Philologos
By Philologos
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News Uncle Morris’s Yiddish Handwriting
An unusual request comes from Rabbi Philip Bentley of Agudas Israel Congregation in Hendersonville, N.C. Rabbi Bentley has sent me the following photocopy of some writing in Hebrew characters, with a signature in English at the bottom: Accompanying this photocopy is a note: [note: photo removed] “A non-Jew in the town where I serve as…
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News Martial Arts in Yiddish
Sherry Leffert from Cambridge, Mass., writes: “I have been a Tai Chi student, and my husband and I were wondering how the martial arts terms would be translated into Yiddish. We thought of ‘zetz,’ ‘frosk,’ ‘patsh’ ‘klop,’ ‘shtrokh,’ ‘shlug,’ and ‘hock.’ Can you think of any others? Are there distinctions between these terms? Please enlighten…
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News First-born Sons And Feminine Plural Endings
Forward reader Leon Chameides has been, so he writes, “troubled since Passover,” which is indeed a long time to be troubled. What is bothering him is “the grammatical construction of the tenth plague.” Why, Mr. Chameides wishes to know, is this plague known in Jewish tradition as makat bekhorot, “the plague of the first-born sons…
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News Pipe Dreams
Jonathan Levine writes from Ann Arbor, Mich., to inquire: “What is the origin of the Hebrew expression h.alomot be’espamya, or ‘pipe dreams’? My dictionary lists aspamya as a synonym for sefarad, i.e., Spain, which I suppose is easily decodable as a slight mispronunciation of España. But why ‘dreams in Spain’?” h.alomot be’espanya, or “dreams in…
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News The Sandak and the Kvater
Bert Brodetsky writes to ask: “Sandak and kvater — fun vanet kumt es?” Or to put this — more or less — into English: “The sandak and the kvater — where does it all come from?” That still leaves us with two non-English words, both having to do with the rite of circumcision. Sandak is…
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Culture Magen David: Shield or Star?
Chalk up a victory for the Star of David — or, as it is called in Hebrew, the magen David or “Shield of David.” Long boycotted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which refused to grant Israel’s “Red Shield of David” organization membership in its ranks because it did not recognize the medical…
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News That’s Where the Dog Lies Buried
Reader Hillel Bick queries, “Could you please comment on the derivation of the Yiddish expression ‘Do ligt der hunt bagrobn’”? Literally this means, “That’s where the dog lies buried.” Its actual sense, however, is something like, “That’s what lies behind it” or, “So that’s it.” Generally speaking, it’s an expression used more for negative situations…
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Culture What’s in This Name?
Paul Baron writes in an e-mail: “Ikh bin a higer geborener un ikh bin fier un akhtzig yor alt. [I was born in this country and I’m 84 years old.] My father came from what is now Lithuania. He told me that his father, my grandfather, was a shafer (with the ‘a’ pronounced ‘ah’) and…
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