Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.108 September 22, 1993 1) From the shames (Noyekh Miller) 2) Shas (Pe'rets Mett, Rick Turkel, Bob Werman) 3) Mayse (Martin Davis) 4) Yontif (Harold L. Orbach) 5) Shmontses (Mikhl Herzog) 6) Mazal tov (Zev Bar-lev) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Sep 22 1993 From: nmiller@dot.trincoll.edu Subject: A brief announcement As most of you know, Mendele is being edited from a distance: since I live in Brookline, I use a local computer in order to log onto the one at Trinity. This makes things a lot slower. I've therefore asked subscribers to remember to sign their posts (almost all do) and to provide a suitable subject line (most do). Hitherto I've gone to the trouble of writing subscribers for the missing line. No longer. Starting with the next issue of Mendele, if you find your post missing it's because it's been deleted for lack of a subject line. Finally, there are a handful of subscribers whose home computers for one reason or another make it impossible for them to "reply" to a post. I've explained this repeatedly and have offered a very simple remedy. Their posts, which now wind up in my error box, will from now on be deleted as well. Gmar ch'sime toyve Noyekh 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Sep 22 12:43:51 1993 From: P.Mett@open.ac.uk (Percy Mett) Subject: shas Edward Portnoy shraybt (Mendele Vol. 3.107): >Recently, I was reading Bashevis and came across the acronym "Shas" >(shin"samekh). I've seen this before and know that it refers to the >Talmud, but I'd like to know what two words (or more) the acronym >stands for. Sha"s is roshey-teyves (abbreviation) for :shisho sedorim: in loshn-koydesh. It referred originally to the six 'orders' into which the 63 mesekhtes (volumes) of the mishne are divided but subsequently came to be the preferred alternative for the Talmud. (The latter term would appear, on the basis of some evidence I have seen, to have been excised by the censors - but it is not clear to me why.) pe'rets mett Date: Wed Sep 22 12:29:01 1993 From: rmt51@cas.org Subject: Shas Edward Portnoy asks in mendele 3.107 about the abbreviation 'sha"s,' meaning the Talmud. It means 'shisha sidarim,' the six orders of the Mishna, the underlying structure of the Talmud. When in doubt on something like this, a good first approach is a Hebrew dictionary. G'mar khasima tova, un a laykhten tonis alemen. Rick Turkel Date: Wed Sep 22 13:45:23 1993 From: RWERMAN%HUJIVMS.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Shas Shas, shishe s'dorim of the mishne, six orders. __Bob Werman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Sep 22 12:44:40 1993 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu (Martin Davis) Subject: mayse My parents (Lodz) said manse. Comments? Martin Davis 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Sep 22 15:06:25 1993 From: Harold L. Orbach Subject: Regarding yontif Like Bob Werman, yontif was the way I always heard it and pronounced it. From whence I assume came the "joke" (told me by a Chicagoan years ago) about what Cohen said to the Pope at Pesach: "Gut yontif Pontif." Harold L. Orbach 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Sep 22 16:13:53 1993 From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: Shmontses If "shmontses" is, indeed, related to "shmuesn", it's another instance of the nasalization of "ayin". Mikhl Herzog. 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Sep 22 16:18:32 1993 From: zbarlev@zeus.sdsu.edu Subject: on 'mazal tov' for "good luck" the old berlitz-series hebrew was apparently churned out like other languages in the series, the book being entirely written, apparently, except for the specific language to be filled in, sentence by sentence, including the introduction: it wished the new learner "mazal tov" as he/she was about to move to the first lesson -- immediately explaining, however, that "mazal tov" does NOT mean "good luck". Zev bar-Lev ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.108