glatt

Alternative Spellings

glat

Definitions

• Showing consistency of reason (Weiser).
• Super-kosher (not only of food), or acceptable to the Haredi community.

Example Sentences

• "They ate at that place - glatt treif!"
• "The wedding had separate seating and separate entrances for men and women - the whole affair was glatt kosher."
• "Pesach at the Super Luxurious Ritz Acapulco - guaranteed highest standard of Glatt Kosher!"
• "The whole meal was glatt."
• "They'll only eat glatt kosher."
• "His p'sak is based on a glatte svara" (Weiser)

Languages of Origin

Textual Hebrew, Yiddish, English

Etymology

Yiddish גלאַט glat 'smooth, even' (see Notes)

Who Uses This

Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education
Orthodox: Jews who identify as Orthodox and observe halacha (Jewish law)

Regions

North America

Dictionaries

Yiddish and English: A Century of Yiddish in America, by Sol Steinmetz (Tuscaloosa, 1986).
The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish, by Chaim Weiser (Northvale, 1995).
Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).

Notes

'Glatt', which strictly speaking has no meaning outside meat, is now a catch-all phrase with sociological rather than halakhic significance. Has a technical meaning relating to the lungs of a slaughtered animal, denoting a lung "smooth" and without adhesions or growths. Also has an interesting variant - 'Glatt treif' - meaning the polar opposite of 'glatt kosher' -- i.e. unarguably, extremely non-kosher or unacceptable to Orthodox Jews.