Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.395
April 21, 1995

1) Leyvik's 1957 speech/essay (Andrew Sunshine)
2) Sholem-Shakhne (Dovid Braun)
3) Hagode songs (Hershl Hartman)
4) Hagode songs (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan)
5) Pesakh songs (Sheldon Benjamin)
6) History of Yiddish secular schools (Hershl Hartman)
7) Petimeti (Sholom Pearlman)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 11:21:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: als55@columbia.edu
Subject: Leyvik's 1957 speech/essay

> The essay begins by stating that the author is now 70 years old, and
> looks back on a day when he was 7 during which four traumatic and
> formative things happened to him: He is hit by a brutish Pole in front of
> a church, he learns in heder about the akedah, he sees a madman, and he
> wounds his tongue on a frozen pipe.
>
> Does this ring any bells for anyone?

No, but it sounds like a promising beginning.

Andrew Sunshine

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 12:24:54 EDT
From: dovid@mit.edu
Subject: Yiddish/Hebrew personal names: sholem-shakhne

Back to the subject of Yiddish/Hebrew first names and pairings thereof,
any reason for the pairing _sholem-shakhne_?

Dovid Braun

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 13:56:00 -0400
From: hershl@aol.com
Subject: Hagode songs

dos lid "khad gadyo" iz a dikhtung fun Y. L. Peretz, loyt dem bukh
"lomeer kinder zingen." The Yiddish poem based on khad gadyo posted by
Marcia Gruss Levinsohn is attributed to Y. L. Peretz in the spiral-bound
book, "Lomeer Kinder Zingen," ("Let's Sing a Yiddish Song"), published
(1970) by Kinderbuch Publications, 1133 Broadway, NY, NY 10010. It
appears (pp. 86-87) in Yiddish, English transliteration and non-singable
translation with musical notation attributed to L. Lukowsky.

Hershl Hartman

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 15:29:08 -0400
From: shirshan@aol.com
Subject: Hagode songs

For Mikhl Herzog:

The Workmen's Circle seder Hagode is rich with Yiddish songs about
Peysakh happenings. In Yiddish translation, from the traditional Hagode
was Dayenu:

Voltn mir nor fun Mitsrayim
Gliklekh oisgeleyzt gevorn
Nor der yam zikh nit geshpoltn - Dayenu.

Volt der yam zikh shoyn geshpoltn
Nor im durkhgeyn in der trukn,
Volt undz demolt nit gegoltn - Dayenu.

Voltn mir im shoyn ariber
Nit gekent nor iberkumen,
Fertsik yor in groysn midber - Dayenu.

Voltn mir di fertsik yor shoyn
In dem midber durkhgekumen
Un keyn man dort nit gefunen - Dayenu.

Voltn mir dort man gefunen,
Nor dem shabes nit bakumen,
Un tsum Sinay nit gekumen - Dayenu.

Voltn mir tsum Sinay kumen,
Nor di toyre nit bakumen,
S'folk fun toyre nit gevorn - Dayenu.

Back in the late '30s in East Flatbush elementar shul, I remember the
first stanza we used to sing was:

Volt Yekheved nisht gevezn
Volt kayn Moishe nisht gevezn
Voltn Yidn knekht gevezn - Dayenu.

(Even Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem would tap-dance to that one,
today)

Gut Yontef,

Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan
Boynton Beach, Florida

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 23:37:55 EDT
From: sbenj@mit.edu
Subject: Pesakh Songs

Here's an odd little Pesakh song fragment my Bubbe used to sing:

Pesakh tsum seder bin ikh frelakh
Mayn vayb a malka, un ikh a meylakh
Mayn zun, di natsleznik, in a kurtse irmak
Un mir tantsn a hopak.

Shrayen shray ikh mit mayn gorgl
Zingn zing ikh vi an (? orgl)
Dray'n dray ikh vi a rak
Un mir gayen a hopak.

Mayn vayb is a sheyne, a glater
Fun kop biskl pyater
Koshere kinder ?  ?   ?
Heyle pupkes oys geshtelt.

I believe the tune to be a version of the hopak.  The above is from
memory. I would have to listen to the tape to glean any other words.

Sheldon Benjamin
Newton, Mass.

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 13:56:04 -0400
From: hershl@aol.com
Subject: History of Yiddish secular schools

I am preparing a brief overview paper on the history of secular Jewish
schools in North America for presentation at the forthcoming 25th
anniversary conference of the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations,
Concordia University, River Forest, IL, May 26-29. I will welcome
materials, references, sources and tips of all sorts. A groysn un a
sheynem dank aykh alemen in faroys.

Hershl Hartman

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 17:50:21 -0600 (MDT)
From: pearlmas@essex.hsc.colorado.edu
Subject: Petimeti

Re Dovid Braun's query (31 March) on the origin of "peti-meti", which
occurs is Sholem Aleykhem's works as a slang term for "money", the
following may be totally irrelevant but is offered for what it's worth.

"Pentimenti" is used in reference to paintings, to denote the presence or
emergence of earlier images, forms or strokes that have been changed or
painted over.  Revelations of this kind may sometimes greatly enhance the
value of an important work.  An imaginative dialectician might connect
such pentimentic enhancement with the potential for getting more money
unexpectedly. (That might be "stretching" a bit too far!)

In French, "petit-maitre" refers to a "dandy"  who dresses lavishly in
the latest or most "in-vogue" styles, perpetuating  an impression of
grandeur or, at the least, conspicuity.  One would need a good deal of
money to live up to a petit-maitre's expected standard, and perhaps the
dialectical connection in this case might be a little less implausible.

As I'm sure you would agree, I would prefer a more direct path to the
origin of "peti-meti" in Sholem-Aleykhem's time.  I hope you get better
responses than this one to your very interesting question, Chaver Braun.

Sholom Pearlman (Sholem b'reb Menachem-Mendel)
Denver, Colorado

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