time and when I finished eating the old lady grabbed my cheek, kissed me and said with joy "Hoo ha, ken ayna hora, ken er essen!" (Yiddish for wow, bless him, can he eat!) My wife's friend is Polish. (and pretty hot!) This girl is still stunned at how well I speak Polish and at how well I know their food and customs. Her uncle once said bad things about me to her in Polish, not realizing or knowing that I speak their language perfectly. The guy thought I was an Arab because of my swarthy appearance. I said to him in Polish: "Jak możesz to powiedzieć do niej?"(How can you say that to her?) He replied to me: O Boże! (Oh God!) and he stood there in shock for almost ten minutes before he apologized and shook my hand and hugged me! lollllll
