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Hebrew word of the week: Haddarat nashim

People ask me whether there is any connection between haddarat nashim (a very common concept in Israel in recent years, mostly among the Orthodox), and the biblical ve-hadarta pne zaqen, “show respect to the elderly” (Leviticus 19:32), implying that secluding women is out of respect, “to protect them.”
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September 3, 2015

People ask me whether there is any connection between haddarat nashim (a very common concept in Israel in recent years, mostly among the Orthodox), and the biblical ve-hadarta pne zaqen, “show respect to the elderly” (Leviticus 19:32), implying that secluding women is out of respect, “to protect them.”   

In spite of the similarity of the sounds (of the letters), there is no semantic connection; haddarah (with dagesh in dalet) “exclusion” is from n-d-r, neder, “vow”; hiddir is “forbid by a vow, put a person under a vow, keep away, cut off, keep distance,” whereas hadarah (with no dagesh) “reverence” is from h-d-r (as in nehdar “great, majestic”) and closely related to a-d-r, addir ne’dar “splendid, mighty, great.”

*As with separating women to the back of the bus, behind a screen, or even having them use a separate bus, for modesty or religious reasons, similar to Ezrat Nashim in Orthodox synagogues.

Yona Sabar is a professor of Hebrew and Aramaic in the department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA.

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