Sex on Fridays

Israelis love acronyms; Many of them come from the army, but others are just abbreviations that Israelis use because they are too lazy to say the entire name. Olim are at a disadvantage because we did not grow up hearing these abbreviated words and at times, it can lead to either misunderstandings or total confusion.

The other day I was speaking to a co-worker (male) and we were talking about all of the things we do on Friday that we did not have time to do during the week. During our conversation he said to me “so you do sex on Fridays?” I just stared at him, speechless and with the most stunned look on my face. I know that Israelis are open and not afraid to ask personal questions, but this is ridiculous!

He then quickly smiled and said to me “have you heard the saying ‘sex on Fridays’?” Obviously my incredulous look showed him that I had not. He then explained that besides the obvious definition, sex, in Hebrew סקס, is also an acronym for
סידורים- Errands
קניות- Shopping
ספונג'ה- Washing the Floor

Most people do not work on Friday but the stores are open and people are preparing for their weekend by cooking, cleaning and running all of the errands that they did not get to during the week. I was describing these events during our conversation, but was never introduced to this acronym. (I guess my Ulpan teacher hasn’t been either since this was not on the list of word we learned during our abbreviation lesson.)

‘Sex on Fridays’ is not used nearly as much as other acronyms but it certainly gets your attention and can be quite embarrassing if you are suddenly faced with it and have no idea what the other person is talking about. This should definitely be added to the “Unwritten Book of Things New Olim Should Know.”