The square shape of the bourekas tells us that they are filled with a potato filling One does not have to spend a long time in Israel to get your first introduction to a boureka. These savory stuffed pastries are everywhere You'll find them for breakfast in hotel dining halls, in countless bakeries and coffee shops, on picnics and even at restaurants that only serve bourekas. They are often eaten in Israeli homes as part of a 'light' or diary meal in the evenings. (Most households in Israel usually serve the large cooked meal at lunchtime.) More often than not, bourekas are also an integral part of the wonderful Friday or Shabbat brunch table. To be really honest however, you basically eat a boureka whenever you encounter one. They are that irresistible. If you stop to grab a quick coffee at a coffee shop, the comforting smell of the bourekas will convince you to upgrade to a 'café ve'ma afe' (coffee + pastry). Wandering through street markets, the sight of fres
Life in Israel is pretty much similar to life anywhere on the planet. People die and get born, go to school and university and we celebrate birthdays and weddings. We are also confronted daily by numerous billboards trying to sell us anything from cars to sunglasses.
But there is a small detail that I have noticed only here in Israel. (Though it is apparently also found in religious Jewish countries around the world.) In the upper right corner of death notices, birth or wedding invitations and on some billboards (usually aimed at the religious population) you will find the words bs”d. (Not to be confused with BDS!)
I heard that religious Jews also write these three letters at the top of their notes, letters and other correspondence.
But what does it mean? Is it a secret code?
The word “heavens” refers to God, as in with the help of God we are hosting this wedding. Or with the help of God the restaurant advertised on this billboard will serve these delicious smelling coffee and cakes ...
😊
The word heavens instead of God is used because the sender is worried that the invitation or notebook or advertisement will eventually be thrown out and go to a landfill.
Old Bibles and religious writings or any piece of paper referring to God are carefully disposed in a genizah. A genizah is sort of like disposal place for religious Jewish texts such as old Bibles and papers with religious content.
An ancient language that is still used today
The Talmud and other ancient religious writings were written in Aramaic. Anyone serious about studying Judaism will definitely also learn some of this ancient language too. Luckily there are many similarities to Hebrew, so if you know your Hebrew well, you can more or less figure out the Aramaic.
WHO could make such a silly spelling mistake?
Female words such as grandmother usually ends in a “h” in Hebrew, so I presumed that it is written in Hebrew as סבתה and not סבתא when my daughters ( they were still.small and needed my help) and I wrote their Hebrew-speaking granny a birthday card.
For some reason my sister-in-law looked at the card and asked WHO wrote safta with an h! BIG spelling mistake! It was then that I learnt that the contemporary words for grandmother and grandfather in Hebrew are actually Aramaic words.
Aramaic for everyone
It is abra kedabara! And I have no idea why it has become this phrase said by magicians but it is quite fitting.
Abra kedabara means “I will create with my words”. As a writer I thought that this is such a cool battle-cry for wordsmiths because we DO create with our words. How cool will it be to add these words at the top of my notebooks and blog posts!
But abra kedabara actually refers to spoken words. It is rather “I will create with the words that I say” and is much.more suitable for magicians than writers.
So now I have to figure out an Aramaic battle-cry for people like me who create with written words. Sadly Google translate does not have an Aramaic translation option and I only know a few phrases and words myself. Basically all the words that I have mentioned up to now.
I will create
Religious Jewish people already have bs”d to write at the top of their pages, Steven Pressfield says a prayer to the muses and others literary put on their writing hats. That is, a hat that they only wear when they write.
My personal style is to just jump right in and start writing. I usually have the words and thoughts already milling about in my head and it is a bit of a relief to finally start writing them down and start to make sense of them.
But some help from the heavens will always be appreciated!
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