Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.176 March 19, 1998 [Moderator's note: For the next ten days the shames will be away from his favorite computer and Mendele digests may be delayed. -i.v.] 1) Hershele Ostropoler (Morrie Feller) 2) Ostropolyer stories (Alexander Maxwell) 3) Hershele Ostropolier (Joe Kling) 4) smoes/smoesje (Neil Jacobs) 5) Hare hunt in Hagodes (Rick Turkel) 6) entfer mir/mikh (Ellen Cassedy) 7) gutahr (Ellen Prince et al.) 8) Correction re kurve (A Manaster Ramer) 9) glock (Irv Young) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 17:45:21 -1000 From: feller@indirect.com (Morris Feller) Subject: Hershele Ostropoler In response to David Ebner's request (07.171), I have a copy of "Hershele Ostropoler un Motke Khabad" in Yiddish published by the Star Hebrew Book Co. (no date given). Also, in Ruth Levitan's "A Sheyner Gelekhter" there are a number of Hershele stories in transliterated Yiddish. Morrie Feller Phoenix 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 19:02:40 -0600 From: Alexander Maxwell Subject: Ostropolyer stories Regarding David Ebner's question: several stories about Hershel Ostropolyer can be found in Nathan Ausubel's A treasury of Jewish Folkore. "Ostropolyer" is in the index, and there is a whole section of stories. Henry Spalding's Encyclopedia of Jewish Humor also has the one about the "spontaneous lie", there may be other stories, but as there's no index it might not be worth the time. I didn't see anything in the chapter on Schnorrers. If any Mendele-khaverim have any information about the historical Herschel, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be curious. Zayt gezunt! Alexander Maxwell 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 10:50:58 EST From: JOKLING Subject: Hershele Ostropolier I am no expert, but the material I hgave read suggests that Hershele Ostropolier actually existed. Two collections which have stories about Hershel are: Nathan Ausubel, A TREASURY OF JEWISH FOLKLORE, Crown Publishers, and Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg, A TREASURY OF JEWISH STORIES (not sure of publisher). As to why Hershel was not rich-- he didn't want to be. He was a truth-teller, a man who used his wit and 'street-smarts' to expose the hypocrisy, posturing, and snobbery of the wealthy. He was the everyman of the little man. Many cultures have such figures. Hershel Ostropolier is ours. One more source for an Ostropolier story. In Sheva Zucker's wonderful text "Yiddish, An Areinfir: Loshn, Literatur, un Kultur". (Arbeter Ring) The story is in Unit 9, and is called 'Klaider'. Read and enjoy. (And thanks to the people at the YIVO Columbia Summer Institute for introducing me to this text. Credit where it's due.) Joe Kling 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 11:20:10 -0400 From: Neil Jacobs Subject: smoes/smoesje On the discussion re: shmusen/shmuesn, etc.: the etymon has made it into non-Jewish Dutch as well: smoes 'excuse' (noun), dim. form: smoesje. This word is listed in general dictionaries (e.g. Dutch - English), in addition to the well-known works concerning Jewish speech (Voorzanger & Polak 1915; Beem 1967). Neil Jacobs 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 12:38:32 -0500 From: rturkel@cas.org (Rick Turkel) Subject: Hare hunt in Hagodes Hershl Hartman wrote in mendele 07.172: "As I recall it, the cartoon was a mnemonic for the order of the first seyder when it coincides with _shabes_: Yayin (wine), Kidish (blessing), Ner (candles), Ha-Zman (blessing of thanksgiving)= YaKiN HaZ = yogn hoz (chasing rabbit/hare)." Close, but no cigar. I just finished learning the relevant portion of perek arvey psoxim (chapter 9 of gemore psoxim), where there is a discussion about the order of the blessings in the kiddush of any yomtov evening when it falls immediately _after_ shabbos. The last two letters of the abbreviation yod-kuf-nun-he-zayin refer to havdolo (the ceremony marking the end of shabbos or yom tov) and zman (i.e., shehexiyonu). The Friday night yomtov kidush is the same as any other yomtov kidush (except for the addition of the vaykhulu paragraph at the beginning), and has no brokho on candles; yomtov candles are lit while it is still light, at least an hour before kidush (for which we must wait until dark). I believe that Reb Hershl is quite correct, though, as to the connection of the illustration to Yiddish; I never heard Diane Wolfthal's interpretation before. Zayt mir ale gezunt un shtark. Rick Turkel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 10:42:18 EST From: CassBlum Subject: entfer mir/mikh Sam Kweskin's frage: If you think of "entfer" as meaning "reply" -- then "it makes sense to say "entfer mir," "reply to me," not "reply me." Ellen Cassedy Bethesda, MD 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 01:19:21 EST From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: gutahr Rhonda Friedman asks about _gutahr_ in the following rhyme remembered by her mother: "Ich hub a gutahr in mein nuz. Shtaarbn vehl Ich zeechah balt, veil in mein nuz hub Ich a kalt" I don't know, but I would guess that it's the Yiddish variant of English _catarrh_, German _Katarrh_. It's not in Weinreich, unfortunately. If that's it, the YIVO-ized version of the rhyme would be: Ikh hob a katar in mayn noz. Shtarbn vel ikh zeyer balt, vayl in mayn noz hob ikh a kalt. Ellen Prince [Moderator's note: similar answers were submitted by Neil Sandow , Wolf Krakowski , Adrienne Maltz , Louis Fridhandler , and Norma Brewer ] 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 07:53:08 -0500 (EST) From: manaster@umich.edu Subject: Correction re kurve In an earlier posting I wrote: "Another point is that, as shown again by khorbe, Hebrew can only have beyz, not veyz in this situation (and I dont see where we could get a vov from), so would have to expect Yd *korbe, rather than kurve (* means that the form is hypothetical). Since the form IS kurve and not korbe, a Hebrew etymology is not possible, QED (assuming all the premises are correct, which I am PRETTY sure they are)." Apparently, PRETTY SURE is not good enough. Meyer Wolf and Bob Hoberman pointed out to me that Hebrew CAN have veyz after reysh after all, and there seems to be some disagreement about the vowel too, so I may have to withdraw this whole line of argumentation. For although the methodological point I made is still valid, I seem to have chosen the wrong example to take a stand on. I am sorry to have confused the issue. A Manaster Ramer 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 08:45:45 EST From: YOU 2 IG Subject: glock In reply to Fred Sherman's question about "glock" in the Joe and Paul ditty I would submit the possibility that it relates to the telephone-bell relationship. Glock is German for bell , hence its use for ,"ring me up". Irv Young Isles of Capri, FL ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.176 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html