Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: About the tognavah, aka abhorrence

questa interessera' ai lettori cattolici. Forse. Ma magari no. Grazie comunque per l'attenzione.
 
http://ravnahum.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/about-the-tognavah-aka-abhorrence/
 
 
Shwa is a problem.  For example the Hebrew shwa: those two dots underneath, that can be read as silent, or mute, and you have to learn how to recognize them, and it’s not easy, hence the problem.
The English shwa is a problem too. According to the grammar-book is a “reduced vowel in unstressed syllables”, like the ‘a‘ in about or the ‘o‘ in eloquent. In Continental languages there is not such a sound. When you leanr how too speak in English, you have to learn first how to spot it, then to pronounce it. Believe me, it is not easy. It’s a problem for those who learn English.
But ‘ayn ע is a problem too.  I mean the Hebrew letter. Its correct pronunciation is a distinctive trait of North African Jews.
All other Jews have problems in pronouncing the ע, as its sound is not common in the local languages. But ע ‘ayn, is a very common letter in Hebrew, it is for example the last letter of the word Shemah.
And when phonetic is required, like for prayer-books, you have to look for equivalent in local languages. The closest equivalent, in Italian or in Spanish, is the “nasal-palatal sound”, which is almost non-existing in regular English and that you can find in the French agneau. The Italian gn, or the Spanish  ñ
Indeed in Siddurim printed in Italy, Spain or Latin America, if you read of the Shemagn, instead of the Shemah שמע, or the Gnamida instead of the Amidah  עמידה, and so on.
With time, these words, Shemagn, Gnamidah, became with time words on their own. They have become part of the peculiar Jewish slang, of certain place. Take for example the word תועבה, abomination.  You can find it in this week’s Torah reading.  At verse 17:3 you read the definition: “turning to the worship of other gods and bowing down to them […] התועבה” And in 18:9, you read an admonition: “When you enter the land that Adonay, your God, is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations (כְּתוֹעֲבֹת) of these people”.
The word תועבה, which has an ‘ayn ע sound in its middle, has been therefore transliterated by Italian Jews as Tognavah, and became then a word on its own. A word that in Jewish Italian dialect stands for “Catholic Church”.
Now this is legitimate. The Catholic Church is an institution that has its own record of abominations, especially against Jews. But it is amusing, too. Try to read for example the verse Dt 18:9 on such a basis. You’ll have “you shall not learn to imitate the Catholic Church, the tognavah”.
If you are born and raised in Italy, like me, you know enough about the Catholic influence. If not, let me recall one or two things. During WWII if and when local bishops decided to protect the Jews from the Fascist policy of extermination, they managed to do it, without risks. Catholics cardinals and bishops were more powerful than every possible government, even a dictatorship, like indeed the Fascists. And still they are. For more than half a century, a party called “Democrazia Cristiana” had been majority in Italian Parliament. And it’s not over: so far, almost all the Prime Ministers of Italy have been practising Catholic. Or so they say they are; yes, even Mr. Berlusconi claims to be a Catholic, and so far no Church leader had denied it.
Catholic dioceses are by far the largest property owners in Italy. In case you wonder why Italian public finances are in such a pitiful condition, mind that, until the late Eighties, tax evasion was not a major sin for the Catholic Church. I believe you all know the Italian word mafia. It is a well known Italian tragedy, it exists at least from the Unification, more than one century ago. Alas, the Catholic Church seemed to ignore the existence of the mafia. The very word was actually pronounced in a church, from an Italian pulpit, for the first time, only a generation ago.
You see, there are reasons why we Italian Jews look at the Catholic Church as tognavah, aberration.
Italian family laws generally work on the assumption that every Italian is a Catholic. Divorce became fully legal only in 1974. And this means that a Jewish practice, the get, had been outlawed up to that date. Honour killing was banished only in 1981. Up to the late Nineties the police could not investigate rape between husband and wife, unless of course the wife formally sued the husband, which could make her guilty of “home abandonment” by default.
That is really tognavah, abhorrence.
It is hard to overestimate the influence of Catholicism over the Italian society, which is, still, largely dominated by men. The board of Fiat Group, the most important Italian firm, counts only one Italian woman, who by the way is Jewish (a Reform Jew, to be precise). Women are barely a fifth out of the total of the MPs, and they are the youngest.  Forget Margaret Thatcher: Italy never had a female Prime Minister; just like the pope, the general assumption is that it has to be man. And so on, and on, and on. Believe me, I merely scratched the surface, I can go on for hours.
Consider all these depressing facts, these abominations, and you realize how poignant is the Biblical commandment: “you shall not learn to imitate the  תוֹעֲבֹת, the tognavah followed by other people” – even when they happen to be the majority in your country. So when my fellow Italian citizens ask me “What does it mean to be a Reform Jew?” my answer is straightforward, and Biblical in the same time: I quote this passage, Dt 18:9 and I say “I try not to imitate the tognavah, the תועבות, the moral aberrations that I see”. Especially when it comes to justice. First and foremost when it comes to equality of rights between men and women.
Since I am a Jew, I do not follow these moral abominations. And let me make an example.
Judaism is an egalitarian religion. I have said it hundreds of times, but bear with me when I repeat it another time. There is nothing, absolutely nothing in Jewish law, that forbids a woman to wear the tallit. There are few minor objections against public reading from the Torah Scroll. These too are easily refuted, on solid halachic ground, and out of the moral duty to set an example for the surrounding society, to be a light unto the nations.
And I do this, I engage in such a process, because I am a Reform Jew. Being a Reform Jew means indeed being authentic. Being a Reform Jew is about not taking on board external influences, like the pressure to marginalize women. A pressure, a stance, a position that has no basis in our Holy Book; and when it had gained ground, it has been as a result of imitation of the customs of other nations.
It is not easy to be a Reform Jew. It takes integrity; it takes commitment; it takes -as I have said- authenticity. But there is no other way, no other Jewish way, to counter-balance the various kind of tognavah, of abhorrence, that are still with us.

Il 11/08/2013 17:17, Gerald Bostock ha scritto:
  > The English shwa is a problem too. According to the grammar-book is 
a “reduced vowel in unstressed syllables”, like the ‘a‘ in about or the 
‘o‘ in eloquent. In Continental languages there is not such a sound. 
When you leanr how too speak in English, you have to learn first how to 
spot it, then to pronounce it. Believe me, it is not easy. It’s a 
problem for those who learn English.
 
Un incubo quei corsi per eliminare l'accento, eh?
 
 
 
fe...@delenda.net
 
-- 
http://delendanet.blogspot.com
 

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vado a lezioni private. Sai, la lobby ebraica che condiziona il teatro inglese...  
 

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e per fortuna, che se lo si lasciava in mano ai talebani puritani, non li avrebbero riaperti mai più!