Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.001 May 20, 1996 1) Mendele iz alt finif yor (Noyekh Miller) 2) Shmukler (Victor Bers) 3) Numerical values of alef-beyz (Walter Golman) 4) Numerical values of alef-beyz (Howard Kusnetz) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 From: nmiller@shakti.trincoll.edu Subject: Mendele iz alt finif yor Mit finif yor tsurik hot Mendele ongefangen mit tsvey-un-tsvantsik abonantn, kemat ale fun undz tsunoyfgebundn durkh bitnet. (Ir gedenkt bitnet, khevre? Ay, vu zenen di shney fun di fargangene yorn?) A listserver hot men nokh nisht gehat. Un vegn internet un home pages un nokh azoyne tsatskelekh hot men nokh nisht gevust. Haynt-tsu-tog zaynen mir mer fun a toyzent, farshpreyt af der gorer velt in zibn-un-tsvantsik lender un medines -- un take tsulib dem internet. Country Subscribers Country Subscribers ------- ----------- ------- ----------- Argentina 3 Japan 1 Australia 8 Korea 2 Belgium 1 Mexico 1 Canada 63 Netherlands 8 Costa Rica 1 New Zealand 1 Croatia 1 Poland 5 Finland 1 South Africa 4 France 1 Spain 3 Germany 24 Sweden 1 Great Britain 8 Switzerland 5 Hungary 7 Uruguay 2 Iceland 1 USA 821 Israel 30 Venezuela 2 Italy 3 ??? 33 Total 1041 ******* As we begin a new year of Mendele the shames wishes to thank all of our correspondents for making our list what it is. And to invite all those who have not yet written to join those who have. When Mendele was small it was still possible to send welcome messages to new subscribers inviting them to send us short introductions. Not long ago your shames tried to fold such a welcome note into the one that the the listserver automatically issues. It didn't work. Instead there was a brief flurry of "undigested" (single) posts. A shames an umgelumperter! We may try again some day. Meanwhile, if you haven't introduced yourself, please do so. Un yetst, nokhamol afn rehktn fus. Noyekh Miller 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 10 May 96 20:24:26 EDT From: vbers@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Shmukler The other day I disgraced myself (nokh a mol) at the Yale-New Haven leyn kreiz by confidently declaring that "shmukler" means jeweler. A mitglid produced Weinreich, who defines the word as lacemaker. Hoping for some miracle, I checked Harkavy--keyn nes. Then I hoped that I was guilty, at the most, of a daytchmerism: no luck there either, at least in my small Langenscheidt. I wish to do penance by reporting competetent information on the semantic history of the word. Was I a zumerdiker nar to assume a connection to German Schmuk = adornment, pl = jewlery? Is there a non-Germanic root in question? Some birfurcation of meanings? Victor Bers 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 May 1996 21:54:07 -0400 (EDT) From: velvele@wam.umd.edu Subject: Numerical values of alef-beyz A postscript to Zellig's post (5.317): Russian Jews used to refer in horror to the "shvartse meye-nikes," the "Black Hundreds," who were encouraged -- and sometimes ordered -- by the Tsarist government to conduct pogroms against Jews. Walter (Velvl) Golman Silver Spring, Maryland 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 18:56:27 +0000 From: helkay@hal-pc.org Subject: Numerology Zellig Bach in Mendele 5.317 touched only very briefly on the use of Hebrew letters for numbers. Of course the entire art (science?) of Gematriya is rife in Hebrew, but for some reason, one finds less of it in Yiddish. In addition to the examples given by Bach, there is the "lamed-vovnik". According to tradition, the entire world continues to exist due to the z'khus of thirty six righteous people. Lamed plus Vov equal thirty six, and each of thse hidden saints is a lamed-vovnik. Of course, the numerology also helps when one wishes to refer to someone else in a pejorative way. Calling someone an akhzig-naynzig is much more socially acceptable than the less subtle term, and is less likely to earn the user a bloody nose. Howard Kusnetz ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.001 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.cis.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu ****Getting back issues**** 1. Anonymous ftp archives are available. ftp ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files A table of contents is also available, along with weekly updates. 2. Mendele archives can also be reached as follows: via WWW: http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mewais.html via gopher: gopher://sunsite.unc.edu/11/../.pub/academic/languages/yiddish/mendele via ftp: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/academic/languages/yiddish/mendele