girsa d'yankuta

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Definitions

  • n. That which was learned as a young child.

Example Sentences

  • "I'm not sure where I learned it, it's just my girsa d'yankuta."

  • "My girsa d’yankuta: 'Trick or Treat!' My child’s girsa d’yankuta: 'Baruch Atoh, Omain!'" (source)

  • "As an apikoros (in Yiddish, a 'heretic'), Buber knew Judaism from within, having acquired it in his youth - as the Talmudic Aramaic has it, girsa d'yankuta, 'imbibed it with his mother's milk'" (Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent, by Paul Mendes-Flohr, 2019, p. 147)

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Languages of Origin

  • Aramaic

Etymology

  • גִירְסָא דְיַנְקוּתָא girsa d'yankuta, lit. 'that learned in childhood' (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 21b)

      • 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)
      • Israel: Diaspora Jews who feel connected to Israel and have spent time there

      Regions

      • North America
      • South Africa

      Dictionaries

      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).

      Alternative Spellings

      girse d'yankuse, girsah d'yankuta, girsa d'yankusa, girsa de yankuta, girsah d'yankusa

Notes

  • Girsa means "learning," and yankuta means "childhood" (from the root y-n-k "to nurse"). Based on Rashi's commentary on Shabbat 21B, this phrase carries the assumption that one is more likely to remember what one learns as a child than what one learns as an adult.

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