Take the week off

Back in my time, a week consisted of seven days.

But nowadays, apparently, not so much.

After all, consider the following:

I. Shvushim

For religious Israeli boys, an important highlight of the senior year is the shvush.

No, this isn’t the Israeli version of the Nike logo….

Rather, shvu”sh stands for shavua yeshiva – literally, “yeshiva week”. In other words, the boys take some time off to go check out different post-high-school yeshivot.

But don’t let the name shvush fool you.

Because although one of my favorite high school seniors has already been on a number of shvushim, he’s never been gone more than a couple of days at a time.

II. Shavua avodah

Similarly, the Resident Ulpanistit’s class is going on what is being referred to as a shavua avodah – literally, a “work week”.

The idea is that the girls help the former residents of Gush Katif by working in their fields.

But, IMNSHO, a more accurate description of this so-called shavua avodah would be yomayim avodah (two days of work).

Why do they call it a week when it’s clearly significantly less than seven days?

I have no idea.

Chalk it up to the recession. Or inflation. Or global warming (or whatever it is that they’re calling it these days). Or all of the above. Or none of the above.

But either way, I’m sure you’ll agree that this phenomenon gives a whole new meaning to the term “weekly deficit”…