Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.256 March 5, 1997 1) Tsadik (Eli Katz) 2) Yiddish and Yiddishkayt (Louis Fridhandler) 3) Yeshivish (Hugh Denman) 4) _Yidishe Shprikhverter_ (Meyshe-Yankl Sweet) 5) Sholem Aleichem in Harlem (Harold L. Orbach) 6) "Commedia dell'arte" oyf yidish (Vera Szabo) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 09:37:27 -0800 (PST) From: katz@sonoma.edu Subject: Tsadik I suspect that the Yiddish "tsadik" vs Hebrew "tsadi" derives ultimately from the practice of reciting (while learning) the alphabet. Progressing through the alphabet from alef to sof a speaker encountered the juncture "...tsadi kuf...". Under influence of the word "tsadik" this was reinterpreted as "tsadik kuf", and the "mistake" was generalized. A similar phenomenon accounts for certain variations in the names of numbers in some Indo-European languages. Eli Katz 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 16:51:15 -0500 (EST) From: Lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Yiddish and Yiddishkayt I believe most Jews (including me) foster and depend on pluralism so that the religious and the secular can coexist comfortably. This certainly suggests that Yiddishkayt includes both. In fact, Yiddish literature often represents a secular attitude, even when dealing with the religious tradition as subject matter. Example: In my view, Peretz was respectful toward the religious tradition but emphasizing the value of earthly deeds in his powerful story _Oyb Nisht Nokh Hekher_. You'll recall how a skeptical Litvak secretly followed the adored rebe, a tsadik, to see if, as claimed by his khosidim, he actually went up to heaven each morning. The skeptic became a devoted follower (a heyser khosid) when he discovered that the tsadik chopped firewood to save the life of a widow alone in a freezing shack. That, for the skeptic, was going even higher than heaven. I think Peretz was expressing the Judaic valuation of practical deeds. In effect, saying, Do it [whatever it is] for life, l'khayim. Raboysay, be mentshen; feet on the ground, work hard. Above all, be mentshen. Louis Fridhandler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 01:30:18 +0100 (MET) From: h_denman@maier.vol.at Subject: Yeshivish I haven't yet seen "Forverts" of 21 February (my copy takes 5-6 weeks to reach me), so I don't know who is responsible for this piece of instant folklore, but even in the Purim season it does seem a little churlish not to make it clear that the quotation in question [6,255:7] is originally taken from: Chaim M. Weiser, "Frumspeak, The First Dictionary of Yeshivish", Northvale, NJ-London: Jason Aronson Inc., 1995, 108pp., [ISBN: 1-56821-614-9] L19.99, a work which is more scholarly and useful than its somewhat facetious title implies. Despite solecisms (e.g. the hoary misconception that Slavicisms in Yiddish are derived from Russian and the like) the author, who teaches English in an American yeshive, has some linguistic sophistication and most readers stand to learn much not only about "yeshivish", i.e. English laced with Yiddishisms and Hebraisms as spoken in yeshives in English-speaking countries, but also, with a little extrapolation, about the equivalent registers of Yiddish itself, so that Weiser's book can serve as yet another minor supplement to the inadequate dictionaries with which Yiddishists are condemned to work. Hugh Denman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 21:31:50 -0600 From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: _Yidishe Shprikhverter_ Unfortunately, the very nicely produced 1983 version of Bernstein's "Yudisher Shprikhverter" is expurgated of many of the wonderful scatological and sexual sayings found in the original. The 1908 edition can still be obtained, xeroxed, from a research firm in Israel. I don't have the address handy, but can get it; if anyone is interested, e-mail me privately. Meyshe-Yankl Sweet 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 06:39:20 -0600 (CST) From: Harold L Orbach Subject: Sholem Aleichem in Harlem I certainly defer to L. Fridhandler's expert knowledge of Sholem Aleichem's life and times [6.255]. I have no time to consult any records, but I believe it was in a past issue of Mendele that I read of Sholem Aleichem's living in Harlem and his funeral being at a synagogue on 116th street near his home. The Lenox Avenue address Fridhandler gives would be close to 116th Street, as Lenox began at 110th Street. I'm sorry if I conveyed incorrect information. The point I was making, however, involved the fact that lower Harlem (from 110th street at the northern end of Central Park to 135th street) was not an area of black concentration until some time after World War I. Instead it was in good measure Jewish so that blacks and Jews became neighbors and the basis for cultural exchange existed. The fact that Sholem Aleichem lived there at all was an illustration of that. Our good shames, to keep things from wandering too much, asked me to omit some things from my comment on yiddish singing in a black "race film." One of those things was the fact that my mother lived with her older sister in East Harlem, c.122nd street, when she first came to the U.S. in 1922. I could also mention that as late as c.1948-1950, when I was a student at CCNY, I went with a class-mate to his father's clothing store on E. 125 Street near Third Avenue. This "Jewish" store where the clerks still all spoke Yiddish had been in the family for over 30 years Harold L. Orbach Manhattan, Kansas 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 15:37:33 MET-1MET DST From: verele@osiris.elte.hu Subject: "Commedia dell'arte" oyf yidish hot emetser an eytse vegn vi azoy zogt men _commedia dell'arte_ af yidish? In Stutchkoff iz keyn vort af dem nishto. A sheynem dank. Vera Szabo Budapest ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.256 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. 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