April 15, 2008
Welcome to the sixteenth 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 e-book is only available to Vekslblat subscribers so this link has been disabled. Don't forget to check out the back-issues of Vekslblat.
This edition of Vekslblat includes exciting news about Just Say Nu, articles from the Jewish Week, more kosher le-pesach recipes, Wex's Kvetch of the Month and much more. Enjoy!
News
Just Say Nu Wins An Award!
We're very proud to tell you that Just Say Nu has been given an AudioFile Earphones Award. AudioFile, the magazine for people who love audiobooks, had this to say about Wex's second book on Yiddish:
The shock of recognition excites much of the hilarity in this volume of essays. Jewish humor delights in satirizing the foibles and cultural eccentricities of "landsmen." The cleverer, the truer, the better. And, like Wex's previous BORN TO KVETCH, this is plenty clever and awfully true. The Canadian author/narrator sounds like one of those too serious, nebbishy young rabbis who come off silly giving marital advice to couples twice his age. His deadpan delivery adds to the laughs. But his intent is sly and serious. He seems to be writing for secularized North American Jews who wish to gain insight into the culture they've fallen away from. I laughed 'til I plotzed! Y.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
If you don't yet have a copy of the audio version of Just Say Nu simply click on the image above.
More Pesach Recipes For You
Wex is Back on YouTube
Where's Wex?
Articles
We’ve got very religious snow this year in Toronto; it turns up every Monday, Thursday and Saturday, whenever the Torah is read in shul, and woe to the week with a two-day Rosh Chodesh that starts on Monday night.
We’ve got what Yiddish would call shney durkh tir un toyer, “snow through door and gate.” Normally, you’d say shlimazl durkh tir un toyer, "bad luck through door and gate," but our major misfortune right now is the snow.
Durkh tir un toyer is a relatively common Yiddish expression and is roughly equivalent to af trit un shrit, "at every step, everywhere you turn.” If you say that things are going durkh tir un toyer for Mindel, you're saying that Mindel is doing exceedingly well, she's raking it in, whatever "it" might be. In the case of bad luck, it’s disaster that is being reaped, shlimazl mit esik, "bad luck with vinegar,” misfortune with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Imagine a supermarket of complaint, filled with aisles upon aisles of shlimazl and vinaigrette. Esik, "vinegar,” is sometimes used to convey the idea of something with all the garnishes, all the bells and whistles, on it. You can talk about somebody who is oysgeputst in esik un honik, "decked out in vinegar and honey, dressed to the nines.” Even better, though, you can say that they're ayngemarinirt in esik un honik, "marinated in vinegar and honey.” The best-dressed person in Yiddish is the one who most resembles a herring.
Someone recently asked me about the worst thing that you can say in Yiddish. After weeding out all the obvious contenders, I realized that the final frontier of Yiddish cursing also involves the ultimate reversal of any victim’s expectations: Zolst onkumen tsu mayn mazl, "you should have my luck.” In other words, “The worst thing I can wish on you is...that you should be me.”
Ale tsuris vos ikh hob zoln oysgeyn tsu dayn kop, "all my troubles should be redirected to you." It doesn't say much for my own life, but at least no one can call me conceited; this is what old-fashioned Hebraists meant when they called Yiddish a language of internalized exile.
Your most secret thoughts are best inflicted on somebody else: Vos s'hot zikh mir gekholemt di nakht un yene nakht un a gants yor zol oysgeyn tsu dayn kop, "what I dreamed tonight and last night and every night for a whole year should happen to you.” And finally, one that leaves the curser safely within the bounds of Hillel's famous dictum, "Do not do that which is hateful to you to your fellow": vos s'iz mir bashert tsu zayn in mindstn fingerl zol dir zayn in dayn gants layb un lebn, "may what is destined to happen to my baby finger happen to your whole body and life": What did I do that you should deserve this? Ask anyone who works with publishers or agents.
Early last week I found myself using the Yiddish phrase kosher fardint without any hint of irony. This doesn’t happen often. Although there’s no necessary reason not to use kosher fardinen (the infinitive form) to mean exactly what it appears to mean, “to earn in a kosher way, to obtain something by means of honest toil and effort,” it seems to be used more often in the sense of “it serves him right, she got what was coming to her.” Last week, though, I’d have had to say yasher koyekh had I been at the scene of the fardin.
Musically-inclined readers have probably guessed that I’m talking about the long- overdue induction of the Dave Clark Five into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame.
Loving the Dave Clark Five has always struck me as a secular way of fulfilling the commandment found in Leviticus 18:3: “And you shall not walk in their statutes.” If we have to do something that gentiles also do, we’re supposed to do it differently. If their hats have narrow brims, our brims will be wide. If their curses and insults focus on mothers and their body parts, ours won’t mention mothers at all. If they want Beatlemania, then we prefer the Dave Clark Five.
As I did in 1964 and ‘65; and as I still do today. History has finally absolved me. The Messiah can’t be too far off.
And Finally....Wex’s Kvetch of the Month:
Wex overheard kvetching at a party...
I'm getting older by the second, and so are you. I realized only today that no matter how much I love my wife--and I do--no matter how happy we are together––and we are, she will never be the wife of my youth. So what that everything’s fine today? I'm stuck with inventing happy memories.
A kosheren un a freylekhn pesach! Look out for your next edition of Vekslblat in May.