Thursday, May 01, 2008

The Opposite of Postpone is....

...prepone, right?

Have you ever heard of the word prepone? Phil Chernofsky, who is the initiator and head writer for Torah Tidbits, a weekly Parshat Shavua (Weekly Torah Portion) "booklet," began using it recently to describe when Jewish Holidays or Mitzvot (commandments) are supposed to be done before the usual time.

This year there are many things we have to commemorate or celebrate earlier than their official dates. One of them is Israeli Independence Day, which is to be celebrated on the 5th day of the Jewish Month of Iyyar, but the 5th will be on Shabbat. Yom Ha'Atzmaut is not a holiday suitable for Shabbat, not even on a Friday. So it is to be preponed to Thursday, and not only Yom , Soldiers Memorial Day, which is always the day before and Holocaust Memorial Day, which is the week before.

I think it's a great word and try to use it as much as possible.

2 comments:

therapydoc said...

What Jews won't think up. It's good!

Batya said...

Apparently, they use the word in India. We can just make it more popular.