Connections

I was riding a bus in Israel for the first time. I already new that Israelis were news hungry, so was not surprised to hear the news being played over the bus’ speakers. Then I heard a reporter comment about President Carter, “Mah inyan Shemittah eitzel Har Sinai?” “What does Shemittah have to do with Sinai?” (The opening sentence in Rashi on this week’s portion.)

What did Shemittah have to do with the news? Absolutely nothing! However, Rashi famous comment had become part of the vernacular in Israel. I have no idea if the reporter had ever studied Rashi, but I was certain that many of the listeners had not, and yet, they all understood Rashi’s question.

The Chinese government is trying to untangle the confusion of “Chinglish,” a wild mixture of Chinese and English. The New York Times reports that at banks, there are machines for “cash withdrawing” and “cash recycling.” The menus of local restaurants might present such delectables as “fried enema,” “monolithic tree mushroom stem squid” and a mysterious thirst-quencher known as “The Jew’s Ear Juice.”

Cultures mix, and a new language appears. I suspect that this is somewhat similar to “Yinglish” and “Frumspeak.”

There is no “Rashispeak.” Certain concepts flow in our blood no matter how observant or learned we are. We are a product of our history, so much of which is based on learning.

Perhaps this is the underlying message in that Rashi: No matter how far removed we may be from Sinai, we will always retain some connection.

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