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| | FORWARD : Arts & Letters (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-14) |
 | | Yerida, of course, is the opposite of aliya, "ascent," or immigration to Israel, and the two words have been paired since talmudic times, aliya being the older of the two (it is already found in this sense in the biblical book of Ezra). |
 | | Interestingly, their meaning of coming to, and leaving, the land of Israel does not seem to have originated in the value system they later came to imply that is, in the belief that "ascending" to Israel is a positive act and "descending" from it a negative one. |
 | | And yet long before modern times, the words aliya and yerida lost their topographical associations and became value-laden, "going up" to the land of Israel being considered a praiseworthy ascent in one's personal life, and "going down," the reverse. |
| www.forward.com /issues/2002/02.05.17/arts5.html (609 words) |
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