Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.086 October 28, 1996 1) Shem zikh in dayn vaytn haldz (Zellig Bach) 2) Denkn/klern/trakhtn (Leah Krikun) 3) Conjunctions (Sophia Ostrowsky Adler) 4) Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 26 Oct 1996 22:18:02 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Shem zikh in dayn vaytn haldz I received a number of feedback comments about my post on the above subject (6.082), interestingly enough several from Mendele khavertes who personally experienced in their girlhood this type of tongue-lashing. And I thought that there was a clear gender differentiation and that only boys who acted like _mazi'kim_ [mischievously] suffered such humiliation. One member of the khavruse wrote that to the best of his recollection Maurice Samuel, in his book _In Praise of Yiddish_ briefly discussed the same subject of haldz [neck, throat] and shame. In response to my suggestion that he post it to _Mendele_ with the _page number_ as reference, he advised me that he searched for the book in his library for about half-an-hour, and then suddenly remembered that he lent the book to a friend, but that it was never returned. Well, this bears out an old maxim of mine, stipulated from lessons of personal experience, that when giving a good book, indeed a treasured book, on a loan basis to a friend, the book is suddenly afflicted with a strange but specific case of amnesia -- it does not remember the return address... Zellig Bach, Lakehurst, NJ 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Oct 96 22:30:13 PST From: lejim@netvision.net.il Subject: Denkn/klern/trakhtn [Regarding Miki Safadi's query (6.084)]: Es iz take nisht faran a groise untershid tsvishn di dray verter; efsher iz di gringste (oyb nisht di beste) veg tsu gebn bayshpiln velkhe nutsn di verter: Ikh denk az dos iz a gute frage. Ikh prubir klern vegn a gutn entfer. Ikh trakht vegn dem gor asakh. Ikh veys nisht oyf dos helft, ober ikh hof az yo. Leah (Selchen) Krikun Kfar Saba, Israel 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 16:15:33 -0500 (EST) From: fadler@suffolk.lib.ny.us Subject: Conjunctions Around the year 180 C.E. in the dark time of Jewish annihilation by Roman conquerors, a small remnant of Jewish scholars (tannaim) gathered at a study site, Bene-Berak, to remember, to learn, to save our heritage. Could they have envisioned how their intimate voices would reverberate from Bene-Berak through the centuries that followed? How those fiercely cool, passionate conversations among Rabbi Akiva and his friends were to inspire future generations as they stumbled and dispersed throughout the world? Since May 15, 1991 C.E. as our death-haunted century staggers to its close, a small remnant of Yiddish scholars gather at the study site Mendele, to remember, to learn, to save our heritage. Guided by shames Reb Noyekh, these Yiddish tannaim embrace the Mame-loshn with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. With every living word they breathe life back to the gasping Yiddish Tongue, the root soul of our folk for the past thousand years. * * * * * I was half a lifetime late in discovering my need to learn Yiddish. Since 1970 I have felt my way with dictionaries, books, recordings, favorite pages from the "Forvitz", but remote from contacts with whom to share a yiddish word, to discuss or consult for a meaning, a phrase, a subtlety. So you may understand my amazement and joy when, to celebrate my 80th birthday (10/8/96) my son led me onto the Internet Highway... and there... and there... kinderlakh, ver tref ihk dort? Dort geyt der balibte zeydele, Mendele Moykher Sforim! Geyt er a freylekher, oyf di pleytzes shlept er a groys pekl, zayn likhtik ponem balaykhtent ingantzn di hashamayim sound bytes. "Sholem aleikhem Mendele, tayer zeydele, vos makht a yid? Gevald, vos tustu do, oyf derekh internet?" "Aleichem Sholem, tayere kind... un vos tu ikh do nit? Adu-o bin ikh a gevaldik gliklekher! Do tu ikh a s'forim-handel mit bendlekh far alemen! Un alts mer leyner gefin ikh do... un alts loyf ikh gor vayt, gor vayt, iber n'gantzen velt, mayne bendlekh derlangen alemen... epes azelkhe sheyne bendlekh mit yidishe visenshaft, khokhme, farshungen, yidish vitsen und nayes, ales geshribn fun khaverim. "Nadir, nadir, kind mayns! Nemzshe fun mayn pekl vos du vilst! Haynt, morgn, ale teg derlang ikh mayne bendlekh!" "Oy, Mendele, tayer zeydenyu, itst tantst zikh mir freylekhs in hartsn". Sophia Ostrowsky Adler Southold, N.Y. 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 From: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu Subject: Amol iz a nets nisht ver vi a reshime In recent months well-meaning but computer-innocent friends of Mendele have spread the word that we are something called a "Mendele Network". Others talk of "Mendele Online". Sounds as though we're all tied together (geknipt un gebindn?) in some wonderful way and that messages from one reaches others instantly and in some magical way. One writer in the Forward even recommended that those wishing to get in touch with someone "Mendelize" him, an act that sounds positively aggressive if not obscene but is in any case impossible. None of this is remotely true. Mendele is nothing more than a mailing list ("list" for short). People write, the shames puts the posts together, and the result winds up on your screens as e-mail. No one is in touch with anyone in the sense that "net" would suggest. I mention this now because there has been a recent rash of messages from (mostly) new subscribers which, being personal or of no interest to Mendelists at large, ought properly to have been sent directly to the person being addressed. That is why the From: address is _always_ there. The shames has no streamlined way way of getting your messages to where they should have gone; quite the contrary: it's _harder_ for him to redirect messages than it is for senders to take the simple step of using the address that's given. B'kitser, would you please help your shames in this matter? A sheynem un hartsikn dank aykh. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.086 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.cis.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu ****Getting back issues**** 1. Anonymous ftp archives are available. ftp ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files A table of contents is also available, along with weekly updates. 2. Mendele archives can also be reached as follows: via WWW: http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mewais.html via gopher: gopher://sunsite.unc.edu/11/../.pub/academic/languages/yiddish/mendele via ftp: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/academic/languages/yiddish/mendele