Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.083 August 11, 1995 1) Feldsher (Ze'ev Orzech) 2) Feldsher (Zellig Bach) 3) Feldsher (Andrew Cassel) 4) Feldsher (Michael Shimshoni) 5) Yiddish in translation (Marti Krow-Lucal) 6) Klor-vays tsigele (David Sherman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Aug 1995 10:25:28 -0700 From: orzechz@ucs.orst.edu Subject: Feldsher A minor correction. Gaston Schmir writes, "Among the duties of the feldsher were the withdrawal of blood by application of heated cups ("cupping") or leeches..." Shteln baynkes does not not entail the withdrawel of blood. The vacuum created in the cup (say, by lighting a match in it before it is set on the skin) draws the blood to the surface. The action is that of a mustard plaster. My father, who was not a feldsher, used to shtel baynkes regularly to any of us kids when a cold went in di brust. Ze'ev Orzech 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Aug 1995 17:14:03 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Me and my feldsher We were a family *zalbe zibn* -- a family of seven: my widowed mother and six children -- five girls and a boy. (Sometimes I made a _tshikaves_ a jocular puzzle: "A strange thing happened in my family: all my sisters had a brother, but I didn't have one"...). Unable to afford visits of a real doctor for the various illnesses of her young children, my mother would naturally call our neighborhood feldsher who made house calls, as even real doctors would do in those days. Our feldsher was a frequent visitor in our home, and he made my "acquaintance" on too numerous occasions. (I was too young an infant to say that I made _ his_ "acquaintance.") My afflictions apparently were too numerous for the ministrations from his limited assortment of powders and varicolored bottles of drops, and his prognosis was dark. Many years later, when I was already grown-up, mother--zol zi hobn a likhtikn ganeydn -- told me that this trusted family feldsher often hinted gently at the hopelessness of my condition by asking her whether she thought that there wouldn't be room enough on the cemetery. [He may have been an honest professional, and hoped to spare her the small expense for his visits.] Fortunately, whether thanks to his efforts or to my mother's tear-soaked supplications to the Almighty to spare the life of the only male in her family, I am still alive and kicking, and soon, I hope, to make a _brokhe_ (blessing) on my book to be published within the next few weeks (a childhood memoir but nothing about feldshers). Zellig Bach Lakehurst, NJ 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Aug 1995 20:27:30 -0400 From: cassel@libertynet.org Subject: A mayse fun a feldsher By way of illustration, here's a maysele that my zeyde published in his landsmanshaft bulletin, The Keidaner, in January 1941, entitled Keidan fun Amol, and translated by me this year ... ----------------------------------------------------------- by B. Cassel Reb Avrohom Einhorn, the Rabbi in Sukhovole, in the Grodno district, barely made a living from his job. Therefore the rebbitsin, his jewel of a wife, made a business shipping linen to Riga. Once, when Reb Avrohom's son, Mordkhe, a youth of about 15, traveled to Telszh to study in the yeshiva, he had to travel to Riga on a mission for his mother's linen business. Now the Libau-Romne train on which he traveled stopped at the Keidan station. And since Keidan was the home of his father's brother, Reb Meishl Ortziks Einhorn, Mordkhe stopped for a day to visit him. His uncle, Reb Meishl Ortziks, a wealthy shopkeeper, received him in fine style. His aunt, Sore Rive Tzviehs, made a lovely breakfast, and their guest felt right at home. But that night, after supper, after everyone had gone to sleep, the visitor began to complain of a stomach ache; the pain grew worse and worse, and really scared his uncle and aunt. Just then Keidan was experiencing an outbreak of dysentery, which, because of the conditions of the time, had claimed many lives. They immediately summoned Dr. Layne. But when he didn't come quickly enough, they called for Reb. Gabriel the feldsher, who came right away. Reb Gabriel, a very wise man whose kind words and gentle manner could ease the suffering of the sick, often carried his medicines with him, especially during a time of epidemic. After examining the patient and giving him a "powder" to take, he advised the sick man to lay warm compresses on his stomach. A few minutes after Reb Gabriel left, the doctor arrived. Doctor Layne, a converted Jew whom people continued to call by his Jewish name, Levit, was always in a foul mood, and spoke what few words he did in an angry fashion. After interrogating the sick man, he wrote out a prescription and told them to lay cold compresses on his stomach. When the doctor had left, the worried aunt and uncle confronted their quandry: What kind of compresses should they apply ? Cold, as the doctor had ordered? Or warm, as Reb Gabriel had advised? Reb Meishl, a pious, learned man, weighed whose advice he should follow. With all his respect for the learning of the doctor, whom he nonetheless despised as an apostate, he had confidence that God would help through Reb Gabriel's advice, and he decided in favor of the warm compresses. And God did help: thanks to the warm compresses Mordkhe recovered his health. In fact Mordkhe grew up and became the famous stomach-specialist, professor Max Einhorn of New York. And thus Reb Gabriel, the Keidan feldsher, saved the life of the famous stomach specialist, professor Einhorn of New York.... ---------------------------------------- Andrew Cassel Elkins Park, PA 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Aug 95 11:59:41 +0300 From: mash@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il Subject: Feldsher May I add another aspect to the feldsher story. My wife works here in Israel in a general hospital and she had told me that among the many new Olim from the ex-USSR who work in the hospital, nurses, doctors etc., there are also feldshers, or rather they were feldshers in the "old country". Her impression was that they were there a stage between nurse and physician, and in order to be recognized as a nurse ("qualified", or "registered"), they have to pass exams (after taking some courses). BTW also physicians, especially those who do not have long experience, have to pass some exams before they are allowed to practice in Israel. Michael Shimshoni Rehovot, Israel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 01:56:51 -0400 From: kromobile@aol.com Subject: Yiddish in translation I learned the Yiddish I know from my grandmother, my mother and my shule days (1955-67), the Yiddish songs we sang being especially useful. As a very non-fluent, slow-reading student of Yiddish, I agree completely with Hershl Hartman. I began reading Sholem Aleichem stories in translation when I was 11, and have loved them ever since; their beauty has encouraged me to attempt reading them in the original. But if I had to look up the meaning of every single Yiddish word I don't know in every single text I wanted to read (to say nothing of the Hebrew ones) while trying to apprehend the ideas contained in the text, it would take forever and be an exhausting experience. Making Yiddish a kind of holy tongue that must not be translated was a mistake before, as he points out, and would be a worse mistake now. Let's not insist that only one kind of Yiddishkayt is valid; let us rather foment love for it on as many paths as we can find. Marti Krow-Lucal Sunnyvale, CA 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Aug 95 3:42:52 EDT From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca Subject: Klor-vays tsigele The klor-vays tsigele appears in the lullaby Rozhinkes mit Mandlen. Emil Cohen, in one of his (two) Yiddish comedy/song albums, goes into a fairly lengthy (and serious) discussion of the imagery in R mit M, including the tsigele. I believe he says it represents Israel. I'd have to dig out the record and listen to it, which I can do if people are really interested. (It would be a good excuse to listen to the albums again. The Gettysburg Address, for example: "when our forefathers ... ven unzere fir tates ... conceived in liberty ... zi hot geshvenget in Liberty -- a kleyn dorf lebn Monticello ...") David Sherman Toronto ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.083