[Avodah] Correct Spelling Of Foreign Terms

[Jay F. Shachter]

>
>>
>> So, I think that one must ask, "Where was Daas Torah when it came
>> to the Shabbatai Movement?
>>
>
> Ask R Yonasan Eybshutz and R Yaaqov Emden.
> 
> There was a LOT of speaking up and finger pointing by the gedolei
> hador.  Didn't help.  The thing is, a number of rabbanim fell for
> him.  So, those who wanted to believe had who[m] to rely on.  (Kind
> of like what happens with much of "Daas Torah" today, now that it
> actually is co[n]sidered "a thing".)
> 

I don't remember whether I have said this before on this mailing
list.  If I have, I apologize for the redundancy.

The Hebrew words for kimono and sushi are (I am guessing with strong
confidence) "kimono" and "sushi".  They are foreign terms, describing
foreign things, and when we speak Hebrew, we pronounce them they way
they are pronounced by the people who brought these terms into our
language.

(To be more pedantically correct, we pronounce them they way they are
pronounced by the people who brought those terms into our language, to
the extent that we are able to imitate them.  Our ancestors, for
example, could not pronounce foreign words that begin with a shva nax,
like Platon and specularia and Xshawerosh, but they did the best they
could.)

The people who believe in Das Torah do not pronounce the word with a
pharyngeal, or even a glottal, stop.  They pronounce it "Das Torah".
And, since Das Torah is a foreign concept, that does not exist in
traditional Judaism, it should be pronounced the way it is pronounced
by the people who brought the term into our language, for the same
reason that we pronounce kimono "kimono", and sushi "sushi".  And when
we write it with the Latin alphabet, we should write the first word
with one 'a', not with two, showing the same fidelity to its correct
pronunciation that we do with any other foreign word.


                        Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
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                        "Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur"