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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, December 10, 1982 85
Leo Rosten Treats Language Very Philosophically
While His Book Is Acclaiming liooray for Yiddish'
Leo Rosten elevates Yid-
dish to a high role linguisti-
cally. He keeps glorifying
the language of the Jewish
masses in the Diaspora, and
in the process he has created
an urge for people of all
faiths and national back-
grounds to attain a meas-
ure of knowledge about the
language, especially in view
of the many words that have
crept into English, creating
the Yinglish that has be-
come beloved in many quar-
ters.
His earlier works are al-
ready lexicons of Yiddish
humor. His latest, "Hooray
for Yiddish" (Simon and
Schuster), subtitled "A
Book About English," in-
troduces Leo Rosten, the
philosopher about lan-
guage.
Because his book is the
emphasis on "Yinglish,"
and is filled with anecdotes,
his definition of a joke
merits sharing:
"Humor is the affec-
tionate communication
of insight. I feel no shame
in using jokes, anecdotes
or stories to illustrate the
meaning of the word or to
convey the bouquet of a
phrasing. This is, of
course, unorthodox
lexicography, but it
seems to me unexcelled
for pedagogical power.
"A joke is an art form, a
very swift, very short short
story. It is a structured nar-
rative, designed to make a
point with force. That force -
is intensified by the comic
ingredient of surprise.
"The Jewish joke has
revolutionized the humor,
wit and repartee in the mass
media (many examples
garnish the pages of my
text). Jewish humor has its
own special characteristics;
it is shot through with moc-
kery and paradox. Since the
culture of th-e -Jews exalts
reason, no less than faith, it
is not surprising that so
much Jewish wit hinges on
logic to celebrate illogic. A
liberating kind of lunacy
dances through Jewish
jokes." -
"Hooray for Yiddish" in
its entirety earns the defini-
tion provided for it by the
author. Thus, Rosten ex-
plains:
" 'The Joys of Yiddish'
was an unabashedly per-
sonal lexicon of words
from Yiddish that are
often heard or read in_
English. Their number
has grown — enormously
— since we last met.
"In the book you now hold
in your hands, I cast my net
considerably further. This
work contains:
"1. Yiddish words that
have won acceptance in
English dictionaries: the
brazen chutzpa, the intrepid
kibitzer, the skulking gonef
(and so on).
"2. Hybrids, formed out
of English, that have been
taken to the bosom of
Americans: alrightnik,
fancy-shmancy,
crazy-
doctor.
"3. Phrasings and syn-
tax, indigenous to Yid- had been purposely de-
dish, which are racing tained, and the allotted
through spoken English: time having expired, they
Enjoy. Big deal. Get lost! were reduced to slavery and
Smart, he isn't. Could be. baptized by force. A great
"4. Mama-loshn clamor- peal of rejoicing filled the
ing at Webster's gates: the Peninsula, and proclaimed
endearing bubeleh, the pic- that the triumph of the
turesque shlep, the all- Spanish priests was com-
purpose shtik.
plete.' "
"5. Entirely new words,
Often, there are corr-
not minted of English ele- uptions in the use of He-
ments, for which there sim- brew terms. This be-
ply are no Anglo-Saxon comes apparent in the
competitors: shmegegge, interpretive in Rosten's
doppess, ipsy-pipsy, etc.
treatment of Alav Ha-
"6. Yinglish expressions, Sholem:
sui generis, that I recom-
"alav ha-sholem (m.)
mend for admission into the
olav a shol'm
ranks of colloquial (at least) (standard)
English: the sardonic Go
aleha ha-sholem (f.)
know, the raffish gefutzevit,
aleyhem ha-sholem
the delicious tsatske, the (pl.)
unspeakable paskudnyak."
alavasholem
Linguists generaly will
"Hebrew, often heard in
be enchanted by the Rosten Yinglish. Rhymes with
comments on language, and `olive-a roll 'em.' The two
the special references in the words for the masculine are
discussion of Yiddish to th'e pronounced as if one, usu-
Hebrew upon which Yid- ally, dropping the h sound.
dish leans so much.
Pronounce the feminine
Therefore the philosophi- form ah-LEY-a ha-SHO-
cal and linguistic also deals lem (Yiddish) or sha-LOAM
with some historic aspects, (Hebrew).
as it becomes apparent in
"1. "Literally: Unto him
Rosten's definition of Dias- (her), peace.
pora:
"2. May he (she) rest in
"From Greek: diaspora: peace.
scattering. The Hebrew
"This invocation is
equivalent is galuth: exile; obligatory whenever you
the Yiddish is golus.
mention someone who is
"The dispersion of Jews no longer breathing. The
around the world.
English equivalent, of
COLUMBUS' course, is 'May he (she)
"See
MEDINA.
rest in peace.'
"Among the descrip-
"Whenever you hear, say,
tions of ghastly episodes `My Tante Bessie, aleha
in the Diaspora, I give ha-sholem . . ! it would be
you W.E.H. Lecky's mas- scandalous to ask, 'And how
terful and restrained ac- is your Aunt Bessie?'
count of one occurrence
"When I was growing up,
in the 15th Century:
I was puzzled by the nega-
" 'History relates very few tive embroidery which
measures that produced so blithely surrounded
vast an amount of calamity. alavasholem: e.g., 'Charley?
In three short months, all That no-good! That liar!
unconverted Jews were ob- That plosher, alavasholem
liged, under pain of death,
to abandon the Spanish soil.
"In time I learned the
Multitudes, falling into the emotional acrobatics. Those
hands of the pirates who named are dead, and one
swarmed around the coast, must wish the dead well.
were plundered of all they The proforma invocation of
possessed and reduced to kindness is a ritual, and
slavery; multitudes died of rituals offer sanctioned out-
famine or of plague, or were lets for the discharge of
murdered or tortured with warring emotions. The
horrible cruelty by the Afri- obligatory reduces anxiety
can savages.
by eliminating choices. In
" 'About 80,000 (Jews) this way one can rage, 'That
took refuge in Portugal, re- s.o.b. should only fry in
lying on the promise of the hell,' adding the immediate,
king. Spanish priests lashed petitionary alav ha-sholem
the Portuguese into fury, to assuage conscience. In-
and the king was persuaded voking the deity's mercy
to issue an edict' which takes the edge off maledic-
threw even that of Isabella tion — after hostility has
into the shade. All the adult been healthily vented.
Jews were banished from
* * *
Portugal; but first all their
"A
bearded
sage once
children below the age of 14
were taken from them to be patted my head when I
educated as Christians. was 10 and said, smiling,
Then, indeed, the cup of bit- `You're a nice boy. You
terness was filled to the should live to be 121!'
"I told this to my father,
brim. The serene fortitude
with which the exiled alav ha-sholem, who ex-
people had borne so many plained: 'Moses is supposed
and such grevious to have lived until 120.'
" 'Oh — but why did_the
calamities gave way, and
old
man say 121?'
was replaced by the wildest
"My father chuckled,
paroxysms of despair.
" 'When at last, childless `Maybe he didn't want you
and broken-hearted, they to die suddenly.'
* * *
sought to leave the land,
"Even alav ha-sholem is
they found that the ships
used by Jews for comic ef-
fect. Thus: 'I have a doctor, a
regular genius. Such impor-
tant patients! For instance:
Samson Rothschild, alav
ha-sholem; Lena Buchholz,
aleha ha-sholem; • Professor
and Mrs. Mintzhoff,
aleyhem ha-sholem ' "
Perhaps there is a future
in Yinglishism for a com-
mon Kabtsen. This is Ros-
ten's treatment of this char-
acter:
"kabtsen
kabts'n (standard)
kabtsonim (pl.)
"Rhyme this with 'Hob-
son' or 'Hopson.' From He-
brew: kabotz: to collect.
"1. A poor man.
"2. A ne'er-do-well.
"3. A cheapskate; a
stingy person.
"I recommend kabtsen for
Yinglish: uses 2 and 3 con-
tain a quality of moral
judgment that is -lacking in
the English 'pauper.' I mean
that kabtsen! is a sneer, an
epithet, directed against a
man or woman not because
he or she is impecunious, but
because he or she is stingy:
'That kabtsen! The last time
he picked up a restaurant
sheck was — does anyone
remember when he picked
up a check?'
* * *
"The elders decided to
give Yissel the Kabtsen
a face-saving job. `Yissel, we
will pay you a ruble a day.
Sit on the hill outside our
shtetl every day, from dawn
to sunset.'
" 'Wh—what do you want
me to do?'
" 'We want you to be our
lookout — for the approach
of the Meshiakh (Messiah).'
" `Pssh!' cried the kabtsen,
slapping himself on the
cheek. "The Meshiakh —
and if I see him coming,
what should I do?'
" 'When you see him you
run back to the shtetl as fast
as you can, shouting the
Meshiakh! He is coming!'
"Yissel's face lighted up
just thinking of the glory .. .
"One day, a year later, a
traveler approached the lit-
tle village and noticed a fig-
ure sitting on a hill. Sholem
called the
aleichem,,'
traveler. 'What are you
doing on this hill'
" 'I am waiting for the
Meshiakh. It!s my job. I sit
here every day.'
"The traveler suppressed
a smile.
"Confidentially, how do
you like this job.'
" `Sssh!' Yissel looked ab-
out. 'It doesn't pay much,
but I think it's steady.' "
For the observant, there
is special interest in Dave-
nen, worshipping. Here is
the daven as defined by Ros-
ten:
"daven
"davenen
"Pronounce it DAH-
ven and DAHV-nen. Origin:
uncertain.
"To pray.
"One of the surprising
things about daven is that
no other Hebrew or Yiddish
word exists from the same
denotation. The nearest CI prayer (mayrev) by heart.
shall pray') means to pray But I have a solution, Al-
for someone else. But how mighty One, and I hope it
can you do someone else's meets with Your approval: I
will just call out all the let-
praying for him?
"Maurice Samuel, in his ters in the alphabet, and
elegant 7n Praise of Yid- You, please,- put them to-
dish,' confesses that the gether in the right way.'
* * *
etymology of davenen (`to
pray') remains a mystery. It
"Oh Lord of the Universe:
is neither Hebraic nor Ro- please take a real look at
mance; and it has a Ger- Your world!
manic suffix (nen). Davenen
"When I pray, I pray
has even been traced, rather quickly, because I am
fancifully, to the Persian talking to God: but when
divan: a collection of poetry. I read the Torah, I read
But Max Weinrich flatly de- slowly, because God is
clares, after examination of talking to me.
several
"If praying did any good,
"pseudoetymologies," that they would hire men to do
daven is of uncertain origin. it." — Folk sayings. •
('History of the Yiddish
"Prayer is the service of
Language,' page 680.) I the heart." — Talmud:
would be the last man on Ta'anith, 2:1.
earth to argue with him.
"Even when the gates of
"An excellent, Heaven are closed to prayer,
authoritative guide to all they are open to tears." —
aspects of Jewish prayer Talmud: Berakoth, 32a.
is Hayim H. Donin's To
"Pray only in a room with
Pray as a Jew' (Basic).
windows (to remember the
* * *
world outside). — Talmud:
"My mother told me a Berakoth, 34b.
"I love to pray at sun-
story, when I was very
young, that has never left rise — before the world
becomes polluted with
my memory:
"An old Jew found him- vanity and hatred." —
self in a strange place, and The Koretser Rabbi. ---
That's how Leo Rosten in-
when it was time for him to
say mayrev he found that he forms and entertains at the
had lost his prayer book. So same time. He is the histo-
he addressed the Lord: rian and linguist — and
`Dear, sweet God, I have bad the approaches are
news for You. I don't have philosophical. All combine
my prayer book. Even to make his "Hooray for
worse, I am getting old and Yiddish" another great
forgetful, and. I never had book enhancing the grow-
much of a memory, so I can- ing Rosten bookshelf.
—P.S.
not recite the evening
are house calls
a thing of
the past??
OF COURSE NOT!
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