Oh! Livia...

Hi friends, here's one for your 'interesting/weird names' collection. It's from this week's AJN and is a very strange Hebrew translation/transliteration for Olivia - pronounced as "levaya" (although that word is actually spelled  "לויה")

I really think that mums and dads who aren't too fluent in Hebrew, should discuss the Jewish name they plan to give their child with a rabbi or someone who nows the language well.

Shmuley Boteach - the rabbi of the groupies!

AJNWatch has previously commented upon Shmuley Boteach and his outlandish and peculiar ideas and behaviour (see here, here, and here). He is back again in Australia and, unsurprisingly, a guest speaker in Caulfield Shul. That's the direction CHC have taken under their latest 'management' and they sure have found the perfect match.  

After all, if a Shul can't attract the crowds with Torah and Tefillah, maybe "Kosher sex" and "Kosher Jesus" will bring in the masses (no pun intended). Come to think of it, they would probably have no problem inviting Jesus himself to deliver a sermon or two. (After all, they did invite a "galach" to "feer tish" for them at a Shabbat meal.)

No doubt the femalefolk will be sporting their "Shmuley groupie" T-shirts and drinking from "Shmuley-groupie" mugs?

PS: What next, Shmuley? "Kosher groupies"?

PPS: For those reading this who may wonder what a groupie is, here's the definition from the on-line Free Dictionary:

groupie [ˈgruːpɪ]

(Music / Pop Music) Slang, an ardent fan of a celebrity, esp a pop star: originally, often a girl who followed the members of a pop group on tour in order to have sexual relations with them

COSV, what happened to parsha Shemini?

Hopefully this email from the COSV, didn't mislead member Shuls into leining the wrong Parsha last Shabbat...

A couple of birth notices overlooked

Sydneysider writes:

I was surprised (and a bit disappointed) that your 'specialist' on names (see here and here) missed a few beauties in the Sydney edition of the AJN recently.

Here you have them for the delight of readers:

AJNWatch comment:

There's obviously a nice story behind these notices and we are interested to hear from anyone who knows it.

Meanwhile here's another unusual name from last week's edition:

Interesting name אז - maybe as in אז ישיר משה - thus having some relevance to Pesach...