February 28, 2007
Welcome to the sixth edition of Vekslblat – The Yiddish World of Michael Wex's monthly e-zine. If this is the first copy you have received, as a special gift to thank you for subscribing to this newsletter we would like to offer you a free download of the e-book version of Wex’s classic The Kugel Story, a Jewish folktale for the 21st century. Please click here to download the e-book. This link has been disabled since the e-book is only available to Vekslblat subscribers. Don't forget to check out the back-issues of Vekslblat by clicking here.
This edition of Vekslblat includes news, an exclusive extract from Wex's new book Just Say Nu, articles, Wex's Kvetch of the Month and much more. Enjoy!
News
Wex is on YouTube again
Exclusive Just Say Nu Extract
Most Jews are not Buddhists, let alone students of Zen. While virtually any Yiddish-speaker would subscribe to the first of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths–the idea that to live is to suffer–they would differ with him on the final cause of that suffering.
as we'll see later in this book; life in the fullest sense of the word is indeed possible in this sublunary, material world:
You could live if they let you
It isn’t life that’s to blame, it’s the living. Just about all of them. There are a lot of them, they’re all out to get you–and worse, as far as they’re concerned, it’s your fault..
This extract uses a different transliteration system that Wex is trying out in the new book.
New merchandise tie-in for Just Say Nu
As you can see, we've introduced new v-necked shirts (these are available for men and women) and new colors too! Turn the tables on those sour-puss wasps with your own Yiddish take on the slogan that launched a thousand anti-vice campaigns.
The Adventures of Micah Mushmelon, Boy Talmudist - price correction
Where's Wex?
On March 8th Wex will be appearing at the BJE Library, San Francisco, CA at 7.30pm. Click here for more details.
New on the website
Do you have favorite Yiddish/Jewish interest sites you think we should know about and add to the website? Then please reply to this email and let us know!
Articles
Three of the most common and effective epithets hurled at the competition by Yiddish-speaking drivers are yold, shmendrik, and kuneh-leml.
Yold (often pronounced yolt when it’s meant to be emphatic), which now means primarily “sap, sucker, dupe” and once in a while, “yokel, rube, hick,” comes from the Hebrew and originally meant “well-born boy, scion of a wealthy family,” whence it developed into “fop, popinjay. ” Think of a Jewish Andrew Aguecheek–wealthy, stupid, credulous and self-absorbed–and you’ll see how yold developed into what it is today. The yokel aspect developed out of the supposed credulousness of hicks in the hinterland, so that the word often has a sense of “mark, victim of a confidence scheme.”
Shmendrik and kuneh-leml both entered the language through the work of Abraham Goldfadn, the self-titled “Father of the Yiddish Theater” who really was the father of the Yiddish theater. Shmendrik and kuneh-leml were originally the names of characters who embody the qualities that have come to be associated with these terms. A shmendrik walks (or drives) into a wall because he expects it to get out of his way; a kuneh-leml didn’t notice the wall to begin with. A shmendrik is the sort of person who made FEMA so effective both before and after Hurricane Katrina; a yold believes the shmendrik’s claim that it wasn’t his fault, while the kuneh-leml wants to know when the hurricane’s going to hit.
Despite, or perhaps because of the number of Yiddish-speakers who use walkers, canes, and wheelchairs, Yiddish has remained stubbornly resistant to efforts to empower the disabled. My father, who had only one leg, saw no irony in screaming kalyekeh or loomer (“cripple”) at cars with disabled stickers on their windows or with using the same words, along with hoyker (“hunchback”–it usually applied to someone hunched over the steering wheel), as insults pure and simple, without regard to the real physical condition of the person being insulted. Indeed, they were used more often for people straddling lanes, trying to parallel park or driving too slowly (for whom the proper Yiddish term is anybody-in-front; those with the chutzpah to pass from behind were generally dismissed with Gey, yug zakh; der feld ‘et bald antloyfn, “Come on, go as fast as you can; the cemetery’s gonna run away in a minute.”) than for those who were living with a disability. Despite the fact that he needed two canes and a prosthesis to get to the car and could drive only with the help of hand controls, the old man saw no irony in attributing fantasy versions of his own condition to his fellow drivers. In typically Yiddish fashion, he transferred his own tsuris–his own troubles–to others, where they could be viewed with the scorn that they really deserved.
Hitsl and hintshleger, which both mean “dogcatcher,” are among the most offensive words in a language not usually well-disposed to dogs. Dogs and Jews enjoyed a symbiotic relationship in the old country; the dogs were the predators and Jews were their prey. Although Yiddish is far from canine-positive, the dogcatcher gets such bad press because he was also the dog killer, and is generally portrayed as someone who loves his work. Where a shoykhet, a ritual slaughterer, is thought of as a pious person who is engaged in the performance of important mitsves, the hitsl likes to kill–and there’s a sense that if he can’t find a dog, you’ll do just as well. There’s an old saying that goes: “Er hot dikh geshlogn? He hit you? Ruf im hitsl/ruf im hintshleger, Call him a dogcatcher.” This is a perfect example of a two-pronged insult whose second prong might not prick the victim until the speaker is out of reach. For Yiddish-speakers it’s enough to threaten violence; the Talmud tells us that he who so much as raises his hand is already considered an evildoer. Only a lunatic–a morally depraved lunatic–would ever go so far as to land an actual blow. There are no exceptions to this rule, unless you’re raising children or teaching them, so the dogcatcher’s willing embrace of an occupation devoted to physical cruelty was generally seen as the outward sign of a deeply-rooted lack of conscience.
For a guide to Yiddish pronunciation, click here.
The Yiddish World of Michael Wex Recommends - Chocolate Geld for All Your Holiday Needs!
Pesach is just around the corner and if you're looking for kosher for Passover stuff you've come to the right place. Chocolate covered matzohs, chocolate lollycones, chocolate Passover symbols, chocolate Passover pops and even a Passover chocolate seder plate! What more could you ask for? Click on the image above to visit this great online store.
And Finally....Wex’s Kvetch of the Month:
Wherever there’s a waiter too slow or a driver too fast; a mouth too big or a portion too small; wherever there’s something that somebody got cheaper than you or a kid who isn’t yours helping old ladies cross the street–
As long as day-to-day life lurches from frustration to chagrin and year-to-year life keeps ending up in death…Yiddish will never die.
Happy Purim! Look out for your next edition of Vekslblat in March.