Daniel Estrin is an American journalist. His radio stories have aired on The World, All Things Considered and Marketplace.

Hadarat Nashim: The Exclusion of Women

January 31, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

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Gabriel Birenbaum is a senior researcher at the Academy of the Hebrew Language. (Photo: Daniel Estrin)

A Hebrew expression that describes “the exclusion of women”, is a phrase that few Israelis would have heard a few months ago.

Now, it’s become a household expression after Orthodox Jewish soldiers refused to attend events that involved women.

Daniel Estrin reports that the phrase has also been used to segregate the men from the women.

Anonymous

This linguistic definition is crazy! Hadara means TO GLORIFY, always has and always will. The fact that the orthodox use this as an excuse to EXCLUDE is something totally different but no less abhorrent.
Daniel Estrin

Kapriza: You bring up a good point. “Hadara” from Hebrew root H-D-R means to glorify. But “Hadara” from Hebrew root N-D-R is the word now used to mean “exclusion.” Same spelling, different roots. The Academy of the Hebrew Language has an explanation (in Hebrew!) here:
http://hebrew-academy.huji.ac.il/sheelot_teshuvot/MivharTeshuvot/Pages/19121101.aspx

http://twitter.com/RabbiBoaz RabbiBoaz

The Hebrew root of “hadara” is not N.D.R but probably D.R. The “heh” is from the hiph’il construction and the word therefore means to cause estrangement. This is probably an Aramaic form of the word zar (“stranger”); we know of other examples where the letter ”dalet” is replaced by “zayin,” as, for example, Dahav for Zahav.
http://twitter.com/RabbiBoaz RabbiBoaz

The Hebrew root of “hadara” is not N.D.R but probably D.R. The “heh” is from the hiph’il construction and the word therefore means to cause estrangement. This is probably an Aramaic form of the word zar (“stranger”); we know of other examples where the letter ”dalet” is replaced by “zayin,” as, for example, Dahav for Zahav.

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