Hot answers tagged acronyms
Before a name: הבחור החשוב - הבה"ח Habachur hashuv; "The important young man" המלומד בניסים = המלוב"ן Hamulumad benisim; (one) who has practiced many miracles - used for sfaradic Rabis who deal with "Torat Hanistar" רב/רבי = ר׳; rav/rabi; "rabbi...". OR רבינו; rabeinu; "our rabbi" הרב = הר׳; harav; "the rabbi". הרב רבי/רבינו = הר״ר; harav rabi/rabeinu; ...
Because "Alfasi" is really "al-Fasi". "Al-Fasi" is Arabic for "the Fezite" (Fez being the city in Morocco where he lived). So kind of like how the word "of" gets swallowed in "USA", the word "the" got swallowed in "Rif". Wouldn't have made much sense to make his acronym stand for "Rabbi Yitzchak The".
Then, too, we have to deal with some of the derogatory ones. A couple to start with: י"ש or ימ"ש = yimach shemo יש"ו = yimach shemam vizichram or yimach shimo vizichro (Great acronym by the way!) שר"י = shem resha'im yirkav
In a sense it goes back at least to the Gemara. R' Sherira Gaon points out that the names of some Amoraim that begin with ר (for example: Rabbah, Rava, Rafram) are actually shortened forms of "Rav" plus their personal name: רב+אבא=רבה (or רבא); similarly רב+אפרים=רפרם; and so forth. Also "Reish" (Lakish) is a similar short form for רבי שמעון.
און דאס גלייכן, which means "and similar." So yes, it's exactly equivalent to etc., 'וכו, et al. Sometimes instead you find used .א.א.ז.וו, which stands for און אזוי ווייטער - and so forth.
הבוכ"ע is an acronym for הבורא כל עולמים, meaning "the Creator of all worlds." To verify this, note the correlation of the acronym and the expression in this Google search.
I suspect that that refers to the Chazon Ish. The letters fit, and the Chazon Ish's rulings are often quoted alongside those of the Mishna Berura.
I don't know the origin, but in one form or another it goes back at least to the Rambam: he began each section of his major works with the phrase בשם ה' א-ל עולם (though this has been omitted in most later printings). There are halachic opinions that the letter ה has kedushah when it is used to represent Hashem's name (since it is one of its letters), and ...
The counts are number of occurrences of the phrase in Tanach. אחרים לעבדם ולהשתחות להם 3 איפה לפר ואיפה לאיל 2 אחד לחטאת ואחד לעלה 2 אתננה לו ותהי לו 1 אתן לזרעכם ונחלו לעלם 1 אתכם לעולם ואתם לא 1 אתכם לחרב וכלכם לטבח 1 אתך לשמה וישביה לשרקה 1 אתיכם לחרבות ומזמרתיכם לרמחים 1 אתו לאשם ואת לג 1 את למך ויקח לו 1 את לבו ויהי לעת 1 את לבו ואת לב 1 ...
The correct words are "Hashem Yikom Damav". We refer to the murder of one person as "Shefichas Damim" , the blood being plural. Update: I just saw in the daf yomi that there is discussion about why the Torah uses the plural regarding the blood of Hevel (Abel) when he was killed by Cain. One answer given is because when one is killed, all his potential ...
There is a Sefer Halacha Pesuka (Volume 1 & Volume 2) on Yoreh Deah. If you compare the references in the Kaf Hachayim YD 75 to the Halacha Pesuka 2:75 you will see that the references matches.
From what I understand, your second question is based on the assumption that every column begins what a Vav. While this seems to be common practice, it is frowned upon by the Poskim who seem to claim that it has no basis in halacha. See for example the Keseth HaSofer at the end of Ch. 4 - and the footnote there. He claims that the ווי העמודים - as it's ...
Well let's see here, If you're looking for a backronym in Tanach it's pretty slim pickings inspiration-wise. Ezekiel 7:20: וצבי עדיו לגאון שמהו וצלמי *ת*ועבתם *ש*קוציהם *ע*שו *ב*ו על כן נתתיו להם לנדה and statues of their awful, disgusting things they made ... Isaiah 38:12-13: מיום עד-לילה *ת*שלימני. *ש*ויתי *ע*ד-*ב*קר כארי I was ...
ב"ה stands for Be'ezras Hashem - which is technically the Hebrew translation for B'siyata Dishmaya.
There is a sefer called Otzar Roshei Teivos - see it here and there is an older sefer with the same name that I can't find online, but probably your average Jewish book store would be able to get it for you. (Asuming you aren't needing to look these up when near a computer and want a small sefer for reference. The older sefer is smaller than the one I ...
"Im Bat Gilo" -- very roughly, "with a woman suited to his nature." The Gemara Nedarim 39b says that a hospital visit is especially efficacious for the sick fellow if the visitor is "ben gilo" with respect to the visitee. Rashi (or whatever medieval commentary there pretends to be Rashi) says simply -- "roughly the same age, not a young man visiting an old ...
Stands for "Hashem Yikom Damo" -- "may God avenge his (her/their) blood." Used after the name of a Jew who was murdered.
The entire "official" list (brought by the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch) is: את לבבך ואת לבב (symbolizing teshuvah) - Devarim 30:6 אני לדודי ודודי לי (symbolizing tefillah) - Shir Hashirim 6:3 איש לרעהו ומתנות לאביונים (symbolizing tzedakah) - Ester 9:22 אנה לידו ושמתי לך (symbolizing Torah, a "place of refuge" for us) - Shemot 21:13 and out of order: 'ויאמרו ...
Various people always come up with phrases starting with "תהא שנת" whose initials are the standard alphabetic representation of the year's number (or a variant thereof when the standard is a bad word like תשמד). I suppose we can do so collectively here. I'm making this answer community wiki to collect such. Please add to the list. תהא שנת... עבודת ...
I was once explained in Yeshiva that it can stand for ודייק ותמצא קל. (After a little Googling, I found this) (A little more Googling, and I found this and this) Some of the things it might stand for: ודייק ותמצא קל ודוחק קצת ודוק וקל ועיין דברי ותמצאם קלים ודקדק ומצא קושטא
Chapter 7 of the Petach Davar to the Chumash Shai LaMorah (printed at the end of Sefer Bereshit) says the following (my translation, my emphasis): It is known the custom of writers to put a quotation mark in words that are the names of letters, vowels, numbers, foreign words, etc. And at times to emphasize the word. And at times instead of parentheses. ...
This is the closest I found to your rough translation: ודייק ותמצא קל Sources: here, and here This one seems the most likely, since I also found it in ערוך השלחן (Choshen Mishpat 1:3) Two others I found (also quite similar): ועיין דבריי ותמצאם קלים and ודקדק ומצא קושטא
Ani Ldodi v'dodi Li. Is the most common. It is supposed to be a segula for marriages occurring during the month. It is also supposed to be siman for the gates of Chesed being opened and repentance being accepted(taken from the Zohar Shiur for Parashat Re'eh found at HaZohar.net). In conjunction with that the acronym is also found in the Posuk in ...
I don't know when it started (or the answers to the other parts of the question), but I recall seeing "ר״מ במז״ל" in the ר״ן's commentary on the רי״ף (although that was, of course, a more recent reprint, and I don't know what the ר״ן himself wrote).
The Lubavitcher Rebbe writes that while he did not receive an explicit instruction, the custom among many old printers (many of whom were big Torah scholars) to write the simple and not the final letter(look in most gemaras on Daf Chof, for example). Practically, most letters that were written in the Chofs (the 60's) were written with a smiple chof. I've ...
BS"D (or בס״ד) stands for B'sayata d'shmaya, which translates to "with the help of heaven." B"H (or ב״ה) used in the same context at the top of the page stands for B'ezrat Hashem, which translates to "with God's help." בס״ד is the Aramaic version, ב״ה is the hebrew version, and they mean exactly the same thing. It may be that in other contexts, ב״ה means ...
I use these websites to search for abbreviations. They're not perfect, but they have a good number. קיצורים וראשי תיבות בעברית ראשי תיבות
I think you hit the nail on the head.
My digital forensic analysis (levels adjustment): I'm not certain about the last letters, but I'm sure there is a small צ (between the ח and first צ) and a descender under the first letter. The descender could have resulted from having been folded against the first letter, but there is no evidence of other letters transferring. ץאא חצצ’'צ בוריץ Maybe ...
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