Talking Like A Jew: Names Versus Ideas

Talking Like A Jew:
Names Versus Ideas

Rabbi Y. Oliver

The Rebbe once commented on two unfortunate trends in the Modern Hebrew language, and this can also teach us how a Jew should approach the written and spoken language he uses in any language.

When it comes to names, the secular originators of Modern Hebrew sought to rearrange existing words in Classical Hebrew—or, better put, Lashon HaKodesh,  the Holy Language—to describe secular things. For example, they used the word Knesset, lit. “gathering,” to describe their newly-created parliament, when that word has traditionally referred to a gathering of rabbinic authorities, e.g., Anshei Knesses HaGedolah, and Knesses Yisrael. They referred to their newly-created secular President as Nasi, a word traditionally used to describe the spiritual leader of the Jewish people, and a word also used in reference to Moshiach.

And, of course, they referred to their newly-created state as “Yisrael” (or “Israel”) a word that in Torah tradition referred to our forefather Yaakov. Although the word Yisrael was used in the context of the Holy Land, it never had a political connotation. It referred not to a state, but to a land, so it wasn’t ever referred to as “Yisrael” alone, but as “Eretz Yisrael.” The word “Yisrael” in this context in Modern Hebrew is short for “Medinat Yisrael,” the State of Israel, which was their newly-created secular political entity based on the secular Ottoman and British law systems and on the political philosophy of western democracy. These are just a few examples of how they took words that had holy, spiritual connotations and attached them to secular and in many ways even anti-religious secular entities.

Put differently, in their choice of names, they took the holy and made it profane, and in that way desecrated those words. So if at all possible, one should try to avoid using such names. E.g., speak of Jews living in the Land of Israel, not Israelis, a term that may not even refer to Jews, because non-Jews with citizenship are Israelis.

But when it comes to ideas, the opposite was the case. The early Zionists shunned traditional words that expressed ideas from a Torah perspective, replacing them with words from other languages that expressed similar ideas, but in a way that was associated with secular cultures and that was stripped of the spiritual connotations of those words as they are found in Torah tradition and thinking. They would either make up a new word based on existing etymology, or simply adopt a non-Jewish word. So here they systematically rejected the holy in favor of the profane, because, of course, they were secular and anti-religious themselves.

For example, take the word morale, which was adopted as a word in Modern Hebrew (מוֹרָל). Morale, according to the dictionary here, means “the mental and emotional condition (as of enthusiasm, confidence, or loyalty) of an individual or group with regard to the function or tasks at hand” or “a sense of common purpose with respect to a group.” When a believing Jew speaks about confidence of success, he uses different words—words associated with his awareness of his dependence upon Hashem for success. He speaks of bitachon, trust in Hashem, or emunah, faith in Hashem. When he speaks of a sense of common purpose, he could speak of achdus, unity, or the like, which is associated with ahavas Yisro’el, love of one’s fellow Jew. The word morale conveys none of these connotations.

To sum up:

When a Jew refers to secular things, he should stick to secular words to name them, and not adopt holy words to describe secular things. (Once the word has already been adopted, and that is the word that people use in conversation, it seems that using that word might be less objectionable; however, one should still try to avoid it when one’s meaning will be clear using a Torah-based word.)

Conversely, his worldview should be so permeated with Torah that the words he uses to describe ideas are taken from traditional Torah-based vocabulary as much as possible, and he should avoid using words that express a concept in a G–dless way. Of course, sometimes this is not possible because a word in another language might be more precise, but this is the preference that one should follow in general. This has nothing to do with Hebrew; the same preference should be followed in English. As long as he knows that he will be understood, regardless of the language one speaks, one should intersperse Torah concepts into one’s vocabulary as much as possible, so that it is clear to one and all that a G–d-fearing Jew is speaking.

Loosely based on a sicha of 19 Kislev 5734.

Dedicated in the merit of a speedy release for the captives Yonasan ben Malka (Jonathan Pollard), Alan Gross (Aba Chonah ben Chava Chana), Sholom Mordechai Halevi ben Rivka (Sholom Rubashkin), and Zeva Rochel bas Chaya (Wendy Weiner Runge).

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FAQs about Zionism II

(Continued from here.)

Question: Aren’t the wars to defend the Land of Israel that we have won so miraculously proof that the messianic redemption has begun?


Answer: It is true that over recent decades the Jews living in Eretz Yisroel have, with the help of Hashem, won many wars against tremendous odds, but that does not constitute a sign of redemption. Consider the case of Purim, when the Jewish people took arms against our goyisheh enemies and won, but remained in exile afterward nonetheless, as the Talmud states, “We are still [even after the miracle of Purim] slaves of Achashverosh” (Megillah 14a).


Thus, refusing to associate these miracles with the messianic redemption does not mean “turning one’s back” on them. Indeed, we should give great thanks to Hashem for the miracles by which so many Jews were saved and so much of our sacred Land was protected, and vast segments of it liberated.

However, there is no inherent connection between these salvations and the future redemption other than the fact that all salvations are spiritually interrelated. Note also that in the Amidah prayer, we praise Hashem Who “redeems [the people of] Israel,” and the commentaries state that this is not a prayer for the future redemption, but for salvation “from the troubles that befall us” in exile. The Jewish people have experienced divine salvation despite fighting against great odds many times during their protracted exile, and this was yet another such occasion. Thus, the indisputable miraculousness of these events does not detract from the fact that we are still in exile.


Question: Shouldn’t we take action in order to hasten the redemption?


Answer: It is not our role to try to hasten the redemption through force. Hashem has promised us that when the time comes, Moshiach will usher in the age of redemption. For the true cause of the exile was not the Babylonians, the Romans, or any other empire, but our sins, and thus the only way to hasten and ultimately bring the redemption is by increasing in our own Torah observance and encouraging our fellow Jews to do likewise. This rectifies our sin, the cause of the exile, and therefore removes its outcome, the exile, automatically.


Question: Won’t leaving the exile and moving to Eretz Yisroel ...


Answer: Whoa, hold it right there. Until Moshiach comes, the Land of Israel is a part of exile and the Jews in it are in a state of exile just as are those living in the Diaspora. The confusion of the two meanings of the word golus—diaspora and exile—is unfortunate and highly misleading, although I imagine it is unintentional. This identification implies that living in the Land means living in a world of redemption, or at least partial redemption, while living in the diaspora means choosing to remain in exile.

With all due respect, this is incorrect. Even a Jew who lives in Eretz Yisroel declares during his prayers: “On account of our sins, we were exiled from our Land.” And he does so even when praying in the holiest city, Yerushalayim, and at the Kosel, the holiest place in the world that we can go. So even a Jew living in the Holy Land, in the holiest city, and standing at the Kosel, is in exile just the same. For exile is not about being banished from the Land, but about being in a state of exile in which we cannot serve Hashem properly, which is only possible when we have the Beis HaMikdash, a Jewish king (in the case of the upcoming redemption, the king Moshiach), and so on. There were Jews living in the Land throughout our long exile, albeit in smaller numbers, and yet no one ever saw anything redemptive in that.


Question: How do you respond when you see Jews displaying the Israeli flag?


Answer: I am unhappy. However, I find it doubly sad when I witness someone who identifies with the cause of strengthening the Jews of Yehuda and Shomron displaying the Israeli flag so proudly. It was only yesterday, in the suicidal idiocy and treason so euphemistically but callously termed “disengagement,” that we all saw the true colours of the Israeli government and its flag.

We saw how the government sent young men and women (who should have been elsewhere defending us from our true enemies) to systematically and efficiently expel our brethren from their homes and villages in the Gaza strip and Northern Shomron—all with that very flag emblazoned on their blackshirted vests. To add insult to injury, when their dirty deed was done, they raised that flag over the Jew-free territory to declare “victory” (may Hashem have mercy) in their mission. And then we saw how the same government that had promised so publicly, using costly advertising campaigns, that there would be a “solution for every settler” did nothing of the sort, instead leaving these expellees in the lurch. The “dawn of the redemption,” indeed.

The agenda of Zionism: Redefining Jewishness

The Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish law that defines Jewish observance.

The philosophy of Zionism as originally conceived by Hertzl and his colleagues sought to redefine Jewishness as secular nationalism—identifying with the nation of the Jewish people as a secular entity deliberately divorced from our age-old religious identity.

This led to the identification with and support of the Zionist cause to be regarded as the true expression of Jewishness. Thus, once the State of Israel became a reality, Zionist nationalism evolved into identifying passport-carrying citizens of the State as the “real” Jews, and true Jewish “observance” as defined by loyalty to the state and its laws, and not by loyalty to Hashem and observance of his Mitzvos.

This is antithetical to the way that the Jew had always been defined—as a person born from a Jewish mother obligated by Hashem to observe the Torah and Mitzvos regardless of his location, language, or country of citizenship.

Put differently, if being Jewish is about being an ardent Zionist, then as long as I support the State (or the Zionist cause, before the State existed), I am a good Jew. There is no need for me to adhere to Shabbos, the laws of kosher, or anything else, because now that we have the State, we don’t need any of that old-fashioned superstition anymore. We only ever needed religion to maintain national cohesiveness, but now religion has been rendered obsolete by secular nationalism, which holds us together far more effectively; thus, religion can now be discarded.

In this respect, the philosophy of Zionism is not only a corrupting force, but is even more disastrous in its spiritual impact than non-Zionistic secularism or even than defecting to another religion. One who does not observe Torah and Mitzvos full well that there is a certain religious lifestyle known as Judaism that he is choosing for whatever reason not to follow. He does not imagine that he is in any way adhering to that lifestyle; on the contrary, he is consciously, willfully rejecting it. The upshot of this is that once he reaches a point at which he sees the foolishness of his errant ways, whether through pleasant or painful experiences (may we only know the former, but the reality is that sometimes we end up learning our lessons through the latter, may G-d save us), he typically returns to true Judaism and adheres to it uncompromisingly.

In contrast, a Zionist, who has redefined Jewish identity, will never infer from his experiences that he should renounce his current way of life and adopt Jewish observance, because in his mind he is already a very proud, “observant” Jew—a proud citizen of the state. He served in the army, he serves in the reserves, he pays his taxes, he votes, he obeys every law, he sends his children to public schools, to the army, national service, and the reserves, and he passionately marks “Independence Day.” Or, if he is a proud supporter from afar, which is the next best thing to being a citizen, he gives regular handsome donations to the JNF, proudly displays the Israeli flag, has enrolled his children in schools that inculcate Zionist beliefs, and, of course, he too passionately marks “Independence Day.” What more could one ask of him (other than aliyah, of course, his neglect of which evokes in him immeasurable guilt and shame)? His ideology has overtaken him to the point that no amount of personal suffering (G–d forbid) will move him to re-embrace the Judaism of his ancestors.

So in order to reconnect with his true Jewish identity, at some point the Zionist must come to realize the fallacy of Zionist philosophy. This would appear to be at least one of the deeper reasons behind the consistent groveling, lack of leadership, and even corruption evinced by so many of the most powerful Israeli politicians over the years, and their betrayal of the Jewish people through the insane adherence to accursed “peace plans” that involve surrendering Jewish land, money, and guns to the serial murderers of our brothers and sisters and to terrorist collaborators and ideological supporters—as is all documented daily in the popular news outlets.

It would appear that with this Hashem is sending the Jewish people the message that the religion of Zionism is bankrupt and phoney, and in order to be ready to greet the true redemption through our righteous Moshiach, we must return to our true Jewish roots—the laws of the Torah, as codified in the Shulchan Aruch. These laws are divine and therefore timeless, immutable, and the only way for us to be truly fulfilled as Jews.

Based on the Rebbe Rashab’s Kuntres Uma’ayan pp. 46-48.

FAQs about Zionism I

Question: Is the State of Israel good or bad?

Answer: In a nutshell, as I understand it, the Chabad position on the State of Israel is as follows. The State was the embodiment of all the aspirations of nationalist Zionism, which was a secular and even antireligious philosophy designed to replace true Torah-based Judaism with a secular nationalist ideal, G–d forbid. This agenda is false and evil, and delays the true redemption. Chabad thus opposes any identification with the government of the sort that would give the impression that one accepts the evil philosophy behind it.

However, the idea of saving and protecting Jews from danger is legitimate and worthy, and in fact a Torah imperative (" pikuach nefesh"). The Zionists who set up the State performed a worthy deed in setting up an army to protect the Jews from the hostile Arabs, and in organizing a place for Jews to live to escape persecution. 


Yet this does not mitigate the fact that they simultaneously committed an evil deed by associating this endeavor with promoting their anti-religious, anti-Torah philosophy. Their intentions in setting up the State were therefore a mixture of good and evil.

Practically speaking, the Jews who live there are Jews like any other, and so they need military protection; thus, those who serve in the army do a tremendous Mitzvah in defending Jewish life, regardless of the fact that the government that dispatches them represents the philosophy of Zionism.

Likewise, the Land is holy, and those who settle in it in a holy way perform a Mitzvah regardless of the fact that the government that technically controls the Land embodies the philosophy of Zionism. For in reality the government does not own the Land; rather, it is Hashem’s eternal gift to every single Jew.

Question: Why don’t you celebrate Israeli Independence Day?



Answer: Among other reasons, because it is simply untrue—the Jews living in Eretz Yisroel today (may they increase manyfold) are not independent from the non-Jews. This reality is so blatant that all one need do is select any random news report concerning Israeli foreign relations, and one will see how the Israeli government grovels in front of the goyim. Moreover, this has been going on in one form or another all along, only in an ever-increasing measure, and especially over the past decade. It has reached such depraved, outrageous proportions that it boggles my mind every time I attempt to get my head around it.

In particular, I am referring to the vile atrocities of surrendering Jewish land, guns, and money to our sworn terrorist enemies, expelling Jews en masse from their homes, and criminalizing the building or renovation of Jewish homes—all out of the craven fear of “what will the goyim say.” This shows plainly and irrefutably just how much "independence" Zionism has brought us.

Our control over the Land is significant and must be maintained because the Land is holy and G-d-given, and because to relinquish any part of it would severely endanger those who remain. However, the truth must be recognized that this control is only partial, that we are in reality vassals to the United States of America, and thus our titular control does not constitute true independence. (One recent reminder of this was the pathetic way that the IDF scrambled to complete its military operation in Gaza, which was codenamed Cast Lead, before President Obama came into office—lest their actions displease the president and he wield his influence to obstruct their efforts, through withdrawal of aid or the like.) 

Question: Doesn’t the very existence of the State of Israel constitute the fulfillment of biblical prophecies foretelling the return of the Jewish people to Eretz Yisroel?

Answer: No, we're still in exile. The secular Zionist state is not the fulfillment of any biblical redemptive prophecies, which will only be fulfilled through Moshiach. Moreover, calling the exile redemption delays the coming of the true redemption! Conversely, the first step towards true redemption is recognizing that we are indeed in exile, for only then can we truly pray for the redemption.

In fact, not only are we not in a state of redemption, but in a way the exile is even worse in the Holy Land, for in many places there, may G-d save us, the atmosphere is lacking in fear of G-d (although the numbers of those returning to Jewish observance have been steadily increasing, thank G-d). To sin in the Holy Land is considered more severe than to sin in the diaspora, for a sin committed in the King’s palace is worse than a sin committed outside it (Tashbetz, sec. 559).