Observations ·
Mosaic’s Defining Essays from 2025
By Jonathan SilverReflections on Israel, America, and the West that remind us we are not captive to fate.
Philologos
Latest Mosaic Content for Philologos
Monthly Essay ·
The Confessions of Philologos
By Hillel HalkinThe author of the great Jewish language column examines his alter ego.
Observations ·
What Color Is Biblical Blue?
By PhilologosA hue like the sea, the sky, grass, and trees, available for $14.90 per gram at Amazon.
Observations ·
Some Rare Words for Rare-Word Buffs
By PhilologosLet us sing of rodomont, Sinon, proditomania, and, in particular, grobian.
Observations ·
Where Do Hebrew Acronyms Come From?
By PhilologosMedieval and modern Hebrew are unusually rich in abbreviations, but in a manner that is the reverse of English.
Observations ·
Why the Beginning of the Haggadah Is in Aramaic
By PhilologosIt's because of demons.
Observations ·
How Israeli Backpackers Imported an Element of Spanish into Hebrew
By PhilologosWhat nahagos, the casual term for "driver," tells us.
Observations ·
Skullcap, Kippah, or Yarmulke?
By PhilologosThree different words for the same Jewish head covering. Are they interchangeable?
Observations ·
The Bible Says to Love Your Neighbor as Yourself. But What Does Neighbor Mean?
By PhilologosThe answer hasn't always been clear.
Observations ·
The Tree of Knowledge of Positivity and Negativity
By PhilologosHow to translate the rabbinic term yetser ha-ra—and how not to.
Observations ·
No, the Lilliputians Didn’t Speak Hebrew
By PhilologosIt was widely reported this month that a professor in Texas had "decoded" the strange language spoken in Gulliver's Travels. He did no such thing.
Observations ·
The Voyage of the Dawn Etymologist
By PhilologosPhilologos sets sail to discover the roots of the Yiddish word kayor.
Observations ·
Did Israel’s President Really Refer to Reform Judaism as “Idol Worship”?
By PhilologosOr was he mistranslated?
Observations ·
How to Say You’re Welcome in Yiddish and Other Languages
By PhilologosAnd why we say it at all.
Observations ·
How Lev Tolstoy Became Leo Tolstoy
By PhilologosWhy do we Anglicize some names and not others?
Observations ·
Who Kissed/Killed First?
By PhilologosDoes the English idiom "kiss of death" come from the story of Judas, or from the Sicilian Mafia—or both?
Observations ·
Does the Word “Hacker” Come from Yiddish?
By PhilologosIs the tech term, as in computer hacker, connected with the verb hakn, meaning to chop?
Observations ·
On the Interpretation of Kebabchik
By PhilologosAfter a friend comes to him with a strange dream, Philologos wonders if the unconscious mind can do Hebrew numerology.
