Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.022 June 2, 1993 1) Vashti and the korben peysakh (Meylekh Viswanath) 2) Introduction (Avrom Frydman) 3) Medem (Ellen Prince) 4) Dov Sadan (Yossi Galron) 5) CPR for a dead man (Bob Hoberman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 2 10:46:51 1993 From: meylekh viswanath (viswanath@draco.rutgers.edu) Subject: vashti and the korben peysakh Yitzhak Kertesz writes: >The second half (Vashti's toothache) is >very frustrating, I remember the whole issue being discussed in a >footnote somewhere. Last week, while searching for chomets I checked >all the footnotes in my apartment, but couldn't find this one. Of course, the more interesting question is: what is the moker (source, justification) for being misasek beinyanei peysakh (being involved in things belonging to Passover) in mitl sivn (Sivan)! Meylekh [A translation is provided for those who've forgotten their yeshiva loshn. nm] 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 2 11:41:47 1993 From: Subject: Introduction I've just begun my subscription to Mendele and thought I should introduce myself to the chevrah. I'm Avraham Frydman (Mendelenicks can call me "Avrom") and I presently live in Baltimore with my wife and six children (kin ein hora). I was born in Deutchland nuch de milchomah. My parents were Poilishe (Galitzianer) survivors. We came to the USA in 1950 and moved to Milwaukee. I spoke yiddish until I entered school and subsequently only spoke "American"...ober eich ken farshtiyn alles. My parents had to speak in Polish to keep secrets. I went to grad school in Massaschusetts and lived in the Boston area for 18 years before moving to Maryland three years ago. My conversational Yiddish is very rusty; however, give me a few days in Israel or visiting my Aunt in Brusselles and I become understandable! In the two issues of Mendele that I've already received, I have been reminded of some of the idioms that were used in my home. The "toyte bankes" one is finally understandable!!! A shienim dank!!! BTW- Are there some conventions re: transliteration? Zeye Gezunt, Avrom 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 2 12:29:02 1993 From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Medem [Dvosye Bilik writes:] >I am off to Paris in part to visit the Vladimir Medem library and >then to London to see what they have in the new Yiddish library >there. I attended the memorial for our beloved khaver, Irving Howe >and was most moved by Abe Brumberg's reading in Yiddish of poems by >Moyshe Leyb Halperin, Mani Leib and Kadye Molodovsky. if you're still reading this, please give my best regards to yitskhok niborski at the medem bibliotheque! and tell him to try to get e-mail--he's also at the bibliotheque nationale, where they probably have it--and get on mendele! he's a mine of information. bon voyage et bon retour! one anecdote about the medem: the first time i was there was on a saturday. I saw dirty ashtrays all around and asked yitskhok tsi men meg roykhn. he thought i was asking because it was a library and said 'yo, in medem bibliotek meg men roykhn.' i then stupidly asked, 'afile shabes?,' to which he replied, 'avade! shabes iz a mitsve!' long live the bund! ellen prince 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 2 13:00:33 1993 From: "Joseph (Yossi) Galron" Subject: Dov Sadan In last issue of Mendele, Yitzhak Kertesz wrote: >On this occasion let me throw in the idea that somebody (perhaps an >MA student?) should sit down and create an index to all the works of >Dov Sadan. He has so much information hidden in footnotes and other >places that this would be a great contribution to the study of E. >European Jewry. (I know, I know, some of you will ask gently, why >don't I take this task upon myself?) Two bibliographies of Dov Sadan's writings were compiled and published till now (1981 by the late G. Kressel and in 1986 by myself). A third bibliography was compiled by me and will be published by the Tel Aviv University by the end of this year. My 1986 bibliography has an index to phrases and idioms (Hebrew and Yiddish) that were subject to Sadan's articles. Joseph (Yossi) Galron-Goldschlaeger 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 2 13:13:42 1993 From: Robert D Hoberman Subject: CPR for a dead man I love Yitzhak Kertesz's paraphrase of "...vi a toytn bankes" as "CPR for a dead man"! The alternative saying he quotes from Bernstein is also beautiful: "es helft vi a toytn an el mole rakhamim", because, of course "el mole rakhamim" is davke a prayer for the dead, recited at funerals and in shul as part of Yizkor on certain holidays. This is a parody of the "... vi a toytn bankes" saying, while simultaneously disparaging the imagined efficacy of praying for the well-being of the dead. If an el mole rakhamim vet gor nisht helfn a toytn, vemen vet es yo helfn? Reminds me of a little joke of my great-grandfather's. I have a diary he kept (in charming Yiddish) while he traveled to Palestine to settle there, in 1929. He describes the life boat drill they had on the first day out of port, how they put on life jackets, went to their assigned boats, then returned the jackets to storage, concluding with the words that end the El Mole Rakhamim (but changed to the plural), "veyonukhu besholoym al mishkavom, venoymar omen", 'may they [the life jackets] rest in peace where they lie, and let us say Amen'. Bob Hoberman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.022