“Chicken or Lamb?” Jan. 29, 2022

Some of you may remember my sermon on “The God I Believe In” (delivered on December 12, 2021). In it I referred to a Jewish concept–“tikkun olam,” which means “repair of the world.”  In Judaism, tikkun olam is the highest human aspiration: to gather the lost, heal the broken, repair injustice, love the world. A beautiful concept, I believe.

When our church administrator Lyn Gust was typing that sermon, she used a computer program that takes spoken speech and “translates” it into the printed word. Most of the time that works pretty well (though occasionally the computer prints “new” for “knew,” or “know” for “no,” etc.). But in the case of tikkun olam, that was translated as “chicken or lamb.”

Lyn and I both got a kick out of that, and I was reminded of a few computer “mistranslations” I’ve come across myself. For example, once when I was dictating a sermon about politics, my computer printed the following: “I was listening to by rock oh bomb us peach.”* Another example was “we’re on a high ate us right now.”* And “I just red the book of he brews.”*

Eye no yule think of sum mothers–end hopefully sand them two me. Butt in the me time, remember that the whirled is always innie dove of reap air, so don’t forget the he brews frays, chicken or lamb.

pea sand done rest,

toe knee

* The following are the actual meanings behind the mistranslations:

“by rock oh bomb us peach” = “Barack Obama’s speech”

“high ate us” = hiatus

“I just red the book of he brews” = “I just read the Book of Hebrews”

And the last two sentences were: “I know you’ll think of some others–and, hopefully, send them to me. But in the meantime, remember that the world is always in need of repair, so don’t forget the Hebrew phrase, tikkun olam.

peace and unrest,

tony