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Help[Opinions] Re: Salome, Sabbath and Odessa /names that feel Jewish but are not used by jews
in reply to a message by Manipura
Reading my post again, I think disrespectful probably wasn't the right word. But I definitely feel a bit uncomfortable about people using this as a name. It's a sacred day with so much significance and symbolism for Jewish people, and using it as a name just seems... wild.
But I'm not going to speak for Jewish people here. I'm a christian myself and totally okay with using Easter as a name, for example (not that I'd ever use it). I do know, however, that my husband's Jewish family would not be alright with Shabbat or a variation being used as a name.
**Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much**
But I'm not going to speak for Jewish people here. I'm a christian myself and totally okay with using Easter as a name, for example (not that I'd ever use it). I do know, however, that my husband's Jewish family would not be alright with Shabbat or a variation being used as a name.
**Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much**
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It sounds like they would also disapprove of it being used by Jews (like as שבתאי) and wouldn't consider it ethnic? Are they a particular denomination? What is their native language (if not Hebrew), and is it a word/concept in that language (as far as you know)?
This message was edited 9/30/2023, 3:28 AM
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They would also disapprove of it being used by Jews, yes. Because the concept of using the name of a sacred time as a name for an individual is a strange concept to them, I think. They're (Ashkenazi) Haredi Jews (but my husband doesn't identify as being Haredi anymore) and their native languages are German and Russian. The German word would be Sabbat. Sabbatical is a word that's used in German. I can't be sure about Russian, my knowledge of Russian isn't big enough to say anything useful about that. German isn't my first language either, so I could be missing something there as well.
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Ok. It looks like the Russian word for Saturday is related to Sabbath (it's Суббота), and the (old but not current?) word for Sunday basically meant "rest". I find this interesting, as a name/etymology nerd...Bob Dylan's Hebrew name was שבתאי (Shabtai); his paternal grandparents were Jews from Odessa, and I think his maternal grandparents would have been (Lithuanian) Ashkenazi Haredi Jews. So I am still a little confused, but I guess it is just a thing. Thanks for answering my questions!
This message was edited 9/30/2023, 10:33 AM
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