In a letter to the editor of The Oregonian concerning a Jewish mother's decision not to have the moyle do his thing, the writer referred to her an an "inactivist." An editorial comment stated that "inactivist," according to the Urban Dictionary, is "one who participates in an activist group or is an individual for the rights of children to remain genitally intact." This doesn't make sense to me. Help!
"one who participates in an activist group or is an individual for the rights of children to remain genitally intact."
I think the editor needs to work a little harder. The UD defines inactivist as "One who half-heartedly supports a cause without actually doing anything, by signing the occasional online petition or putting a banner on their myspace." Googling inactivist seems to support this definition. The Wikipedia article on genital integrity doesn't use the word inactivist (link).
When the brit milah became the bris. Hebrew מוהל is pronounced moyl in Ashkenazic Hebrew and Yiddish. Many Hebrew words have two major pronunciations depending on whether the speaker is using Sephardic or Ashkenazic pronunciation. For example shabbat vs shabbes, torah vs toyre, etc.
. . .A man is walking down the street in New York City when he comes across a shop with clocks and watches hanging in the front window. He walks in and says to the man behind the counter, "My watch stopped a couple days ago. I'd like you to fix it." . . .The shopkeeper replies incredulously, "I don't repair watches, I'm a mohel!" . . ."Then why do you have all those watches and clocks hanging in your window?" . . .The mohel replies, "What would you suggest I hang there?"
A man went to visit his buddy who was recuperating in the hospital. His buddy had just become a Jew and a mohel had circumcised him. As the man entered the room, he noticed nurses coming and going, stopping at the bed, checking bandages, reassuring his friend and leaving. "Wow," he said. "Looks like you're really popular with the girls." "Yes," said the patient. "It all started when they learned it took twenty-eight stitches to repair the mohel's work."
When I first saw the word "inactivist" and the context it was being used in, my first thought was it described someone who was an activist by doing nothing, someone who remained inactive when there was something that normally would be done. I suppose another, less-political example would be the person who protests the commercialization of Christmas by not putting up Christmas lights when everyone else on the street does.
I've never understood that "inactivist" attitude about circumcision, if we're talking about a baby, that is. I suppose if it's an older child I could understand it. Asa, wasn't there a Supreme Court decision about that in Oregon?
