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Huh... all these hebrew/yiddish linguistic ties are fascinating. There are other things that hint at Judaism or some evolution of it with the Bene Gesserit:

* They are a deeply matriarchal group tracing lineages more by motherhood than fatherhood. (Although with a more over feminist slant too - in that they are all women)

* They are referred to by some in ways that are similar to antisemitic stuff - schemers, conspirators, shadowy powerbrokers, etc. (although in that universe they actually do that stuff too)

* the mesiah prophecy referred to above

* their beleif system and source holy book are a basis for many religions

* a bunch of random little references throughout the books suggest that their ancestors may have been jewish (10k years ago, back on tera)

Dune is a really really good example of world building - at least the ones written by Frank Herbert. Lots of subtlety, the societies and groups in it evolved from ones on earth, and he pulls from a variety of cultures and religions to create the fictional ones. All of it is presented in a way that isn't super expository, but rather you just have to figure it out as you go in a fairly well written way. I recommend reading them - I think you'd see a lot of interesting stuff in there that I've missed.






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