Please carefull of not say keep finger crossed & emoticons

Laiya

Wed, Apr 24 2019, 3:58 pm

amother [ Papaya ] wrote:

I definitely do not use the phrase fingers crossed myself but I do find it annoying that there is really no other accurate phrase that conveys the idea of “here’s to hoping for good luck/let’s hope things turn out well!/here’s to hoping!” I mean you would just sound weird saying an alternative like that.

If you want to get technical, "hoping for good luck" is not exactly a Jewish way of thinking. We say I"H--If Hashem wants. "G-d willing" is pretty much the same.

singleagain

Wed, Apr 24 2019, 4:09 pm

Squishy wrote:

Many aspects of christianity were formed by practices of other religions. Crucifixion was a punishment invented by Persians 400 years before the common era.

Keeping your fingers crossed originally referred to the good (pagan) spirits found at intersections. When Christians came they appropriated aspects of the native's culture to make christianity more palatable to the population?

You can clearly see aspects of Judaism in Christianity. Do we walk away from those parts of our religion they incorporated? Some Christians celebrate Little Passover. Brazil shuts down the entire country to celebrate this Christian holiday. Do we stop celebrating Passover?

Where does this stop? Do we not say broken heart anymore? Do we not say it sticks to the roof of my mouth?

It's not practical to try to purge the English language of Christian influences.

This. English is a fluid and changing language you can only try your best to keep up. And trust me, unless you are talking to a student of the evolution of English, your average English speaker probably doesn't know the origin of these phrases and is only expressing what they mean colloquially.

urban gypsy

Wed, Apr 24 2019, 4:31 pm

singleagain wrote:

I think there is a difference between language and customs. Avoiding an English colloquialism is not on the same level as stopping a family minhag which originates from avodah zara

urban gypsy

Wed, Apr 24 2019, 4:33 pm

amother [ Papaya ] wrote:

The official name/description of that emoji is “thank you” so it was clearly meant for that

That’s what I’ve always thought and I’ve never worried about it before, but I wouldn’t mind switching to another thank you emoji if there is one.

33055

Wed, Apr 24 2019, 4:34 pm

quote="urban gypsy"]I see you are very quick on your Wikipedia research today. But surely you see the difference between Jews adopting Christian traditions, and Christians adopting Jewish ones? The next step in your argument would advocate celebrating Xmas because of all those songs Irving Berlin wrote.[/quote]

I see you are impressed with my post. But it didn't come from Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a credible source in any event. The post was written completely off the top of my head.

You owe me an apology for your nasty false accusation. Really, if you thought any part of what I wrote came from wikipedia, the correct thing to do would be to do some wikipedia research to varify it before making your false accusation.

33055

Wed, Apr 24 2019, 4:39 pm

singleagain wrote:

I agree. I am fascinated about the origins of words and idioms. My point is only that what posters are saying is Christian is really pagan, and if we want to cleanse the language of cross your fingers and knock on wood, then there is no bright line on where to stop. We have to purge all words and phrases of pagan origin.

Iymnok

Thu, Apr 25 2019, 2:32 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

How do I find it? Im interested in hearing. We learnt in school but that was so many years ago. Also some habits came from experiene. We were small and we had like 8 blocks from home a church and we didnt say "once you see the church you are almost there ...."walk one block past church " Etc I guess credit to my mother and school.

https://www.torahanytime.com/#.....33841
This is the first of about 70 lectures. Very fascinating. I listen while I do housework.

FranticFrummie

Thu, Apr 25 2019, 3:22 am

Really? Pete's sake is bad? I thought it was some generic Pete, like "Bob's your uncle."

I guess I'll have to stick with "Oh for the love of puppies!"

Please tell I'm allowed to say "puppies".

ggdm

Thu, Apr 25 2019, 4:22 am

FranticFrummie wrote:

Really? Pete's sake is bad? I thought it was some generic Pete, like "Bob's your uncle."

I guess I'll have to stick with "Oh for the love of puppies!"

Please tell I'm allowed to say "puppies".

See here:
https://www.grammarphobia.com/......html

It seems to be only speculation that "Pete" refers to the saint. So maybe you can still use it? Similar for your "puppies". In both cases you replace in a curse the word G-d (which Christians would replace with Christ).

amother

cornflower

Thu, Apr 25 2019, 8:02 am

Squishy wrote:

You stop where the phrase or idiom invokes a spiritual concept that is not Torah. Seeking 'luck' from doing act like knocking on wood seems to take Hashem out of the picture. Christian, Pagan, whatever.

youngishbear

Thu, Apr 25 2019, 8:45 am

imasoftov wrote:

If there was only one user logged in at the time I suppose it would be clear that all the posts within a short period were from the same poster. But how would anyone know who was logged in then?

Well maybe there was one poster logged in an a guest? No, that wouldn't work because a guest can't see who is logged in, even if the logged-in poster's posts were all in forums readable by guests (such as this one).

Well perhaps there are two posters logged in, and one of them was watching the list of logged in users on the home page (all the way at the bottom, if you're logged in)? Well right now there are 51 people logged in. But what if it was just two, couldn't the other one tell an anon post was from you? Not unless they were refreshing the home page continuously, a third user could have logged in, posted something, and logged out without the second user noticing.

I love that you bothered to type all this to make your point. LOL

youngishbear

Thu, Apr 25 2019, 8:53 am

amother [ Lilac ] wrote:

FYI - it is the Chabad minhag (possibly other chassidim, too, I don't know) to put the hands together like that for modeh ani every morning.

Wow thank you for sharing this. It cleared up something that had bothered me when I was a kid.

We were watching one of the Groweis Brothers DVDs and the kids on screen put their hands together for modeh ani like that. I thought this was an ignorant non-frum director or something. Turns out I was ignorant.

33055

Thu, Apr 25 2019, 9:02 am

amother [ cornflower ] wrote:

I don't have a problem saying to "cross the street" rather than "go to the other side". Some of the PC censorship is just plain nonsense.

Its Friday

Thu, Apr 25 2019, 9:14 am

I need to cross the street is OK to say as well as mix it on shabbes on a criss cross manner.
If you are a child in Williamsburg asking an adult to cross you say in yddish: "please krotzmich". LOL

singleagain

Thu, Apr 25 2019, 9:18 am

youngishbear wrote:

Important follow-up question: can I say "Merlin's beard"? Please tell me I can still say "Merlin's beard."

Absolutely! Also you may continue to use "Merlin's pants!" And "what in the name of Merlin's most baggy Y-fronts!"

greenfire

Thu, Apr 25 2019, 9:32 am

I'm pretty sure there is a custom for some [lubavitch] to hold their hands together while reciting modeh ani in the morning ...

that being said I know people who misconstrue the "thumbs up" for a "f you"

saying shoot could be tantamount to saying shEit

doubt we can change the world or teach old dogs new tricks ... however, should you choose to accept the mission ~ you can work on the change for yourself