| בּס"ד |
| A friend took me to
task for calling this the Kosher Yiddish
website. He
compared my using the name Kosher Yiddish
to the fraudulent
behavior of a pig. The Talmud
cites the example of how a pig presents a kosher facade by showing its
feet -- as if to say, "Look, I have split hooves, just like a kosher
animal should!" But really he is UN-Kosher! כי
חזיר פושט את טלפיו ואומר: טהור אני
My friend said that I, like the pig, entice people with the title Kosher Yiddish, and then deceive them by presenting on this site all kinds of "unkosher" material -- off-color and obscene words and expressions, and Yiddish dirty jokes. I'm afraid that my friend is right. But, in presenting this "unkosher" material, I felt that knowledge of this material is necessary, if not invaluable, for understanding Yiddish literature, as well as for fully understanding life in the Yiddish-speaking pre-war shtetl. I am not advocating that people should actually use these obscene Yiddish expressions! They should just know them. Still, if you are mortally offended by such material, then perhaps it's best that you NOT visit this website. |
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My Yiddish-Language Background I am not a trained linguist, nor am I a professional student nor researcher of the Yiddish language. I did, however, study for a while in the 1960's under some great Yiddish scholars at the Yidisher Lerer Seminar (Jewish Teachers' Seminary and People's University) in New York. These included (as best I now remember): Zalman Yefroikin, Itzhak Charlash (Yitskhok Kharlash), Kh. Sh. Kazdan (Kazhdan), Dr. Shlomo Nobel, Yekhezkel Lifshitz, Hymen Bass (Khayim Bez), Dr. Shlomo Bikl, Leybush Lehrer, et al (as well as Cantor David Koussevitzky and Composer and Choral Director Sholem Secunda). Although not a scholar, I have still been endowed by our Creator with a certain measure of linguistic talent. This is especially true with respect to Yiddish. [Y'hal'lukho zorim (andere zoln dir leybn), v'loy -- un tomer nit -- pi-kho (zol dir leybn di eygene muyl).] In addition, during the course of my sixty-odd years on this planet, I have had many close and long-lasting personal relationships with European-born native speakers of Yiddish. From these relationships I have gleaned a thorough exposure to the day-to-day spoken Yiddish language. Among these native Yiddish speakers were many rabbis -- including HoRav Ephraim Oshry זצ"ל, and rebbeyim (teachers in yeshivas), skilled workers (baal-meloches) such as my dearest friend and distant cousin Naftali Lewin (Levine) ע"ה (this link has photos of me and Naftali), other European-born cousins of mine, Jewish landlords, and ordinary European-born Jews (stam folks-mentshn). My own late father z"l was European-born, and spoke a rich and scholarly Yiddish. Before coming to America in 1926, he used to contribute feuilletons (human-interest stories) to European Yiddish periodicals. My Criticism of the "Vaynraykhistn"
Because of my extensive exposure to Yiddish, and thanks to my keen innate Yiddish linguistic skills, I have developed a hypersensitivity to unauthentic Yiddish words, as well as to illogical and tasteless Yiddish neologisms. I can smell these "rats" a mile away, and will atttempt to expose them here on this website. Again, this is probably the only website in existence that confronts the issue of unauthentic Yiddish words and illogical and tasteless Yiddish neologisms. In connection with this, I have on this website written essays that castigate the Weinreich Dictionary and what I deem the "Vaynraykhistn" (the "Yiddish Establishment"). Additionally, I condemn YIVO's rules for spelling Yiddish. Needless to say, for this I have been sharply criticized. Irate visitors to this website have taken strong umbrage at my attacks on the Weinreich Dictionary and on the "Yiddish Establishment" (which I used to call the "Yiddish Mafia)." Admittedly, much of what I write on this website is in poor taste, and void of tact and discretion. Nevertheless, I'm still waiting for someone to present evidence that anything that I have written on this website is factually untrue or materially inaccurate. I avidly welcome such submissions, which can be emailed to jialpert (at) bellatlantic (dot) net. |
| Traditional
Torah Jews have
always viewed with a skeptical
eye
anybody
who purports to present his own
original thoughts (eyner
vos zogt
eygene Toyre). Unless
someone is himself an unusually gifted scholar, he might do better just
quoting and analyzing words of wisdom uttered by other scholars --
especially
scholars of preceding generations. The above skeptical attititude is in keeping with the classic Jewish principle of Niskatnu HaDoyroys (Nitkat'nu HaDorot) -- the ongoing process of diminution in stature of each succeeding generation. (This is why in the Talmud an Amorah - who is of a later generation, cannot controvert the words of a Tanah - who is of a preceding generation.) For a fascinating treatise on this subject, click here. In keeping with this tradition, and acknowledging that I am far from being a scholar, I have avoided on this website spouting too many original thoughts. Ich zog veynik "eygene" Toyre. Rather, I focus mainly on presenting the reader with knowledge and wisdom that I have gleaned from great scholars of many generations. I do present some of my own original translations of great Yiddish literature -- translations that are not available anywhere else on the Web. However, these are, of course, not original thoughts, but rather -- translated thoughts. |