הֲדָתָה (hadatah) — religionization

Etymology

The word הֲדָתָה is the newest member of a word family rooted in Persian, mediated by the Hebrew Bible, and shaped across centuries of Jewish history. To understand the word, one must start with its foundation, דָּת.

The Persian verb dā means "to place/lay down," and from it was derived the noun dāta (that which is laid down = law/decree). Hebrew borrowed this word during the Persian imperial period, and it appears in the latest books of the Hebrew Bible — Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther — in its original sense of "law": "There is a certain people...whose laws (dateihem) are different from those of every other people, and who do not observe the king's laws (datei hamelekh)" (Esther 3:8). In Rabbinic literature, the phrase "dat Moshe" came to mean the entire body of Jewish legal requirements. The ability to "switch" from one dat to another — apostasy — is attested as early as the Talmud (Sukkah 56b). Gradually dat acquired its modern Hebrew meaning of "religion."

The adjective דָּתִי ("religious") emerged in the 19th century as the Haskalah drove a wedge between traditional and secular Jews. Its antonym חִלּוֹנִי ("secular") was coined in 1894 by the scholar Yosef Klausner in his book Sfat Ever — Safa Khaya, derived from חוֹל ("the profane," as opposed to the holy). Klausner formed it as חֻלּוֹנִי, but phonological dissimilation — Hebrew's tendency to avoid two /o/ sounds in the same word — shifted it to חִלּוֹנִי by the early 20th century (as linguist Yehezkel Kutscher explained, the same pattern seen in חוּץ/חִיצוֹן and רֹאשׁ/רִאשׁוֹן). The noun חִלּוּן ("secularization") followed naturally, attested by 1911.

But the reverse process — re-religionization — apparently needed no word for many decades, since no one coined one. In 1992, Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling filled this gap, coining הֲדָתָה in his article "On the Place...on Social History and Anthropology That Mobilizes Itself Regarding Israel," published in the journal Alpayim. The word sat nearly unnoticed for almost a decade until Kimmerling used it several times in his widely-read book Ketz Shilton ha-Akhusalim (2001), after which it began appearing in other sociological works (Yehuda Shenhav, The Arab Jews, 2003; Aviʼad Kleinberg, Lo Lehaʼamin, 2004).

By 2006, the word had migrated from academia to journalism, and the Academy of the Hebrew Language's Committee on Words in General Use took notice. The Academy's full plenary debated the word in December 2006. Several members objected: David Telsher pointed out that verbal nouns in the katala pattern (הַקְטָלָה) normally derive from hif'il verbs, but הֲדָתָה derived directly from the noun דָּת with no intermediate verb. Menahem Kadari said it sounded too similar to הַדָּחָה. Uzi Ornan questioned why Academy approval was needed at all. But Academy president Moshe Bar-Asher countered: "The Academy's seal does not diminish the word's value. It has not been rare for the Academy to approve words already in use." The vote: 14 in favor, 6 opposed (with 6 abstentions).

Key Quotes

"יֶשְׁנוֹ עַם אֶחָד מְפֻזָּר וּמְפֹרָד...וְדָתֵיהֶם שֹׁנוֹת מִכָּל עָם, וְאֶת דָּתֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ אֵינָם עֹשִׂים" — אסתר ג', ח'

"שמות הפעולה במשקל הקטלה קשורים לפעלים בבניין הפעיל...לעומתם המילה הדתה נגזרת מדת ולא מפועל" — דוד טלשיר, מליאת האקדמיה, דצמבר 2006

Timeline

• Persian period: dāta (law/decree) enters Hebrew via Achaemenid administration; appears in Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther
• Rabbinic period: "Dat Moshe" becomes the standard term for Jewish law; the word acquires the sense of "religion"
• 1894: Yosef Klausner coins חֻלּוֹנִי (secular) in his book
• Early 20th century: Form shifts to חִלּוֹנִי through phonological dissimilation
• By 1911: חִלּוּן (secularization) attested
• 1992: Baruch Kimmerling coins הֲדָתָה in the journal Alpayim
• 2001: Kimmerling uses the word in his widely-read book Ketz Shilton ha-Akhusalim
• 2003–2004: Word spreads to other sociological works
• 2006: Word migrates to journalism; Academy debates and approves (14 for, 6 against)

Related Words

• דָּת — religion, law (the base word; from Persian dāta)
• דָּתִי — religious (adjective; 19th century)
• חִלּוֹנִי — secular (coined 1894 by Klausner)
• חִלּוּן — secularization (attested by 1911)
• אֶפִּיקוֹרֶס — heretic (from Greek Epicurus; the pre-modern term for irreligious Jews)