הַדָּרָה (hadata) — exclusion
Etymology
The word הַדָּרָה is actually two homophones distinguished only in voweled text: הֲדָרָה (hadarah, "glorification") derives from the root ה-ד-ר (splendor, majesty), while הַדָּרָה (hadata, "exclusion") derives from the root נ-ד-ר (vow). This entry treats the latter.
The connection between הַדָּרָה and the word נֶדֶר (vow, oath) is not transparent. First, the root's initial nun is silent in the hif'il verb הִדִּיר — a classic case of nun-assimilation into the dagesh of the following letter. Second, the word underwent a significant semantic shift from its original meaning.
In rabbinic Hebrew, הִדִּיר meant "to cause another person to take a vow." The Mishnah uses it in a legal context: "One who makes his wife vow not to go to her father's house" (Ketubot 7:4) — meaning a husband who coerces his wife into swearing an oath that she will not visit her parents. This was a recognized and regulated legal act in Jewish family law.
In the early 20th century, the verb underwent secularization. When journalist Aharon Litai wrote in the newspaper Ha'am in 1917 about certain nationalists "excluding themselves from reading books not in the original language," he did not mean they were literally taking religious vows — he meant they were imposing a self-prohibition. The new meaning — "to impose an exclusion, to bar" — took hold in Palestine-era Hebrew.
Two specific phrases drove the verb's use through the mid-20th century. First, the idiom הִדִּיר שֵׁנָה מֵעֵינָיו ("to keep sleep from one's eyes") replaced the older, now opaque biblical phrase הִדִּיד שֵׁנָה (from root נ-ד-ד, to wander). Readers could not parse הִדִּיד, so they substituted the visually similar הִדִּיר. An early example appears in Davar, 1933. (Intriguingly, a Cairo Geniza manuscript of a Sa'adia Gaon piyyut contains הִידַּר שֵׁנָה — possibly a scribal error for the original הִידַּד.) Second, the biblical phrase הוֹקִיר רַגְלוֹ (to make one's foot precious, i.e., to visit rarely; Proverbs 25:17) was replaced in the 1940s by הִדִּיר רַגְלָיו, first attested in Ha'aretz in 1945 in a eulogy for Haganah leader Eliyahu Golomb.
For most of the second half of the 20th century, הַדָּרָה as a noun was rarely used. That changed in the 1990s, when sociologists adopted it as a Hebrew translation of the English sociological term "exclusion." The earliest such use was by sociologist Hana Herzog (who also coined the term מִגְדָּר for "gender") in her 1994 book Real Women: Women in Local Israeli Politics.
The word entered broad public consciousness in 2011, when the phrase הַדָּרַת נָשִׁים ("exclusion of women") exploded into Israeli public discourse. Billboards in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak had removed women's images — including a bank advertisement in which actress Alma Zak's image was replaced by a cartoon dwarf. Then in September 2011 a major controversy erupted when officer cadets refused to attend a ceremony where women sang, leading to their removal from the course. The ensuing public debate through the winter of 2011-12 made הַדָּרָה a household word.
Key Quotes
"המדיר את אשתו שלא תלך לבית אביה" — Mishnah, Ketubot 7:4 (original rabbinic meaning)
"להדיר את עצמם מקריאת ספר שלא בלשונו המקורית" — Aharon Litai, Ha'am, 1917 (secularized meaning)
"בינינו, העיתונאים, הדיר את רגליו" — Ha'aretz, 1945 (in eulogy for Eliyahu Golomb)
Timeline
- Talmudic period: הִדִּיר used in Mishnah (Ketubot 7:4) for coercing another to take a vow
- 1917: Litai uses הִדִּיר in secularized sense (to bar, exclude) in Ha'am
- 1933: הִדִּיר שֵׁנָה appears in Davar, replacing the earlier הִדִּיד שֵׁנָה
- 1940s: הִדִּיר רַגְלָיו replaces biblical הוֹקִיר רַגְלוֹ
- 1994: Sociologist Hana Herzog uses הַדָּרָה as translation of "exclusion"
- 2011 (spring): הַדָּרַת נָשִׁים enters public discourse over billboard censorship
- 2011 (autumn): Officer cadets scandal cements הַדָּרָה as a keyword in Israeli public debate
Related Words
- הֲדָרָה — glorification (homophone; from root ה-ד-ר, splendor) — unrelated
- נֶדֶר — vow, oath (the original root נ-ד-ר)
- הִדִּיר שֵׁנָה מֵעֵינָיו — to deprive of sleep (idiom)
- הִדִּיר רַגְלָיו — to stay away from (idiom)
- מִגְדָּר — gender (another Hana Herzog coinage)
- exclusion — English sociological term being translated