[Avodah] dealing with trans-gender

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 02/26/2016 09:01 AM, T613K at aol.com wrote:
> From: Zev Sero via Avodah <avodah at lists.aishdas.org>
>> On 02/25/2016 02:32 PM, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:

>> Moreinu R' Y.Tz.V. (?)
  
> Yishmereihu Tzuro Viychayeihu.

> Translation?  If it's a quote, I don't recognize it.

May his Rock guard him and keep him alive.   It's a standard abbreviation
to put after someone's name, just like NY (Nero Ya'ir), ShY (Sheyichyeh),
ShLITA (Sheyichyeh Le'orech Yamim Tovim Amen).  One appends these things
as a matter of course, without putting much thought into selecting one,
just as for deceased people one automatically appends one of AH (Alav
Hashalom, though it may originally have stood for Eved Hashem),
ZL (Zichrono Livracha), ZYA (Zechuto Yagen Alenu), etc.

                                 *****

Incidentally, there was just an appeals court decision that turned in
part on a document translated from Hebrew in which two terror victims
were named, followed by the phrase "May Their Memory Be a Blessing".
In English that's a mouthful, and draws attention to itself both by its
length and its not being a familiar phrase.

While the chief judge wrote that "In this case, the six-word blessing
was not inflammatory or unduly  prejudicial. Indeed, the blessing added
no information beyond that which was already contained in the statements",
a footnote says that "Neither Judge Batchelder nor Judge Moore joins in
this paragraph or the next. These two paragraphs thus represent only the
opinion of Judge Rogers and not the opinion of the court".

Judge Moore went to the trouble of writing a dissent, specifically to
note that "The victims’ names and the  prayer have no probative value
—- they are wholly unnecessary. What is more, the danger of unfair
prejudice is significant.  The names and the prayer give color and
texture to the bombing, so that it becomes both more real and more
difficult to separate from the instant offense. They  provide exactly
the kind of detail likely to provoke a visceral reaction. This is too
much for a limiting instruction to overcome."

All this over something that in Hebrew is only two letters and an
apostrophe, and is such a standard appendage that the Israeli eye
passes over it without the brain even noticing.  What one judge
calls a "blessing", and the other two judges a "prayer", is to
Hebrew speakers simply part of the names, and all it indicates is
that the people are deceased, which in this case the reader already
knows.


-- 
Zev Sero               All around myself I will wave the green willow
zev at sero.name          The myrtle and the palm and the citron for a week
                And if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm doing that
                I'll say "It's a Jewish thing; if you have a few minutes
                I'll explain it to you".