[Jewish-fluxx] glorify the Hebrew language

[Ruth Levenstein]

Andy Looney wrote:

> Instead, I'd like to make Hebrew Knowledge work. I've heard the 
> various concerns that have been raised, and I have some new 
> thoughts... but the key point to me is that it's better to glorify the 
> Hebrew language than to remind people of the importance of charity. 
> Most religions preach the value of charity, but few have an entire 
> language of their own. (Well, I suppose the Catholics have Latin, but 
> it's not the same.) I think it will serve everyone better to promote 
> the idea of learning (or improving your knowledge of) Hebrew instead 
> of offering yet another lesson in the joys of giving.
>
> So let's look again at what the action does. How about, instead of 
> having to spell the word in Hebrew letters, you must define the word 
> and use it in a sentence?

I still like it the old way.  If each Hebrew blessing is a new sentence 
then this becomes trivial because this IS how jews know their Hebrew - 
They learn to say prayers and blessings.  People with better memories 
than mine can still real off their bar or bat mitzvah torah portion word 
for word.  The same goes for songs.  All you have to know is one song in 
Hebrew to have several if not many sentences.  Now, translation, may be 
a bit more difficult for some - but truthfully some of those are 
memorized too- and it could be an interesting thing to ask people to 
do.  I actually like it a bit more, now that I think about it.

The reason I still like the old one better is that one of the things 
that makes Hebrew different than many of our language experiences is 
that it uses a different character set.  Beginning Hebrew starts with 
learning the aleph bet.  Spelling is not trivial.  You need to know the 
names of all the letters and you need to have read or written the word 
enough to have determined the correct spelling.  Even in Hebrew 
characters there are 4 to 8 reasonable spellings of chanukah and (unlike 
the english transliterations) only one of them is correct.  Being able 
to read Hebrew text IS a Jewish skill more than knowing a sentence from 
a prayer or a song which a person could know without ever having read 
that sentence in hebrew.  It's the interaction with Hebrew texts that 
Jews do, and most non-jews do not do.  The waitress at the restaurant 
tonight had a shirt that had budwieser written in Hebrew among other 
things (birah!)  But to get full credit for those words one would have 
to be able to give the hebrew spelling - I expect she could not even 
with the letters in front of her.

Other related comments.  I like the bible Fluxx also because of the 
bible verse card.  This is a common practice among Christians (and 
others) and though some do much more than others it is something that 
people do and that some have greater knowledge or abilities in.  I like 
that the game could require a reference to a bible and because of that, 
I think Bible Fluxx is a good name for the expansion.  Like the Hebrew 
card it is some very basic knowledge that spans the range of christian 
denominations.  What I don't like about the card is the "say amen."  It 
does not make sense to me.  "amen" is not a bible verse.  I would either 
go back to the original version that just left that part out, or change 
it to "Jesus wept" which is a bible verse, and could be funny as the 
double meaning is that jesus wept since you didn't know a bible verse.

I really like both expansions because they interact with the players 
more than any version of fluxx has so far (not so familiar with stoner 
...)  They are about how the players present themselves to the world 
(judaica and cross bonus) and what special knowledge they might have.  
Reference materials may be required and discussions on the correctness 
of a response may occur.  They are a bit 'smarter' and more personal 
which makes sense as they are going to be marketed to a niche.  I think 
they will draw people to the game who would not necessarily be drawn to 
the other fluxx games.  In the end, isn't that the goal?

Perhaps the question, isn't, what would people who already know and love 
fluxx like in an expansion, but what would draw people who are 
unfamiliar with fluxx to the game.

I think these special knowledge cards are just the thing.

Ruth



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