[All Lists] [By Thread] [By Date] [Previous] [Next]
From: R. Kovacs
Subject: ASCII encoding
Date: 16 Shevat 5784
Nu, there is something funny here.
We are building a specification for Jewish time. The concepts are Jewish. The sources are in Hebrew and Aramaic. The practices come from Jewish communities.
And we write it in English, with Latin letters, because the machines require it.
My grandfather — my zeyde, I should say — would find this amusing. He spoke Yiddish, prayed in Hebrew, did business in Hungarian, cursed in Romanian, and complained in all four. When someone asked him which language he dreamed in, he said: "The language I dream in has not been invented yet."
He would say: "The language does not matter. The meaning matters. And the meaning" — here he would tap his chest — "the meaning is in here, not on the page."
Perhaps ASCII is just another language we are using. The meaning remains Jewish.