Blog/April 2009/Apr 3rd

April 3rd (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

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Lost in translation: many of you know of my Mishne Torah translation project, and probably can assume (rightly) that I am interested in "getting translation right". This week I received an email, which was a copy of an interesting article published on the internet. The article was a translation of this article from Ma`ariv, talking about fake kashrut certifications. Everything was fine, until I got to this sentence: "This story perhaps highlights the difficulties being faced by the Chief Rabbinate, which continues to wage its war on illegal and unauthorized kashrut supervisions that arise like Patriot missiles in the rain". Huh? "Patriot missiles in the rain"? What is that supposed to mean?

I guessed the original used the word פטריות (pitriot = mushrooms), which would make sense. And indeed, the original was: סיפורו של "בד"צ בלקר" מבטא יותר מכל את המצוקה שבה נמצאת הרבנות הראשית לישראל במלחמתה בגופי כשרות קיקיוניים שקמים כמו פטריות אחר הגשם. Those of you who know Hebrew will have noticed another failing in the translation, e.g. "illegal and unauthorized" is not what קיקיוניים means! The Hebrew kikayoniim = like a kikayon, the plant which grew next to Jonah to shield him from the sun (that sprouted one day and died the next), hence the proper translation should be something like "fly-by-night". Though Esther and I laughed a lot after reading the translation, it brings up a serious point, which is that translations are only as good as the comprehension of the translator. Don't forget that!

• The enemy within
• Chavez, the poor schmuck - now he wants to create a new currency backed by oil
• parking solution
• "Strings of Peace"

• Why wasn't this story about a terrorist who brutally killed a 13 year old with an ax picked up by any of the international media except Fox News?
• More on the incident

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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