1/12 🧵 You know this symbol: @
In English, we call it the "at sign." But around the world? It's a zoo, a menu, and sometimes... a nipple.
Here's how one symbol became a thousand different things 👇 2/12The @ first appeared in 1536 in a Spanish merchant's letter as shorthand for "arroba"—a weight unit from Arabic.
French merchants used it for "at the price of." English just called it "at."
Then 1971 happened, and everything changed.

1/ Why is the jacaranda tree in Hebrew called sigalon?
The story is more poetic—and political—than you’d expect. 🌳🧵
#Hebrew #Etymology #Jacaranda 2/ The jacaranda isn’t native to Israel—it’s from Brazil. The name yakaranda comes from the Tupi-Guarani word for “fragrant.”

1/7 FASCINATING LANGUAGE FACT: How Modern Hebrew created its own version of the English "-able" suffix through a brilliant linguistic pivot that nobody planned. 2/7 While English simply adds "-able" to verbs (readable, breakable), Hebrew repurposed an ancient pattern—qatíl—that originally meant completely different things! "ʿashír" meant "rich," not "enrichable."

1/ The Hebrew word for "ephemeral" has the most dramatic origin story you'll hear today, featuring divine intervention, a sulking prophet, and a mysteriously vanishing plant... 🧵 2/ In the Book of Jonah, after God spares Nineveh (making Jonah look like a false prophet), our dramatic hero storms off to a hill declaring he wants to die. Classic prophet behavior.

1/ Habemus Papam! While the world hails a new pope, Hebrew headlines call him אֲפִיפְיוֹר (afifyor). But this word isn't Latin at all—it's Aramaic and appears only once, in a Talmudic tale (Avodah Zarah 11a). 2/ The story features Onkelus bar Kelonimos, a brilliant Roman noble—nephew of the emperor, according to tradition—who decides to convert to Judaism. Furious, the emperor dispatches legionaries to drag him back.

1/ My great-grandfather, Wolf Gindsberg, was an insurance salesman in Leipzig, Germany, with his wife Fanny and two children—my grandfather Joseph and his sister Rahel. 2/ When the Nazis came to power, Wolf saw what many couldn't: This wasn't passing. It was catastrophic.

1/10 In the early centuries of Christianity, believers didn't agree on when to celebrate Easter. A fascinating story of calendars, power, and religious identity... 2/10 In Asia Minor and Jerusalem, Christians marked Easter on the 14th of Nisan—the date of Jewish Passover—regardless of the day of the week. They followed the tradition of apostles John and Philip.

1/11 Have you heard the story of the Four Who Entered Pardes? It's one of the most mysterious tales in the Talmud, exploring the dangers of mystical knowledge. 2/11 The Talmud simply states: "Four entered the Pardes: Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher, and Rabbi Akiva."

1/9 You'll never believe which common Israeli slang word actually comes from ancient Rome! The fascinating journey of "awanta" (אוונטה) spans 2,000 years, multiple empires, and at least five languages! 🇮🇱 🇮🇹 🇹🇷 🗣️ 2/9 It all started with the Latin word 'abante' meaning 'before' - used by ordinary Romans as far back as the 3rd century. There's even an ancient inscription about a child "stolen abante his father's eyes by nymphs in a whirlpool." 🏛️

1/13 The recent film "The Brutalist" brought to mind the fascinating journey of the Hebrew word for "architect" – אַדְרִיכָל (adrichal). Its etymology reveals an astonishing linguistic voyage across millennia and civilizations. 2/13 Our story begins in ancient Sumer, one of humanity's earliest civilizations. In Sumerian, "É" meant "house" and "GAL" meant "big." These words combined to form "ÉGAL" – literally "big house" – their term for "palace" or temple.

1/7 The Book of Esther isn't just a holiday tale—it's actually a sophisticated piece of political writing designed to elevate a particular family line. The evidence? It's hidden in plain sight within the text itself. 2/7 Notice how carefully the author establishes Mordechai's royal lineage: "Mordecai...son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjamite" (Esther 2:5). This deliberately connects him to King Saul's family—Kish was Saul's father!

1/ Exciting news! 🎉 After years of work, the Tal-Florentin academic edition of the Samaritan Bible is now freely available online. This project has been a major part of my life, and today I want to share not just its publication, but what makes these texts so fascinating. 🧵 2/ Most people don’t realize there are two versions of the Torah. 📜 The Jewish version (Masoretic Text) is widely known, but the Samaritans preserved a different version—with thousands of variations, some minor, some major.

1/9 Most Israelis don't know the origins of the verbs "להתפלח" (lehitfaleakh) and "לפלח" (lefaleakh) – to sneak into and to pilfer respectively – though they use them quite a lot. I'm proud to say that I was the first to uncover their slippery etymologies. 2/9 Their story begins in the Talmud, with an account of Rav Ashi who was once presented with a fish that resembled a "צלופח" (tzlofakh) and asked if it was kosher. This is the ONLY occurrence of this word in all ancient Hebrew texts!

Cucumber Confusion: The Word War Israel Lost 🥒 (1/7)
Ever wonder why language committees sometimes lose to everyday speakers? Israeli linguists fought a 100-year battle over cucumbers and zucchinis... and lost spectacularly. Here's the deliciously petty saga: 🧵 In ancient Hebrew texts, "melafefon" and "kishu" referred to specific vegetables. But which ones? Rabbis debated this for centuries. By the 1900s, tradition settled that "melafefon" = zucchini and "kishu" = cucumber. (2/7)

🧵 Ever wondered why Hebrew's words for man (ish) & woman (isha) sound so similar? Buckle up - it's not what you think, and it reveals some uncomfortable historical attitudes. Let me break this down... 1/ It all starts with the Hebrew letter ש (shin). While modern Hebrew uses it for "sh" and "s" sounds, ancient Hebrew actually had THREE different shin sounds! Scholars call them Shin1, Shin2, and Shin3.

1/ Did you know Israel’s great poets once battled language experts over how to pronounce the word for 'port'? Here's a tale of biblical metaphors, Greek origins, and poetic rebellion that shaped modern Hebrew. 🧵👇 2/ Biblical Hebrew had no word for 'port'. Instead, poetic phrases like 'sea fortress' (מבצר ים) or 'sea entrance' (מבוא ים) were used. The word we use today, namal (נמל), has an incredible backstory through languages and centuries.

🧵 Today Hebrew speakers zip past את without thinking, but this tiny word once sparked rebellion from Israel's first PM. A thread about the most interesting grammar rebellion in Israeli history... 1/10 Let's start with the basics: את appears before definit direct objects in Hebrew, like: הכלב נשך את החתול "The dog bit <et> the cat"
But why do we need this extra word? The answer takes us back thousands of years... 2/10

🧵 Aaron wasn't Moses' brother – he was edited into the story later. Let me show you the evidence hiding in plain sight... (1/10) When we first meet Moses, his family is simple: "A man of Levi took a daughter of Levi... and bore a son." One sister watches his basket. No brother named Aaron anywhere (2/10)

1/7 The Hebrew word for "drone" רחפן (rakhfan) comes from a biblical verb that appears in Genesis 1:2: "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." But the Hebrew word there - "merakhefet" - might not mean what you think. 2/7 The verb appears only one other time in the Bible - describing an eagle caring for its young. This gives us a clue about its meaning.

1/ The Book of Esther holds a secret message, revealing its author and tying back to the downfall of King Saul. Let's delve into this intriguing revelation. 2/ Saul, once the king of Israel, lost his kingship due to disobedience in executing God’s orders against the Amalekites. This led to the transfer of kingship to King David and his line, as detailed in the Book of Samuel.

באוניברסיטאות בארץ מלמדים שחלקים נרחבים מהתורה נכתבו בתקופת בית ראשון אם לא קודם. הם מתבססים על טענות שהציג יוליוס ולהאוזן לפני יותר מ-100 שנים. בספר ״ההיסטוריה הסודית של היהדות״ אני מראה שטענותיו פשוט לא מחזיקות מים - שרשורון: 1. טענה: בחלקים האלה מותר להקריב קורבנות מחוץ לבית המקדש לכן הם חייבים להיות מוקדמים לרפורמה הפולחנית של יאשיהו שריכזה את הפולחן בירושלים. האמת: ב-1907 התגלו מכתבי יב שהוכיחו שיהודים הקריבו קורבנות מחוץ לבית המקדש גם אחרי תקופת בית ראשון.