Happy New Year

[AngieDoogles]

Originally Posted by judy

Me too! I'd love to take a course in different religions. I will, one of these days.

No Angie - I don't think I know more than one Hebrew word - Shalom - which means hello, and I think goodbye also. Most European Jews speak Yiddish, which is a combo of German and ???? I know a couple of phrases - shaina maidala (sp?) means pretty girl. Zeis means sweet. I can't have too intense a conversation with those few!

Yiddish is a combination of German and Hebrew. Very interesting actually! There's also a dying language (less than 200 people globally can speak proficiently) called Ladino, which is a combination of Spanish and Hebrew. It appeared during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella when the Jews were persecuted. It was a way to "hide" their religion. (That's all from memory, so if any of that information is incorrect, I apologize!)

[judy]

Originally Posted by AngieDoogles

Yiddish is a combination of German and Hebrew. Very interesting actually! There's also a dying language (less than 200 people globally can speak proficiently) called Ladino, which is a combination of Spanish and Hebrew. It appeared during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella when the Jews were persecuted. It was a way to "hide" their religion. (That's all from memory, so if any of that information is incorrect, I apologize!)

That's really cool! I didn't know Hebrew was involved in Yiddish and I never heard of Ladino. There are a few "endangered" languages. I really would love to study some history. I only took one course in college and never went in high school.

What other religious holidays come around this time of the year? Ramadan starts in a couple of days - it's also for atonement and is a cleansing holiday. I find that most religious holidays occur around the same time and those times have lot to do with harvesting, planting, etc. It's so interesting!