Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.151 October 24, 1994 1) Rote brik (Dan Leeson) 2) Transliteration (Meylekh Viswanath) 3) Yekes - mir zenen do! (Meylekh Viswanath) 4) Tekhnishe inyonim (Meylekh Viswanath) 5) "Mazshge", a vort? (Daniella HarPaz) 6) The Mechitza of Iron (Henry Mullish) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 23 Oct 1994 13:53:03 EDT From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu Subject: Rote brik Does anyone have knowledge of any humorous or subtle meaning of this expression. A genealogic colleague who lives in Texas said that, when he was a kid, whenever this phrase was used it was the signal for a great deal of laughter from the adults in the room. I know of no particular humor within it and ask the Mendelniks if it contains a secret about which I know nothing. rote brik Dan Leeson 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 94 14:05:19 EDT From: pviswana@andromeda.rutgers.edu Subject: transliteration Sam Kowarski says: > A thought on transliteration: the problem would be moot if we could find > a way to use the native alphabet when we wrote yiddish. On computers it > shouldn't be too hard. Where are the yiddish speaking computer mavens? Such software exists and has been implemented for Tamil; so I am sure it is possible for Yiddish. With Tamil, three or four lines are used to reproduce a single line. Thus, if we wanted to write khof, we would have: _____ \ | | ______/ This took five lines, but I haven't thought it out fully; somebody with more effort may be able to do it in three lines, and better. I can refer people to the appropriate persons who did it for Tamil; I am sure they would be willing to lend their knowledge. Meylekh Viswanath 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 94 14:05:19 EDT From: pviswana@andromeda.rutgers.edu Subject: Yekes - mir zenen do! There are a couple of other humorous explanations for the origin of the term. One, Adam was a yeke, and as prrof, we have hashem saying in bereishis, 3:9 And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou; the hebrew for the last three words is ayeka! Two, hashem himself was a yeke. In shmos 3:14, when moshe rabeynu asks hashem how he should justify to the Israelites his attempt to take over the leadership, hashem tells him: 'And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM.' Tell them 'I AM sent me.' The words 'I AM THAT I AM,'if read in Hebrew with the substitution of 'y' for 'h' as is customary in saying out the different names of hashem as in 'elokim,' reads yeke asher yeke, or The yeke that I am, indeed the yeke that I am! Meylekh Viswanath 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 94 14:05:19 EDT From: pviswana@andromeda.rutgers.edu Subject: Tekhnishe inyonim > So if > you live in NYC, Boston, St. Louis, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Atlanta, > Phoenix, and just about anywhere in California you can get fast unlimited > service with full Internet access for under $20 a month. Write for details. ikh bin farinteresirt, un efsher a sakh andere mentshn; volt geven kday aribergebn di protim af mendele, meyn ikh. Meylekh Viswanath [Zogt der shames: the information is too long and of too little interest for most subscribers to justify including it in Mendele. A simple note will do the trick. nm] 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 14:53 EDT From: harpaz@binah.cc.brandeis.edu Subject: "Mazshge", a vort? Is anyone familiar with the word "mazshge" in Yiddish? Used in a friends family in the middle of an English sentence "...to mazshge something up..." ie., to mix it up. ...or, "that's mazshgeed...". Any suggestions? Is this simply a case of oystrakhtn a vort? Daniella HarPaz 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 15:21:50 -0400 (EDT) From: mullish@acfcluster.nyu.edu Subject: The Mechitza of Iron For those of you who managed to read last Saturday's New York Times, you will know with great sorrow of the passing of the much loved and admired Reb Shlomo Carlebach, who has entertained millions of us with his heavenly music for the last 35 years or so. His funeral was held yesterday and an outside service was held for him outside of his synagogue on West End Avenue in New York City. The police had blocked off the streets in the immediate neighborhood to enable the vast crowd to be accommodated in the street. It rained during the service but it was difficult to distinguish the rain drops from the tear drops. After a moving and well-deserved service during which many passionate speeches were given by friends and family members it was announced that Shlomo was to be buried in Israel and his body was to be taken directly after the service to Kennedy Airport for transfer to an El Al plane. Four buses were provided for anyone who felt the need to accompany him on his last journey. Needless to say, the busses were filled in no time at all and under police escort all the way to the airport we accompanied Shlomo. What was so remarkable to me was the journey to the airport. All the way people in the bus sang Shlomo's melodies between their profuse tears. Many of the melodies I instantly recognized but there were so many I had never heard before. Someone remarked that this was probably the first time that Shlomo had arrived at the airport in time. At the airport the crowds were loathe to take their leave of the revered rabbi. The coffin was transported up a ramp to the Customs Hall at Gate 7, with his followers and friends gently touching the hearse for as long as they could. Miraculously two lit candles appeared on the concrete posts leading to the ramp. Throughout the vigil Shlomo's songs were sung. When the moment arrived to finally take leave of the coffin, the people simply refused to budge. The policemen had no choice but to bring down the steel shutters. May he rest in peace; shalom to you Shlomo, you will be forever remembered with love. Henry Mullish ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.151 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) 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 Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu