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Chol Hamoed Guest,
You said, “Why should there be a Goyish Term for mechutan ‘spouse’s parents’? Such relationship dpes not exist in their culture.”
I don’t understand your question.
“Mechutan” is not your spouse’s parents. The term for THAT is your “in-laws.”
Your “mechutanim,” however, are the parents of your child’s spouse.
There indeed is no term for that in “goyish culture.”
Incidentally, I found this great website with all sorts of explanations of goyish words I wanted to share with you:
[Mods, I’d appreciate knowing your HTML code for quotes.]
Sacrilege, you stated, “In order to get accepted to Law School you need a BA and you need to pass the LSATs. . .the BA really doesnt matter (you can even have a BA from one of those 1 year fly by night programs). The main focus is the scores on the LSATs, so if you are considering Law BTL is more than perfect.”
This is very bad advice.
Law school takes three years and leaves most students seriously in debt (at least $150,000). The conventional wisdom for a long time has been that if you want the best chance of finding a job after graduation, you go to a Tier 1 (top 50 ranked) school.
These days, with the economy down and therefore less legal work needed by business, many people are suggesting that prospective students consider law school only if they get accepted in one of the top 14 (“T14”) schools.
Please take a look at the latest law school rankings at http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/rankings
Admission to all of these schools is EXTREMELY competitive and all of them are highly selective. There is no need for them to accept someone with a high LSAT and a questionable undergraduate degree when they have dozens of similar applicants with stellar bachelors degree credentials.
I realize I am new to the Coffee Room but I firmly believe that advice given here affects people’s lives and should therefore be carefully considered before being dispensed.
N.B. those stellar attorneys and judges from the Orthodox community (e.g. Mukasey, Scheindlin, Brafman, Schmidt, et al) all went to regular colleges for undergraduate degrees.
If you really want to be a lawyer, perhaps you should consider this “BTL” to be “batul” and get a BA, BS or related degree from an accredited college.
Bamidbar,
Thank you for your very informative post. I once heard a rav visiting from Israel give a speech in which he said that Jewish people should not have “English” last names. (I presume what he really meant was names of European origin.)
I discussed this with him afterwards since like many Ashkenazic Jews I have a family name that SOUNDS German (e.g. Bernstein, although that’s not my name). My opinion is that by continuing to use this name, I honor my father and grandfather and those before them, A”H.
Seems to me, and I mean no disrespect to anyone here, that there is some confusion between what is Halacha, what is minhag, and what is someone’s SUGGESTION on what to do.
Oomis, when Rashi needed a word that could not be found in Ivrit, he wrote in French. If the foremost commentary on the Torah is written even partially in French, I think that trumps Yiddish as the Jewish language.
Oh, and before I forget, to the person who said your children use only their birthdays according to the Jewish calendar, I have a similar problem. Since I started putting 5771 on my checks, the bank has been bouncing them saying they are post-dated 3,761 years.
A side point in this discussion is the use of alliteration between Hebrew and English names as in the previously mentioned “Robert and Reuven.” Respectfully, this practice is not required by Halacha and is just silly.
As an Ashkenazic Jew, my family has always give children Hebrew names after deceased relatives. Everyone is familiar with this custom. There is no requirement, however, to attempt to translate a Hebrew name into something in English. Your son could be named Moshe ben Chaim and have an English name of Steven.
Somehow, however, I suspect someone will come up with an opposing view. 🙂
The Prof:
You said:
Quote:I work in Corporate America. Let’s see some nice Indian names. They don’t seem to ask if their Hindu names will be hard to pronounce or write, like Yechezkel. Gundaverapu. Not made up, it’s a real name. Shreedevi Gunjati. And you think Robert is better than Reuven?The Uheler Rov in Hungary, Binyan Dovid, once said in a speech. The Hungarian Jews before WW2 always gave secular names. This upset him. He said, Yakov Oveenu gave us a brocho: Hamaloch hagoel osi, yevoreich es haneorim, v’yikorei bohem shmi v’sheim avosai. The angel who always protected me and redeemed me, should bless the Jewish children. When you send someone a letter, you need the correct name and address. Yakov said, I’m sending you an angel to protect you. But he’ll only know who you are if you call him by my name and the names of my father and grandfather, Yiddishe names, not Robert or Tibor.
First, that’s your experience, not mine. I know a Chinese attorney whose name is Na. That’s quite easy to pronounce but she goes by Linda. Why? To fit it and not get distracted with a conversation about her name.
(Repeat the following in an Indian accent: “Microsoft technical support. How may I help you? My name is Steve.”)
Also, regarding the quote you attribute to “the Uheler Rav,” I assume you are referring to the rav of the place in Hungary formally called Satoraljaujhely. My mother’s family came from there. Needless to say, they all had both Hebrew and Hungarian names which might give you an indication how this IDEA (not Halacha at all) was received.