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[Opinions] Re: Salome, Sabbath and Odessa /names that feel Jewish but are not used by jews
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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