Word Prompt – MALACH – Rebecca Press Schwartz

After who-knows-how-many answers to word prompts for The Jewish Press, it's time for me to come clean. My name is Rivka, and I am a prescriptivist. When it comes to words, there are right ways and wrong ways, and I am going to wince when I hear the wrong ways. So, it's "home in on," not "hone in on," and almost everyone misuses the phrase "beg the question." If you're wondering what this has to do with the word "malach," there's little I find more wince-inducing than listening to someone mangle the words of Shalom Aleichem on a Friday night. I know it's confusing to have both malachei (angels of) and malchei (kings of) in the same song, but praising Hashem as an angel (instead of as a king) isn't only wrong, it's theologically problematic.

This can sound like nitpicking, and maybe it is. But if the words of our tefillot and zemirot have meaning, if they're not just a random assemblage of syllables off of which to hang a tune, then we should know what they are, what they mean, and sing them accordingly. I know, I know – the shepherd whistling in the back of shul. But fortunately, we today are the recipients of a great deal of Jewish education, we can read Hebrew, and if we don't know what the words mean, the good folks at Koren and Artscroll are here to help.

And while we're at it: "Mehera Hashem Elokeinu yishama b'arei Yehuda uv'chutzot Yerushalayim..." There's no "od" in there. Even if the popular Jewish singers add it in. I promise you. Check the siddur.