Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.281
January 17, 1995

1) Introduction/ The Yiddish of Hasidim (Eliyahu Juni)
2) Hasidim/Khasidim and Yiddish (Mikhl Herzog)
3) Cuckoo, Hasidic Yiddish (Leah Zazulyer)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 01:41:49 -0500 (EST)
From: ao107@freenet.carleton.ca
Subject: Introduction/ The Yiddish of Hasidim

I'm new to Mendele--I've only been around for a week or so--but I'm about
to throw my tsvei groshn's worth into the arena, so I figure I should
introduce myself first.

I'm a 21-year-old Orthodox student, taking Philosophy and Linguistics at
the University of Toronto.  I'm not really fluent in Yiddish, but I'm
close enough to understand most everyday spoken Yiddish, and I can force
my way (slowly) through a newspaper with some help.  The Yiddish that I
do know I picked up mostly from a whole bunch of family members
(including my parents and grandparents) who are native speakers, and with
whom I've spent a lot of time speaking Yiddish over the last 5 years or
so.  I've also spent a considerable amount of time in (litvishe) yeshives
and in chassidishe shtiblach and hoyfn where Yiddish is spoken often or
always.

Which brings me to the topic upon which I wish to hold forth:  the use of
Yiddish by contemporary chassidim, brought up by Henry Mullish and Martin
Davis in Mendele no. 4.279.  I am responding on the basis of my
first-hand exposure to many different chassidim, in many different
communities;  I've never done any systematic or scientific research on
the issue.

If chassidim really intended their use of Yiddish as a shield to "protect
their young from the temptations of the modern world," then they'd be
failing miserably.  Practically all Yiddish-speaking chassidim are more
fluent and comfortable in the local language (English in America, Hebrew
in Israel) than they are in Yiddish.  (Most of the exceptions are older
chassidim who grew up in pre-war Europe speaking only Yiddish, and for
whom the local language is a second or third language.)

Indeed, the Yiddish spoken by most chassidim today is so replete with
borrowings, (whether in terms of individual words, morphology [word
structure], or syntax,) that one who is not familiar with the local
language could not possibly understand it.

(If anyone out there is doubtful, I suggest obtaining a copy of Satmer's
weekly "Der Yid" and counting the proportion of loan-words in their
classified ads.)

I think that those chassidim who make an effort to perpetuate the use of
Yiddish do so for other reasons:

a)  Doing as previous Rebbes/generations did--among most chassidim, there
is a desire to do exactly as previous Rebbes (or previous generations of
chassidim) did, not only WRT language, but also dress, food, music,
mannerisms, and just about anything and everything else one could
mention--chassidim usually have their eyes on the past.

b)  As part of an attempt to re-create/re-live/perpetuate an idealized
image of the society of pre-war Europe, where all the Jews were pious,
G-d-fearing chassidim who spent their entire lives "in lern'n" (learning
Toireh) and doing mitsves.  [This is related to (a), but not quite the
same].

c)  As a rejection of and attempt to overcome what is perceived as the
moderne/Tsiyoinistishe/freie/maskilishe attempt to do away with
traditional Eastern European religious culture and values, whose language
was Yiddish, and replace it with a modern, secular Israeli culture whose
language is Hebrew.

     ["Moderne," "Tsiyoinistishe," "freie," and "maskilishe" have
     strongly pejorative connotations among most or all chassidim.]

d)  In Israel--because of a reluctance to use the Holy Tongue--the local
Hebrew--for everyday matters, on religious grounds, Yiddish is used for
anything other than Toireh.

(All of these apply as well to certain parts of the non-chassidishe
'ultra-Orthodox' community, usually to a lesser degree.)

The desire to "protect their young from the temptations of the modern
world" is real, and a serious issue for many Orthodox Jews, including
most chassidim.  But the means employed by chassidim to protect their
children are usually social--restrictions on education, socializing,
jobs, exposure to external media (regardless of language--the Forverts is
as treyf as the NY Times, if not worse,) the formation of closed, close-
knit neighbourhoods or towns, etc.  This attempt to seclude oneself from
the world 'out there' is common to chassidim who speak Yiddish and
chassidim who don't.  The common language can help cement this sense of
community and keep "their young" (what are we talking about, wolves?)
within the fold, but the use of Yiddish does not originate in a focus
forward on the dangers facing the next generation, but in a focus
backward on the history of previous generations.

Hailblum writes that "the Yiddish world that I loved, that was aboil with
artistic and social ferment, that world is truly gone."  Chassidim (and
others) reject that world, on ideological grounds.  It was always treyf
for them, and they have no desire to perpetuate it or preserve it. They
use Yiddish for their own objectives and their own society, for purposes
both secular and religious (especially those whose use of Yiddish stems
from the fourth reason cited above,) and avoid secularism, irrespective
of language.  The Yiddish world of haskoleh has disappeared not because
the only remaining community of Yiddish-speakers has rejected it, but
because those who have an interest in it--secularist Jews--have
transferred it to other languages.

One last gripe:

"It is as if the Amish were the sole surviving English speakers."

The tone of that comment makes it sound (to me) like a gratuitous
sideswipe at both Chassidim and the Amish.  Anyone else think so too, or
am I reading too much ts'vishn di shures?

Eliyahu Juni

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 95  17:31 EST
From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu
Subject: Hasidim/Khasidim and Yiddish

On the subject itself, it may be worth citing a passage from Joshua
Fishman's monograph _Yiddish in America_ (1965: 62.):

"Hasidim have typically referred to Yiddish as the protective cover
(_mentele_) for the law (_Torah_). 'Due to the holiness of the Torah, the
mentele, too, absorbs some holiness within itself'. From its earliest
18th century days as a form of folk- piety in protest against, or at
least in contrast to, dour and scholarly Talmudism, Hasidism and Yiddish
have been emotionally and functionally interrelated. Hasidim have been
the only Orthodox group to go even ever so slightly beyond the usual
orthodox view of Yiddish as a "key", since Yiddish Hasidic tales and
Yiddish Hasidic songs are among the fundamental treasures of Hasidism.
_nevertheless_ [emphasis added, MH], it must be realized that Hasidim lack
a fully conscientious or ideological approach to the language; nor do
they they value the development of literature, poetry and other areas of
modern language usage. For them, Yiddish is a part of a separate, Hasidic
life. This may be a simple, primitive approach. On the other hand, it
guarantees a vernacular existence for Yiddish that it may well lack in
more accomplished circles."

To this I would add the following from earlier years of working with the
Columbia-YIVO intensive summer language program. (Perhaps Jeffrey Salant
can provide an update). Over the years, we enrolled a goodly number of
young adult students from various Hasidic communities. Some may have
been _baley-tshuve_; some I know to have been young women aspiring to
teach in a Hasidic school in Brooklyn; one was a case of a young Jewish
woman from North Africa who was marrying into the Hasidic community.
Usually (perhaps in every case), there were certain provisos attached to
their enrollment: they wouldn't be required to stay in class during the
reading of literature (_bitl-toyre_!!),  and the men would leave the room
during singing (_kol isha_).

In this light, how does the piece in the Times measure up?

Mikhl Herzog

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 16:18:32 -0500 (EST)
From: watson@uno.cc.geneseo.edu
Subject: Jewish lore on cuckoo bird/Availability of Hasidic Yiddish texts

Two questions:

l.  Please advise of Jewish lore on the cuckoo bird.  I already know that
there is lore about foretelling--death, love, etc.  But only in general.

2.  Please advise about where and how to obtain copies of Yiddish
teaching texts the Hasidic use for reading, etc. instruction.

Thanks,

Leah Zazulyer

______________________________________________________
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