Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 14.043
April 20, 2005

1) Introduction (Felicitas Payk)
2) nokhn khirurgishn tish (Lucas Bruyn)
3) nokhn khirurgishn tish (Zulema Seligsohn)
4) mezinke (Zulema Seligsohn)
5) mezinke (Lyuba Dukker)
6) mezinke (Jack Berger)
7) aftsulokhes (Amitai Halevi)
8) rozhinkes mit mandlen (Zev Gruman)

Visit Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 20, 2005
Subject: Introduction

Tayere Mendelyaner,

mayn nomen is Felicitas Payk, 22 yor alt, un ikh shtam fun Daytshland. Ikh
shtudir di daytshe un englishe lingvistik un literatur. Ikh farinteresir
zikh shtark mit yidishkayt, un ikh hob zeyer lib di yidishe shprakh. Ikh
hob nokh keynmol nit gehat di gelegnhayt zikh oystsulernen yidish formel,
nor ikh hob zikh oftmol tsugehert tsu a sakh diskn fun der Klezmer
Conservaty Band un andere zeyer gute muziker, un ikh bin geven afn KlezFest
in London mit tsvey yor tsurik, vu ikh hob gehert un geredt a sakh yidish
un vos iz geven a groyse mekhaye far mir. Ikh hob gefunen Mendele al-pi
tsufal, un ikh bin oftmog gezesn gantse teg bay mayn kompyuter leyendik di
arkhivn funem 95st biz 98stn yor, biz ikh hob gehert az Mendele ekzistirt
nokh. Es iz zeyer sheyn az s'iz do a gelegnhayt zikh tsu teyln mit zayne
genitshaftn vos shayekh yidish, un ikh bin gliklekh tsu zayn a mitglid fun
Mendele. Al dos guts,

Felicitas Payk
Hannover, Germany

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 20, 2005
Subject: Re: nokhn khirurgishn tish

In response to Joachim Martillos reaction to my translation of the
Yishroel Shtern poem (Vol, 14.041), the following:

1. In German nach Hause gehen  to go home. Possibly nokh can be used in a
similar way in Yiddish. In the context of the poem I think the poem is more
about after the operating table than about toward the operating table.
However, I dont intend to prescribe how a reader should interpret the poem.

2. I wrote: Two verses poignantly describe the situation at the
moment of the invasion.

Joachim Mortello only quotes one verse, plus my interpretation. He
rightly accuses me of applying hindsight in my interpretation  I was
born after the war. I would like to point out that I found the poem
while working as a volunteer translator on the text of Chaim
Finkelsteins Haynt, a tsaytung bay yidn9, an ongoing Internet
project. The book vividly describes the growing antisemitism in Poland
during the interbellum period. The book was written after the war so
the impression it creates of nearing doom might be a case of hindsight
as well. I also read Brenner's work on Zionism and his critisism of
the role Haynt played. Chaim Finkelstein was a Zionist and in his
book he constantly attacks the Bund.

I am not qualified to comment on Joachim Mortello's remark that "the Nazis
might have changed their plans after observing the desire of liberated
Soviet nationalities for collective revenge agains all etnic Ashkenazim
because of the acts of the Ashkenazi Soviet officials during
collectivization". I would think that some historians would contest such a
statement. Wasnt that partly German propaganda?

It was clearly not my intention to accuse the Polish Jews of
suppressing knowledge about German Nazi plans.

Lucas Bruyn

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 20, 2005
Subject: Re: nokhn khirurgishn tish

The critique left me speechless.  Lucas needs no defense from me, and a
poem is a poem, not a faithful historical documentary, but the poem in
some of its verses reminded me of the song from WW II, "Es brent,
briderlekh, es brent,"  in many ways expressing the same sense of
foreboding which yet most  people felt they could do nothing about,
whether from inertia, powerlessness, or lack of means.  To say that the
main Zionist movement collaborated with the Nazis is totally wtong.
Jabotinski in his misguided efforts attempted some contacts and
alliances with certain Germans and Poles but he was not mainstream and
did not speak for the majority or the Zionist movement.  The comparisons
with other  peoples' conditions in other countries are odious, to use a
cliche but a well-understood one.

Zulema Seligsohn

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 20, 2005
Subject: Re: mezinke

Martin Stern [Mendele 14.039] asks about "mezinke" and "mezinik."   His
Belzer neighbor had it sort of correct, and I cannot weigh in on local
pronunciations there, particularly in Ukrainian.  But Harkavy refers
"mezinke" to "mizinke" and "mezinik" to "Mezinietz", and that gives us the
origin.. "Mezinietz" is the littlest finger or the littlest toe.

Zulema Seligsohn

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 20, 2005
Subject: Re: mezinke

I always thought that mezinke comes from mizinikl , the pinky, the
smallest finger, the last and dearest child, "posledish" in Russian.

Examples below, I believe, confirm this:

	" er vayzt undz a kleyn shel-yad-bes|l, nit greser vi der shpits
mizinikl " - literal meaning

	"eyn shokhn|te iz gevezn vos hot zikh gut gekent mit zayn mamen. oyser
dem iz zi geven zeyer a vareme un zi hot zikh tomed interesirt bay yekln
vos er makht, un tomed ongezogt farn tatn az er darf oyfpasn oyf zayn
mizinikl, az er zol im oysveyln a gutn shidekh ".

	" A Vanechka posledysh. "Mizinikl" -- Skazala Broha " - Russian

Lyuba Dukker

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 20, 2005
Subject: Re: mezinke

One probably needs to first go to the masculine form, which is muzhinyik.
This appears to be "The little(est) man" from the Russian, moozh, for a
man. This is the root for muzhik, which is a peasant.

It was probably feminized in Yiddish by the usual mechanism of attaching a
German suffix to a male noun.

Jack Berger

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 20, 2005
Subject: Re: aftsulokhes

A brief  addendum to Larry Gillig's note on the etymology of "aftsulokhes".
In the Bible, "lehakh`is" ( to make angry) invariably applies to making God
angry. In the Talmud, where direct reference to God is omitted,  the term
came to mean "wilful", always in connection with infractions of Jewish law.
For example, the Talmud differentiates between those who eat non-kosher
meat to satisfy their appetite (lete'avon) and those who do it wilfully
(lehakh`is), in defiance of the law.

Amitai  Halevi

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 20, 2005
Subject: rozhinkes mit mandlen

In her book Mir Trogn a Gezang, Eleanor Gordon Mlotek writes regarding the
song Rozhinkes mit mandlen "The song was adapted to conditions under the
Nazis, and one version from the Kaunas ghetto was: 'In the Slobodka Yeshiva
an old sexton is reading his last will and testament..when you will be
free, tell your children of our suffering and murder. Show them the graves
and inscription at the Nint Fort" (an extermination place near Kaunas).

Does anyone know this version and where to get a copy of it?

Zev Gruman

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 14.043

Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu
Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu