{"id":1397,"date":"2013-01-24T13:11:23","date_gmt":"2013-01-24T18:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/?p=1397"},"modified":"2016-07-26T23:32:21","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T06:32:21","slug":"on-the-sia%e1%b8%a5-of-the-orthography-of-tu-bishvat-romanizations-and-jewish-environmental-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2013\/01\/on-the-sia%e1%b8%a5-of-the-orthography-of-tu-bishvat-romanizations-and-jewish-environmental-education","title":{"rendered":"“Tu biShvat” vs. “Tu b’Shvat”: Orthography and Presumptions of Authority in Jewish Environmental Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigel Savage<\/a> made public this week his reply to Ben Dreyfus<\/a>[1<\/a>]<\/sup> and others concerning \u1e24azon’s orthography of \u05d8\u05f4\u05d5\u05bc \u05d1\u05b4\u05bc\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05d1\u05b7\u05d8<\/span> as Tu B’Shvat rather than Tu biShvat. Given the seriousness of the environmental and food justice issues that Tu biShvat gives voice to, it’s important to recognize that this earnest if seemingly comical debate isn’t really about romanization of Hebrew anymore. It’s a question about Sia\u1e25<\/em> (\u05e9\u05b4\u05c2\u05d9\u05d7\u05b7<\/span> — discourse), the roles of Jewish education, and the goals of Jewish educators.<\/p>\n

Nigel Savage and Ben Dreyfus’s holy debate reminds me of the kind of Talmudic argument where two or more mitzvot are set in conflict with one another.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, there’s the import of our mission: stalling or reversing global climate change in the face of massive indifference and well-healed opposition using our religious tools, rituals, and celebrations as an important medium to for expanding environmental awareness (meanwhile also helping our community understand the depth of environmental wisdom in its Torah). We are educators and activists, enjoined to educate and improve this situation. Part of our work in educating is in being relevant and in inspiring the creativity and imagination of our students.<\/p>\n

Another part is in being correct (with all the post-structuralist fuzziness implied) . The measure of our authority as educators ultimately draws from our success in both of these parts.<\/p>\n

And so we really need to be mindful of places where our success in one of these parts comes at the expense of the other, or in opposition to the other. The solution should never be to ignore one aspect by saying the other is more important. Both are important because in the equation of Jewish education, correctness and relevance rely upon one another.<\/p>\n

For what its worth, I sense there’s a simple solution here that meets both our needs as educator and that’s to do our very best to teach this holiday and if we need to romanize the spelling of Tu biShvat<\/strong>, it is to spell it as such. If apostrophe’s are confusing some as to their purpose (distinguishing the Hebrew prefix from the proper noun or indicating a sheva<\/em> where there should be a \u1e25irik<\/em>), then it’s not as if we can’t disambiguate our intentions with some or another footnote as to the style usage.[2<\/a>]<\/sup><\/p>\n

I would only add that Tu Bishvat is also the style I use as editor-in-chief of the Open Siddur Project. At the same time, we recognize there are different transliteration schemas and we’ve represented a fair number of them in our transliteration demonstration tool<\/a>. (Try it yourself in transliterating \u05d8\u05f4\u05d5\u05bc \u05d1\u05b4\u05bc\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05d1\u05b7\u05d8<\/span>).<\/p>\n

I hope this will further echo a point that both Ben and Nigel have alluded to from two different perspectives: that what is “correct” when it comes to human artifice (e.g. language and style) is a matter of usage and popularity. And this is true even for “standard” conventions, which are attractive as common standards even when they, through the organic mechanism of human culture, evolve or devolve according to their function.<\/p>\n

The universe, through its physics, applies its own standard. Scientists and engineers apply their standards in order to interoperate. And so too, do linguists, grammarians, and literary stylists. What’s important to me, and I hope so too, for you, is that we honor and respect what is useful to interoperate giving freedom for the evolution of culture and its languages. (And this is why all of the Open Siddur Project content is shared with free-culture attribution licenses<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

  1. For more on this, see here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>[↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  2. Nigel’s position on this is oddly familiar to me as an observer of how much pride folk take in their local customs, regardless of how much they deviate from what may be normative or proper. Nigel grew up with an apostrophe, and by his own admission, this is the least rational and most important argument for his choice of \u1e24azon’s spelling for \u05d8\u05f4\u05d5\u05bc \u05d1\u05b4\u05bc\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05d1\u05b7\u05d8<\/span>.[↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Nigel Savage<\/a> made public this week his reply to Ben Dreyfus<\/a>[ref]For more on this, see here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>[\/ref] and others concerning \u1e24azon’s orthography of \u05d8\u05f4\u05d5\u05bc \u05d1\u05b4\u05bc\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05d1\u05b7\u05d8<\/span> as Tu B’Shvat rather than Tu biShvat. Given the seriousness of the environmental and food justice issues that Tu biShvat gives voice to, it’s important to recognize that this earnest if seemingly comical debate isn’t really about romanization of Hebrew anymore. It’s a question about Sia\u1e25<\/em> (\u05e9\u05b4\u05c2\u05d9\u05d7\u05b7<\/span> — discourse), the roles of Jewish education, and the goals of Jewish educators. . . . → Continue reading: “Tu biShvat” vs. “Tu b’Shvat”: Orthography and Presumptions of Authority in Jewish Environmental Education<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-yiddishkeit","category-pedagogy","odd"],"yoast_head":"\n"Tu biShvat" vs. "Tu b'Shvat": Orthography and Presumptions of Authority in Jewish Environmental Education • Aharon's Omphalos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2013\/01\/on-the-sia\u1e25-of-the-orthography-of-tu-bishvat-romanizations-and-jewish-environmental-education\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Tu biShvat" vs. "Tu b'Shvat": Orthography and Presumptions of Authority in Jewish Environmental Education • Aharon's Omphalos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nigel Savage made public this week his reply to Ben Dreyfus[ref]For more on this, see here, here, and here[\/ref] and others concerning \u1e24azon's orthography of \u05d8\u05f4\u05d5\u05bc \u05d1\u05b4\u05bc\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05d1\u05b7\u05d8 as Tu B'Shvat rather than Tu biShvat. 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He is particularly interested in pedagogies for advancing ecological wisdom, developing creative and emotional intelligence, and realizing effective theurgical praxes. He welcomes your comments, personal messages, and kind words. If you find his work helpful to your own or you'd simply like to support him, please consider donating via his Patreon account.","sameAs":["https:\/\/aharon.varady.net","http:\/\/facebook.com\/aharonium","https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/aharonium"],"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/author\/admin"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgdGV-mx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1294,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2012\/07\/more-on-the-sia%e1%b8%a5-of-sua%e1%b8%a5-numinous-conversations-of-trees-and-other-vegetation","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":0},"title":"More on the sia\u1e25 of sua\u1e25: numinous conversations of trees and other vegetation","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"July 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While working on some curriculum for the Teva Learning Alliance this summer, I was introduced to the Tseno Ureno, an amazing medieval commentary on the Torah by Rabbi Yaakov ben Yits\u1e25ak Ashkenazi (1550-1625). Here's Rabbi Yaakov Ashkenazi on Deuteronomy 20:19 -- \u05db\u05b4\u05bc\u05a4\u05d9 \u05d4\u05b8\u05bd\u05d0\u05b8\u05d3\u05b8\u05dd\u0599 \u05e2\u05b5\u05a3\u05e5 \u05d4\u05b7\u05e9\u05b8\u05bc\u05c2\u05d3\u05b6\u0594\u05d4. This is the verse from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mythology"","block_context":{"text":"Mythology","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit\/mythology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Sukkah-Italy-1374.-British-Library-MS-Or-5024-fol-70v.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Sukkah-Italy-1374.-British-Library-MS-Or-5024-fol-70v.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Sukkah-Italy-1374.-British-Library-MS-Or-5024-fol-70v.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Sukkah-Italy-1374.-British-Library-MS-Or-5024-fol-70v.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Sukkah-Italy-1374.-British-Library-MS-Or-5024-fol-70v.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2232,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2016\/05\/short-reflection-roots-federation-gmilut-hasadim","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":1},"title":"\u05d2\u05b0\u05de\u05b7\u05f4\u05d7 | A Short Reflection on the Roots of the Federation and G\u2019milut \u1e24asadim","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"May 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I was incredibly honored to have been invited by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati to speak this evening at their 120th Annual Meeting. Long-lived community bodies can seem to be just part of the landscape, as old as the mountains and somewhat inscrutable, so it seemed appropriate to me on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Judaica"","block_context":{"text":"Judaica","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/13221168_10154180639698718_4876296485565266344_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/13221168_10154180639698718_4876296485565266344_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/13221168_10154180639698718_4876296485565266344_o.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/13221168_10154180639698718_4876296485565266344_o.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/13221168_10154180639698718_4876296485565266344_o.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/13221168_10154180639698718_4876296485565266344_o.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1311,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2012\/07\/rosh-hashana-labeheima-a-new-year-day-for-animals-domesticated-within-human-society","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":2},"title":"Rosh haShanah la-Behemot: A New Year’s Day for Domesticated Animals","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"July 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the most delightful things I learned about Judaism growing up was that rabbinic Judaism had not one, but four new year holidays (according to the Mishnah Seder Moed 1:1). There's the well known and widely celebrated Rosh Hashanah La'Olam -- for the World -- an annual commitment to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Judaica"","block_context":{"text":"Judaica","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/602580_259428937501712_1846778416_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/602580_259428937501712_1846778416_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/602580_259428937501712_1846778416_n.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2725,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2017\/04\/on-the-meaning-of-mimouna","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":3},"title":"On the Meaning of Mimouna","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"April 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In 2007, Dr. Yigal Bin-Nun wrote a provocative article in Haaretz \u05d4\u05d0\u05e8\u05e5 on the origins of the Moroccan Jewish post-Passover festival of Mimouna. In the article, Bin-Nun speculates that Mimouna was a Judaized festival originally derived from local customs celebrating gods of Fortune. I wish to present an alternate thesis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mythology"","block_context":{"text":"Mythology","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit\/mythology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Praveen-Gupta-DSC04926-CC-BY-SA.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Praveen-Gupta-DSC04926-CC-BY-SA.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Praveen-Gupta-DSC04926-CC-BY-SA.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1328,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2012\/10\/the-sign-of-the-twins-on-the-reconciliation-of-the-divine-and-its-likeness","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":4},"title":"The Sign of the Twins: On the Reconciliation of the Divine with its Likeness","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"October 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Jeff Anshalem writes, \"On Shabbat \u1e24ol Hamoed Sukkot we read of the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, seemingly a strange choice for Sukkot, but the Maor VeShamesh explains what\u2019s common to both: unity. Unity between us, symbolized by the joining together of the Four Species (Vayikra Rabbah\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mythology"","block_context":{"text":"Mythology","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit\/mythology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Erich-Ferdinand-Gemini-CC-BY-2.0.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Erich-Ferdinand-Gemini-CC-BY-2.0.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Erich-Ferdinand-Gemini-CC-BY-2.0.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Erich-Ferdinand-Gemini-CC-BY-2.0.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1498,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2013\/05\/all-streams-one-source","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":5},"title":"All Streams, One Source: Shesha and the Mystery of the Four-headed Shin","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"May 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A Midrash of the Jews of Yemen dating from the 13th century provides the following explanation for the mystery of the four-branched shin. There is one \"head\" for each of the following facets: cogitation, imagination, memory, and estimation.[ref]paraphrasing Midrash haBeur, translated in Yemenite Midrash: Philosophical Commentaries on the Torah, edited\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/art\/music"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2434,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions\/2434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}