> if it is God’s will (literally, “if God has willed [it]”
>In sarcastic contexts, it suggests that the speaker has no interest in making the future event occur (thus, it will only occur if God steps in and wills it). Unlike the Arabic usage, this seems to be more attested in English than the literal meaning.
I've heard it used in terms of avoiding the evil eye.
In religious circles it's not uncommon to prefix each and every writing with that. It's very generic sort of implying god is everywhere. So in writing, in that context, it has no real special significance other than to hint the writer is religious.
In some contexts Inshallah and "Bae Ezarat Hashem" could I guess have similar meanings. E.g. in the Wikipedia example: "I will visit my relatives in Riyadh this summer, God willing." it can be used exactly the same way.
Some languages have a distinct grammatical mood[0] for expressing wishes, curses, etc.: things that the speaker would like to pass but may or may not. (here are the dynamics, I think I've set the right initial conditions, but let's integrate them forward...)
Other languages have a distinct grammatical mood[1] for expressing things that, as day follows night, are certain to happen: (here's the Lagrangian, and there's the attractor)
In these senses, בס״ד could be viewed as a syntactic marker for the optative, somewhat like, but much shorter than, "forward-looking statements are provided to allow potential investors the opportunity to understand management’s beliefs and opinions in respect of the future so that they may use such beliefs and opinions as one factor in evaluating an investment."
[I am bitterly disappointed that זב"שך is outmoded]
[1] in HWC (alas, it has no wikipedia!), "bumbai" can be used for prophecy: "You stay X, bumbai Y" is IIUC: "if you continue to do X, Y shall come to pass."
Totally unrelated to the original topic, but looking at the linked article, is the name of the store "B&H Photo" a reference not only to the initials of the founders names but also tangentially to this concept?
That's funny, I'd never made that connection before. The B&H owners are Szatmars (who tend to be pretty stringent in their practices), so I don't think they'd make this exact reference -- ה substitutes for HaShem which (very) roughly equates to taking god's name in vain.
This is getting very tangential, but I've never seen someone spell it in English Szatmar before as opposed to Satmar. (From what I understand, Szatmar is the Hungarian-derived spelling, whereas Satmar is the Yiddish-derived one.)
My family is from pretty close to there (on the modern Ukrainian side not Romanian, but Hungarian and Eastern Yiddish speaking), so I’ve always seen it spelled “Szatmar.”
But yeah, looks like “Satmar” is much more common in English and there’s no ז in the Yiddish spellings either.
That's why I wasn't sure which. Without that context, I could read it purely innocently (if a slightly weird choice). With it, it's probably snide, but who knows.
> My first thought was snide / next level anti-Semitic trolling
Chomsky has been very critical of Israel, and as a result there are many pro-Israel people who strongly dislike him. So, while it isn’t impossible for Hebrew language trolling to be from an antisemite, my first thought would be it is from one of his pro-Israel critics
