THE DETROIT AWISH NEWS Start Worrying: Details To Follow That old definition of a Jewish telegram still holds true. For Jews, good news is to be treated with suspi- cion, and worrying is a way of life. BY HAROLD M. SCHULWEIS Contributing Editor Every family transmits to its constituents a special wisdom of its own. Growing up in my home, the wisdom imparted warned against good news. Good news was to be treated with suspicion. Praises, compliments, aug- uries of goad times were rarely expressed and those that escaped the censor were quickly repressed. Discus- sions around anticipated joys threatened to unleash dan- gerous demons, and were ap- propriately countered by kein ayin hara (against the evil eye), expressed verbally with an aspirated "tu, tu, tu. " We were taught not to rejoice too soon or over much. Without articulating any formed the- ology, we children sensed that there was something hovering about that sought to disturb the joy (farshtern di simchah). In joys there dwelt an uncanny premoni- tion of danger. A glass shat- tered was greeted by a "ma- zer tov" as if to satisfy the Friday, August 9, 1985 25 uncanny disturber who looks for fragile objects. In my home, worrying was a lifestyle. If things were good today, tomorrow they would likely be worse. Even in the ordinary responses to the conventional greeting "how are you?" tentativeness and caution were felt. One answered, nisht shlect (not bad), not "good" or "fine" or "excellent." My father's answer, however his condi- tion, was invariably ex- pressed in global terms: A yid mutshet zich (a Jew suffers) or shyer zu zein a yid (hard to be a Jew). At first I thought this at- titude was a family idiosyn- crasy, but later I discovered that it was far from uncom- mon. Kein ayin hara was a folk theology centered around two implicit beliefs: A) The world is a dangerous place to live, especially for Jews, and B) However fortunate the Jewish condition, sooner or Continued on next page