Please advise me on how to deal with this

[Madam Mossfern]

A woman who works with me asked me if I would have something translated into Hebrew for her. She has many 'inspirational' posters hanging in her cube as well as Christian stuff, which is illegal in a gov't building (another story) She told me that her grandfather was half Jewish and that she wanted something to put up that would honor him. I told her that of course I would have it translated into Hebrew. It is " I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." My Rabbi said that he was not too sure on some of the grammatical issues and that I should ask someone who speaks Hebrew fluently to translate it. It sounded very familiar, so I decided to google the phrase.

It turns out that it is taken from Christian scripture. I'm very conflicted. Do I ask here why she would have Christian scripture to honor her partially Jewish grandfather? I'm stuck trying to decide where this woman is just ignorant or something else. Or....do I just find someone to translate it for her. Maybe I can suggest a more appropriate verse to give her in Hebrew-something from Psalms?

[blueraven95]

1. I really don't have much advice for you,

but to me it seems disingenuous to translate a Christian verse into Hebrew. It would be more appropriate in Latin.

You might want to gently ask her why she chose that particular verse - if it has special meaning, then I would probably go ahead and do it, but otherwise I would suggest a couple other verses that say basically the same thing.

[Madam Mossfern]

2. Thanks for your input, I felt the same way

What I did was to bring in my little Artscroll book of Psalms and asked her to peruse through to see if there was a line or phrase that spoke to her. I didn't even address the fact that what she had given me was Christian scripture. She chose two verses and I told her that I would copy them over in the Hebrew from the facing page.

It was fun to watch her try to deal with opening the book 'backwards' and to try to grasp the concept of reading from right to left. I don't think that I have a program that writes Hebrew in my computer, so this will give me an opportunity to practice my calligraphy.

[blueraven95]

5. it sounds like you handled it well, without embarrassing anyone

I think you did the right thing.

[Book Lover]

3. The book this verse comes from

was originally written in Greek, not Latin, just to let you know. And if this woman is some flavor of protestant, Latin, being so closely associated with the Catholic Church, might offend her.

[blueraven95]

4. that's good to know.

I assumed it was Latin.


Regardless, Hebrew still seems inappropriate to me.

[Book Lover]

6. Oh, I completely agree

I think it was a little... forward to ask that something from an epistle be written in Hebrew. I'm glad to know (above) that this was resolved to everyone's satisfaction.