Peevey thingy

[mamadeb]

Is it wrong of me to be bothered by the whole Prayer Shawl thing?



Not the concept, per se, except that I'd imagine that anything made for someone you loved (in whatever manner) would be made with good thoughts for the recipient, and so I can't see why you'd need an organization. But others might feel differently about that, or like that it's part of a whole thing, and so that's not my problem.

It's the name. It's that prayer shawls in Judaism have been around forever (at least a thousand years, if not more). It's that they have a specific role to play in Jewish religious observance and prayer. They are considered sacred objects, and those who wear them are supposed to behave in a proper manner while wearing them.

And while this usage doesn't exactly *cheapen* the term, it changes it from something very Jewish and holy to to us to something...else.

I know terms change and meanings change, and I'm sure the ladies who invented the concept thought they were coming up with an original name, but I keep reading things about "knitting a prayer shawl for Aunt Martha to wear to church", and my mind breaks for *so* many reasons. And, anyway, the original meaning of the phrase is still around and still in use.

I don't know. "Prayer Wraps." "Good Thoughts Shawls." "Love Shawls." Something else.

Edit: I think it's that, unlike most people, I did grow up with the preferred term being "prayer shawls."

Comments

[richardf8]

Interesting. I don't think I ever heard them called that growing up. If your family preferred it, I'm assuming it was common in the community as well? If that's the case your discomfort stands to reason.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I grew up in an entirely non-religious family, except that lifecycle was always Orthodox. We really weren't part of a community.

[richardf8]

Ah, my family was also pretty non-religions, but lifecycle was always Conservative. They learned the names of things from yiddish-speaking, but also non-religious family members.