Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.341 May 4, 1994 1) "Teibele & Her Demon" (Martin Davis) 2) Oyve Butl; Kushik (Meyshe Yankl Sweet) 3) Introduction (Charles W. Jones) 4) Introduction (Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch) 5) Galicia (Moyshe Zekharye Baker) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 3 15:34:27 1994 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: "Teibele & Her Demon" the story & the play Last week I saw a play entitled "Teibele and Her Demon" at the Jewish Repertory Theatre in New York, apparently a revival of an original Broadway production. The play was based on Singer's well-known story and was allegedly "adapted for the stage by Mr. Singer and Eve Friedman." I say "allegedly" because the play does such violence to Singer's beautiful story that it is difficult for me to believe that Singer could have approved it let alone co-authored it. I'll summarize below, but would appreciate any information Mendelnicks might be able to offer. The play and story agree that Teibele, an abandoned Shtetel wife, is forced and cajoled into a sexual relationship by Alchonon, the teacher's helper, pretending to be a demon. Eventually, she comes to accept the situation and to look forward to their meetings. In the story, Teibele's marriage had been marked by tragedy. All three of her children died in infancy. After that "her womb closed up." Finally, her husband deserted her and disappeared. Alchonon is a widower, "a dissipated fellow, full of cunning goatish tricks." No fool, Teibele found that her lover "had all the habits and frailties of a man," and that his tales of demonhood were full of contradictions, but she "neither probed nor wished to probe too closely." After her demon comes to her one last time, feverish and miserable, he comes no more. Soon after, Teibele finds herself following Alchonon's corpse to the cemetery. In the play, Teibele's husband had been sexually impotent and quite incapable of having impregnated her. Alchonon is a starry-eyed student of the Cabala hopelessly in love with Teibele. As the demon, he tells Teibele that she will soon be free to marry, but she must marry Alchonon, a man for whom she has nothing but contempt. He conspires with a friend to have a forged document produced attesting to the husband's death and, grieving, Teibele goes along with the marriage. As Alchonon's wife she find him sexually repulsive and yearns for her demon. Finally in desperation, Alchonon arranges (don't ask me why he thought this might help) an orgy involving his friend (who is pretending to be the demon), Teibele, and her best friend (but not Alchonon). Just as the friend is about to help himself to the two acquiescent women, the rabbi and his helpers burst onto the scene, preventing the consummation of the three-some and eliciting a confession of everything from Alchonon. But Teibele refuses to accept the fact that her demon was really Alchonon, and goes somewhat mad. A year later as she is dying an operatic death, Alchonon is persuaded by the rabbi to ease her death by denying his previous confession. As my parents would have said, "Kham shtram." Martin Davis 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 3 21:18:22 1994 From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Oyve Butl; Kushik Two brief queries: Just heard the expression "Oyve Butl", seeming to mean in context "I've got my own tsores." Butl I know, as nullity etc., but can't find "Oyve" or this expression anywhere. My mother used "Abe Butl", as an expression of contempt. Could this be the same phrase? What about "kushik", basket in standard Yiddish but often used in my youth to refer to a large shopping bag. Is this just ideolect, or an American Yiddish extension of meaning? Meyshe Yankl Sweet 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 4 00:55:29 1994 From: JONES@WIDENER1.mhs.harvard.edu Subject: Introduction I'm a librarian and have always had a keen interest in languages. So far, reading the Forverts every week and rereading Weinreich and Dovid Katz take up all the time I have to devote to Yiddish. I'm delighted to have discovered Mendele for two reasons. First, because I find that Yiddish is such an eclectic language that the standard reference works, excellent though they are, never answer all my questions. Second, because connecting with people who know and use the language is what makes it come alive. Charles W. Jones 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 4 12:05:10 1994 From: SZ0435@daphne.rrze.uni-erlangen.de Subject: Introduction My name is Pavel, I am 24 years old, I study eastern european history, political science and slavonic studies in the 5th year at the university of Erlangen/Nuremberg in southern Germany (ca. 100 miles north of Munich). My specialization is Jewish history of Bohemia and Moravia. My background is sort of crazy, but I want to explain a bit, maybe it helps to solve strange questions... I come from a family with 4 nationalities and 3 (4) confessions and live since 1975 between Germany and the Czech republic. I am Czech-jewish, my mother is Czech-atheist, her 2nd husband Serb-Orthodox, my step-sister German-CzechoYugo, my father Czech-atheist, his wife Czech-catholic and their children tend to be something Italo-Czecho as they live in Italy. Excuse me for this crazy goulash, but it explains in a way my own schizophrenia... but if you ask me where I am at home: It's Prague. I have studied some Yiddish at my university, but unfortunately there are nearly no genuine native speakers around here to converse with. But I love the language and the culture connected to it, so I am happy for every opportunity to get in touch with the "Yiddish world". I don't know if I will be able to contribute on a high level to the fascinating professional discussions on the server, but I speak fluently a couple of languages, so if anybody has any questions on slavonic, germanic or francophone particularities, maybe I can help. Personally I am especially interested, where and how Yiddish is still in use worldwide and to learn about some personal experience the mendeleyniks have made or are making. I speak following languages: Czech, German - mother tongues English, French, Russian, Serbo-Croat - very good Italian, Dutch - good some Slovak, Polish, Spanish, Hebrew... Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 4 13:13:27 1994 From: BM.YIB@RLG.Stanford.EDU Subject: Galicia There is an assumption on the part of many of us that the name Galicia, as applied to the region of former Austria-Hungary whence many of our ancestors came (including my own maternal grandparents), refers to an ancient Celtic presence in the area. This is based on the coincidence that a region of northwestern Spain bears the identical name. However, these two names are what my French text book calls "faux amis" -- i.e., they look and sound alike but have different meanings, or, in this, case, different etymologies. In Roman times, Spanish Galicia was known as Gallaecia, which is indeed (as far as I recall) derived from an association with Celts, or Gauls. As MENDELnikes may recall from a previous posting, the most prominent native son of that Galicia was Generalisimo Francisco Franco (still dead). Austro-Hungarian Galicia owes its name to Halicz, a duchy that united with the duchy of Vladimir after 1188 and became part of Poland in the 14th century. Some historical sources refer to it as the duchy of Galicia and Lodomeria (note the connection of the latter toponym to the Yiddish name for Vladimir Volynski/ Wlodzimierz: Ludmir [home of the Ludmirer moyd]). The "G" in Galicia reflects the Russian pronunciation of Halicz: Galich. The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer refers to Galich (under that spelling) as "an old Ruthenian settlement," located 13 miles north of Stanislav/Stanislawow (nowadays called Ivano-Frankovsk; the present Ukrainian authorities are unlikely to restore its original name). Paul R. Magocsi, in his newly published Historical Atlas of East Central Europe (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1993), lists the following names for Galicia: Galicia (English) Galicja (Polish) Galizien (German) Halychyna (Ukrainian) The Russian name is Galitsiya. Incidentally, Magocsi (the leading academic specialist on the Ruthenians, or Rus), also gives the following Polish name for the *ecclesiastical* province of Galicia: Rus Halicka. Iker shokhakhti: Af yidish heyst der doziker kant "Galitsye." Moyshe Zekharye (Zachary) Baker ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.341 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. 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