The Ritual Bath Hidden in Hebrew's Word for "Launch"

Every Israeli marketer knows the word hashaka. Product launch. Campaign launch. App launch. But the word was not ancient in this meaning. It was coined in 1951 by David Remez, Israel's Transportation Minister and one of modern Hebrew's great word-makers. Remez gave Hebrew several everyday words, including ramzor, "traffic light," and he also named the Zim shipping line. Then Zim needed a Hebrew word for the launch of a ship. The first ship built for the State of Israel, the SS Rimon, was about to enter the water. Reporters were using awkward words like yeridah, "descent," for the moment a ship goes into the sea. A Zim executive wanted something better. So he asked Remez. Remez went to his bookshelf, opened the Mishnah, and found the answer in Tractate Mikvaot, the laws of ritual purity baths. There, the verb hishik means to bring something into contact with the water of a mikveh. For a ship, that was perfect. A launch is the moment the hull first touches the sea. From hishik, Remez built hashaka. One month later, he died. He never saw the word take over Hebrew. Today, Israelis use hashaka for ships, products, campaigns, apps, cosmetics, albums, books, and almost anything new entering the world. A word from the laws of ritual baths became the Hebrew word for launch. Now you know.