Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 4.406
May 2, 1995

1) A book on Piotrkow-Trybunalski (Sheine Mankovsky)
2) Cat's cradle (Ellen Prince)
3) More Yiddish idioms with letters (Zellig Bach)
4) Yankev Ovinu the third patriarch (Zellig Bach)
5) Help in finding plays (Barbara Goldstein)
6) Yehuda Elberg in Washington (Arnie Kuzmack)
7) Meyshe Rabeynu's ki'ele (Zellig Bach)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 01 May 95 16:30:58 EST
From: sheine_mankovsky@cclink.metrodesk.metrotor.on.ca
Subject: A book on Piotrkow-Trybunalski

I would like to bring to your attention a book that is now available
gratis to libraries and individual scholars.

The title is "A Tale of One City".  Edited by Ben Giladi, it was
published in hard cover in 1991 by Shengold Publishers in New York.  It
was quite well received.

The volume contains material originally published in the Yizkhor book
produced by the Piotrkover in Israel with contributions made from the
landsleit internationally, together with new material generated for this
book.  While the original contained English, Yiddish, Hebrew, and Polish
writings, this one is entirely in English.

The family of my father, Chaim GoIdstein, was from Piotrkow.

I would urge anyone interested in Jewish in Jewish communal history in
Poland to take Mr. Giladi up on his generous offer.

The Jewish community in Piotrkow-Trybunalski was already hundreds of
years old when the Nazis entered the town, and made it the site of the
first ghetto in Poland.

The history of the Piotrkow community serves as an example of "es brent,
un es brent, un es vert nisht farbrent" in that Ben still publishes a
quarterly Bulletin which provides information and new of interest to
Piotrkover landsleit, their children, and grandchildren all over the
world.

Please contact Ben directly at 263-8158 in New York.  His mailing address
is 135-30  82nd Avenue, Kew Gardens, New York, 11435.  Or contact me and
I will pass your address information to Ben.

Ikh vintsh enk ale kol tuv.

Sheine Mankovsky

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 01 May 1995 21:09:19 EDT
From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu
Subject: Cat's cradle

no, dan, do not assume all mendelniks were too rich to play etl betl! i
played it a lot, always screwing up in exactly the same configuration
(one that made crucial use of the pinkies, as i recall). i even rigged up
a thing from a wire coat hanger once that i could put the configured
string on, so i could play it all by myself. (only child, you see.) i
just have no idea what the name is from. btw, _etl betl_ is what my
parents called it. hilariously, i 'corrected' it to _ethel bethel_! you
see, i had this aunt ethel and they called her _etl_, so i figured they
were just mispronouncing the name of the game in the same way. :)

ellen prince

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 22:21:39 -0400
From: zellig@aol.com
Subject: More Yiddish idioms with letters

Further to my post 4.401,4  herewith two more idiomatic expressions in
which letters of the alefbeys play a part:

1.  "Shtel deroyf tsvey fayen" -- you can place on it two feys (fey = f).
The meaning is:  Forget it, it is unrecoverable (like an old ovrerdue
debt, for instance).

The two feys are a reference to initials, one for the initial of the
prefix "far," the second  for  the  initial  of  the  verb "faln"
(together "farfaln" -- lost, hopeless).

2.  Pasekh shin sha!" -- a code warning not to say a word, not even a
pip, lest a critical or offensive comment be said about a person in his
or her presence.

Sometimes "pasekh shin" alone suffices, without "sha."

Zellig Bach

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 22:23:18 -0400
From: zellig@aol.com
Subject: Yankev Ovinu the third patriarch

In his post "Mu Asapru" (4.388,7) Rick Gildemeister quotes from Moyshe
Oysher's song where the numbers from seven to one are counted and
explained in terms of Jewish religious meanings -- seven for sha'bes and
one, of course, for God.  He cites, in Oysher's pronunciation, "dra zenen
di totis" (three are the fathers), and adds in parentheses:  "Hope I
didn't mess up the number:  Avrom, Yitskhok, un Moyshe?"

I take the question mark as an invitation to answer:  The third of the
three biblical oves (fathers) was Yankev -- yud, ayen, kuf, veys.

Zellig Bach

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 01 May 95 23:05:52 EDT
From: 75317.1404@compuserve.com
Subject: Help in finding plays for teens

I am looking for plays in transliterated Yiddish that teenagers could
perform.  There is a summer teen theater program here in Houston at the
JCC.  A number of us Yiddish enthusiasts in Houston wantto reach young
people and introduce them to a richness of Yiddish culture.  Where could
I find these "playlets"?

Barbara Goldstein

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 May 1995 00:22:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: kuzmack@umbc.edu
Subject: Yehuda Elberg in Washington

Mendelnikes and friends in the Washington area are invited to hear the
noted Yiddish writer, Yehuda Elberg.  He will speak in Yiddish at 4 PM,
Sunday, May 5, at the JCC in Rockville.  Topic: Jewish History vs. Isaac
Bashevis Singer.

The program is presented by the Leivick Forum in observation of the 18th
Yortsayt of Daniel Leivick, the JCC's first Judaic Programs Director and
son of H. Leivick.

Arnie Kuzmack

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 May 1995 10:47:54 -0400
From: zellig@aol.com
Subject: Meyshe Rabeynu's ki'ele

A ladybug is called in Yiddish "meishe Rabeynu's ki'ele" -- the little
cow of Moses our Teacher, also "dos meshi'ekl" -- the little messiah.

Could anyone explain the origins of the two names?

Jewish children from the shtetlekh rarely ventured into the fields where
they would encounter ladybugs.  The only exceptional day for a nature
outing by kheyder boys was lag be'oymer, the 33rd day of the counting of
the oymer, when they would go forth into the fields with bows, arrows,
and wooden swords, playing "soldiers" in Bar Kokhba's army during his
revolt against the Roman oppressors.

Is it possible that there is some connection with the holiday Shvu'es
(Weeks), celebrating God's granting of the toyre to the Jews through His
elected messenger Meyshe Rabeynu?

But Shvu'es was still more than two weeks away from lag boymer, why
"meyshe rabeynu's ki'ele"?

Zellig Bach

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