FROM SLUMBER PARTIES
Sweet And Meager Calories
Can you think of anything more tempting to put in your coffee?
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ca" the other evening, and while I
was exceedingly disappointed that
I couldn't get through to cast my
vote on the important debate re-
garding the swimsuit issue, I did
enjoy the intellectual experience
of viewing the program.
I couldn't help but notice that
one of the contestants performed
a piece from West Side Story, writ-
ten, of course, by Leonard Bern-
stein. That got me wondering about
other Jewish composers. Can you
name a few?
A: Bernstein and Aaron
Copland, along
with Felix
Mendelssohn and
Gustav Mahler
(both of whom con-
verted to Chris-
tianity) are probably
the most famous, but here are
some other leading names you
should know: Jacques Offen-
bach of France (1819-1880);
Reinhold Gliere of Russia
(1874-1956); Arnold Schoen-
berg of Germany (1874-1951);
Darius Milhaud of France
(1892-1974); Giacomo Meyer-
beer of Germany (1791-1864);
and Ernest Bloch of Switzer-
land (1880-1959).
Q: I once heard a reference to
a dramatic 18th-century story in-
volving a get in Germany, the kind
of thing that might make it on "Un-
solved Mysteries" if it happened
today. Does Tell Me Why have the
inside scoop?
A: Does Tell Me Why have the
inside scoop? My friend, Tell Me
Why has the inside scoop on
everything. Not a day passes
when we don't get a call from the
National Enquirer and "Inside
Edition" in search of hot tips.
You must be thinking of the
Cleves Get, and it is indeed a cu-
rio-us tale.
It began Aug. 14, 1776, when
Itzik Neiberg of Mannheim,
Germany, married Leah Guen-
zhausen of Bonn. Less than one
week later, on a Shabbat, Itzik
disappeared. So did 94 gold
crowns which had been part of
the dowry.
Two days after he vanished,
Itzik was discovered at the home
of a gentile in a small village. He
said that he was on his way to
England, that he had been
forced to run because his life was
in danger if he stayed in Ger-
many. He promised to give his
wife a get, a Jewish divorce, an
offer her family accepted.
Two weeks after their wed-
ding date, Itzik and Leah met in
Cleves, on the German-Dutch
border, where Leah received her
get. Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer Lip-
schuetz, head of the Cleves belt
din, oversaw the proceedings.
Leah then returned home to
Mannheim, and Itzik went on to
England.
Meanwhile Itzik's father,
Eliezer Neiberg, was getting sus-
picious. He had doubts concern-
ing the wife's family and
financial arrangements between
the couple, and so turned
to Rabbi Tevele Hess of
Mannheim. His son, Eliez-
er told the rabbi, had expe-
rienced a kind of temporary
insanity when he fled that
Shabbat. He asked that the
get be invalidated.
Rabbi Hess appealed to the
beit din of Frankfort, which sup-
ported Eliezer's position and de-
clared Leah and Itzik still
married.
So began a controversy that
split the German-Jewish com-
munity, not to mention the rab-
binical authorities, and resulted
in something of a cause celebre
throughout the nation. For while
many of the leading German
rabbis of the day, such as those
on the Frankfurt beit din, sup-
ported Eliezer Neiberg, anoth-
er contingent — including
Jewish leaders in Pfalz and
Fuerth, did not.
At one point the matter be-
came so heated, literally, that
one group publicly burned the
responsa of the opposing group.
The matter finally was
brought to leading Jewish schol-
ars throughout the world — in
Chelm, Prague, Hamburg and
Amsterdam, virtually all of
whom held the position that the
divorce was valid.
Exactly what motivated Itzik
to leave that day, and why he
said he feared for his life if he
remained in Germany, may
never be known. But the mys-
tery doesn't end there, for yet
another strange, inexplicable
twist took place in this mystery.
In the middle of all the dis-
putes about their divorce, Leah
and Itzik remarried. Their wed-
ding, however, included none of
the traditional blessings, but
consisted only of a ceremony in
which Itzik said to Leah, "With
this ring you are still married to
me."
Q: Neither I nor any of my fluent
Jewish-speaking friends know how
to say "tpipetrdlioyi" in Jewish.
The w4.010tv",-4110 everyone
stumped:049rd*eiling also
eludes !=,4'
From readeail.g. in Jupiter, Fla.
A: Tell Me Why has ap-
pealed to an expert in Yiddish
who assures us that "ceiling"
is no problem to translate: it's
stelyeh or suit.
"Sweet and Low," the expert
concedes, is more complicated.
It's a cute play on words in
English, he says, but it doesn't
work in Yiddish.
In Yiddish, "sweet" is zis
(pronounced "zeace"). In most
cases, "low" is translated as
niderig, meaning of little rela-
tive height. Yet such a usage
is not appropriate to the
/
RNS PHOTO/REUTERS
Q:I was watching "Miss Ameri-
After a calorie-laden meal like that,
big guy, you better reach for some
"Sweet and Few Calories" to go with
that coffee.
phrase "sweet and low," where
low" means limited in calories,
and not 2 inches off the
ground.
Because of the ambiguity,
you will not be able to use a
three-word Yiddish translation
of "sweet and low." Instead,
you'll need to employ one or
more qualifying words to con-
vey the idea of "sweet, and low
in calories."
A couple of possibilities are
zis un vaynig caloryes ("sweet
and few calories") or zis un
k'napeh caloryes ("sweet and
meager calories").
Send questions to "Tell Me Why"
c I o The Jewish News, 27676
Franklin Rd., Southfield, MI
48034 or send fax to 354-6069.
C_
/