Monday, August 16, 2004

Halb-Tsarus

I was at my cousins for shabbat and Daniel was explaining that his grandmother likes to invent yiddish words. They were going around the table giving examples of psuedo-Yiddish words that she tends to use. Daniel goes, "I bet this one is a real Yiddish word: Halb-Tsarus. It means half tsarus. Like, he's gay, but his boyfriend is Jewish. That's halb-tsarus" So what is full tsarus? "A couple gets divorced, thats full tsarus."
I really liked that idea. For (some) old Europeans the worst thing that can happen is a divorce, that is tsarus. A guy is gay, at least his boyfriend is Jewish. Halachikly, of course, it is the other way around. Divorce happens, but mishkav zachar is assur. It's a shame you can't make your grandmother a possek.

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