LL-L "Language varieties" 2011.04.25 (05) [EN-NDS]

Tue Apr 26 01:05:19 UTC 2011

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L O W L A N D S - L - 25 April 2011 - Volume 04
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From: Tom Mc Rae <thomas.mcrae at bigpond.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2011.04.24 (02) [EN]

Well outside your topic area but on our Saturday Australian TV News had a
fascinating feature on the last 700 Samaritans in the world celebrating
Passover on the West Bank. The ceremony was conducted in very ancient Hebrew
and ended with a mass slaughter of goats and sheep which were then roasted.
Their spokesman claimed they were the last descendants of those in The
Exodus.

On 25/04/2011, at 1:22 PM, R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com> wrote:

I received a large amount of information about earlier Passover customs
(today’s topic), be it in America or back in Europe.

Best Regards
Tom Mc Rae
Brisbane Australia
Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.
–Albert Einstein

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From: M.-L. Lessing <marless at gmx.de>
Subject:  LL-L "Language varieties" 2011.04.25 (02) [NDS]

Dear Reinhard, I too read your report with relish. But what grates on me is
this way of saying "What, a different dialect? I won't talk to that man!" It
is saddening to find the Yiddish speakers behave so too. It kills dialects,
it kills languages. We know it from Plattdüütsch only too well. But not from
Hochdeutsch! Now let me start one of my hobby-psychologist-theses: The
"national languages", such as Hochdeutsch, have been politically used to
define the nation, they have been used as symbols for the great We (in times
when that We was the nation). Therefore we associate them with "together,
unity, community". Dialects of them are seen as delightful variety.
Everything divisive is far from them. Not so the minority languages. They
have been associated with otherness, division, exclusion. Consequences: See
above. -- I would like to know whether others have experienced this dividing
spirit in other minority languages and think my interpretation acceptable.
Or is it only Platt and Yiddish speakers who are so crazy?? And what can be
done about it? Must we really make separatist propaganda to give people a
feeling that Platt unites Platt speakers??? Yiddish speakers who now have no
territory to make separatist propaganda for would be badly off :-|

Hartlich!

Marlou

From: Hannelore Hinz <hannehinz at t-online.de> <hannehinz at t-online.de>
Subject:LL-L "Language varieties" 2011.04.24 (02) [EN]

Hallo Ron un all' Lowlanners.

Ick heff dien' Bidrag (tau dit Thema) nah mien langtoegsch Oewersetten in
Düütsch mit väl Freud lääst.
Mihrstens dröppt man ümmer so an 30 - 50 Tauhürers an. Dat is egentlich jüst
naug, man näumt dit ok "Begegnung/Veranstaltung der kleinen Form", dat heit
soväl, man hett up diss' Ort, also 'n lütten Kring mit besten Taugang up de
Gästen. Ja, binah so as tau Huus in ein Famili an einen groten Disch. Un dat
hest du je nu so beläwt "Wie zu Hause", "gemütlich", also künn man ok seggen
"komodig, behåglich".

So gifft dat in Jiddisch hüt ok väl jiddische Dialekten. Heff väl oewer
nahdacht.
Hm, hett nich ok dat ümmers (jeweils) 'regionale' Nedderdüütsch gewisse
Dialekten, de sick mit de Johren nah 'n tweiten Weltkrieg (weglopen Minschen
ut Pommern, West- un Ostpreußen) insläken hebben un ahn ein Nahdenken ünner
de Lüüd kamen sünd... Ok Dialekten ut Nahwer-Rebeiten so as taun Bispill
Uckermark, Brandenburg un Schleswig Holstein swappen oewer nah
Mäkelborg-Vörpommern, un von Meck-Pom ok nah de Nahwer-Rebeiten.

Also kann ick *di* tau de "Ierst friewillig  Arbeits-Upgaw" *gratelieren*;
un dat dau ick hiermit.

Nu weitst du taugliek, *woans  de Haas' löppt* (sick gaud utkennen), un
woans dat in taukamen Tieden lopen ward. Ick wünsch di väl Glück.

Un dat du wedderkamen sast, man, *dat is ein Kumpelment!*

Mit best' Gräuten an all'.

Hanne

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>

Subject: Language varieties

Tom, I had encounters with Samaritans in the 1970s (when there were still
more of them). For ritual purposes they use what is known as “Samaritan
Hebrew” and they use their own script for it. In everyday life they speak
either Arabic or Modern Hebrew, depending on the area in which they live.
Samaritans were already at the time of Jesus (and apparently earlier)
considered apart from mainstream Israelites, and apparently not in a good
way, hence the New Testament parable (probably my favorite one) of the good
Samaritan presenting the possibility of mercy/compassion (*raḥămīm*רַחֲמִים)
and charity/social justice (*ṣ**ĕdāqāh *צְדָקָה‎) bridging divisions,
including long-standing prejudices. As for claims of descent, please take
all of that with several grains of salt. [More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan]

Marlou, American and Israeli Jews of European origin are unfortunately not
immune regarding this European tendency toward purism and segregation
(a.k.a. tribalism). However, this applies mostly to those that grew up in
Europe and to those born outside Europe but leading very traditional Jewish
lives. Pretty much all of the residents of the retirement home at which I
volunteer belong to these categories, by mere virtue of choosing to live in
an all-Jewish facility. They are a dying breed and a rich source of
information.

Today a dear friend of mine told me that in her Midwestern American Jewish
family there were two camps that had been thrown together by marriage: the
“Lithuanians” and the “Ruthenians.” Much of the mutual disapproval centered
on the pronunciation of the words for “cake” ~ “baked dish” (קוגל, L. *kugl*,
R. *kigl*) and ‘belly-button” (פּופּיק, L. *pupik*, R. *pipik*) ... in other
words on /u/ being preserved in L. while having become [i] elsewhere. (One
of the “Ruthenians” in the family even claimed that a *pupik* was not the
same as a *pipik* but meant “something farther down”!) Of course, you feel
the urge to shout, “Get over it already!” But, of course, these differences
stood/stand for a lot more, especially for cultural features, including ...
very importantly ... for cooking and baking recipes.

By the way, the most frequently heard substantial Yiddish word at the
meeting was *heykher* (הײכער) ‘louder’ (cognate of English “higher,” Scots *
heicher*, Dutch *hoger*, Low Saxon *höger*, German *höher*).

Hanning:

Ja, binah so as tau Huus in ein Famili an einen groten Disch. Un dat hest du
je nu so beläwt "Wie zu Hause", "gemütlich", also künn man ok seggen
"komodig, behåglich".

Ja, up Jiddish is dat *heymish* (*hejmisch*, הײמיש).

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

Seattle, USA

P.S.: Michael, thanks for the story below! I actually know Raphael Finkel
(רפֿאל פֿינקל, Rafoyel Finkl) from years back when he and I tinkered with
Yiddish on the Web. Great guy and a good poet! - For those of you not in the
loop, a *latke* is a potato pancake. Can anyone rewrite the story in Scots
using *haggis* instead of *latke*?

----------

From: Michael Keach <mike.keach at gmail.com>
Subject: Ron's Yiddischer Reise

Ron, thanks for the report on your Yiddish session/get-together. Very fun.
It caused me to wander back to, what had been, a limited exposure to Yiddish
back at least 150 years ago when I lived just outside of New York City.
During the summer of my freshman year in college, I taught/directed Music
and Drama at an exclusive Jewish ountryclub in Little Falls, New Jersey.
There I learned the hard way to steer clear of blue-haired "ladies" playing
Mahjongg.  It took me weeks to heal.

For thems that are interested in Yiddish, I recommend Michael Wex's
excellent work: "Born to Kvetch : Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its
Moods"  c2005 HarperCollins Perennial   ISBN: 0061132179  US$13.95  OR: free
at your public library.

Meanwhile, to underscore what Ron suggested as a tone of suspicion by some
members of his group, you'll be given a humerous added insight to the world
of the Yiddish/Talmudic Yid (Jew).

I give you "Ritual Slaughter of the Latke"

Ritual slaughter of the latke
Raphael Finkel <http://www.cs.uky.edu/%7Eraphael/>
Presented at the Latke-Homentash Symposium
Hillel House, Madison, Wisconsin
Purim, 1984

It is well known that our tradition surrounds the most important actions in
life with ritual. The importance of life-cycle rituals and holiday-cycle
rituals underscores their stature. On the other hand, there is no particular
ritual for, say, hunting boars. The Jewish tradition has nothing much to say
about it, except that hunting bores.

Eating has long held a fascination for the Rabbinic mind, not to mention the
Rabbinic stomach. We are all familiar with some of the rituals involved with
food: Washing the hands before going to the supermarket, checking for the u
O, reciting "Who brings the can opener out of the drawer", and the
injunction to leave a little food in the can for the cat. In the Talmud,
there is a dispute whether searching diligently for the u O itself fulfills
the mitsvo of "bedikas hekhsher" or whether one needs to also know the rules
for affixing the u O, over which one recites "lehagboa hekhsher". For
example, did you know that according to Rashi, the u O must be in the upper
third of the label, and must be vertical, whereas according to Rabbenu Tam,
it must be sideways?

This attention to detail is the hallmark of importance that we attribute to
food. I want to raise your conciousness (and maybe your gorge) and explain
to you the Torah-true Halakhic way in which latkes must be prepared,
according to Rambam's "Sefer", so called because each chapter begins with
the word "Sefer". In particular, Chapter 23 is called, "Sefer example you
want latkes." Another chapter, dealing with food poisoning, is "Sefer ways
to can latkes". You may not be surprised to hear that there is no mention
whatsoever of Homentashen in this standard reference. They just don't rate.
In fact, the only reference I could find to Homentashen in the whole
Rabbinic literature, which I read through yesterday (in the Cliff notes
edition), was in a chapter on spinach homentashen in the justifiably obscure
responsa of Poppy, the seltzer man.

Say for example you want latkes. The potato must be healthy. Any potato
unable to swim upstream with the current is considered sick, and you have to
wait until it recovers before you can use it.

You have to properly slaughter the potatoes. You need a knife sharp enough,
in the words of the Rambam, so that it can cut 30 bunches of krokhmal in 10
strokes. I expect that's pretty sharp.

You slaughter the potato with a quick double cut, holding the knife so the
blade is facing up, attacking the potato from underneath.

If there are any eyes on the potato, they must be facing up, so the potato
doesn't see the knife coming. The stroke must sever at least the main artery
of the potato, although according to Rambam, this is difficult with our
modern potatoes, which have no arteries, and it suffices to cut at least
.357 inches beneath the skin.

Any potato juice that comes out within the first spurt is treyf; you must
let it pour on the ground and stomp on it, quoting meanwhile from
Deuteronomy, "thus be done to the manna whom the king delighteth to honor."

You then check the dead potato for health. If there is a hole between the
veena and the keyba, the potato is treyf and may not be eaten, although it
may be used for a paperweight. If you carve a dreydl out of it, the dreydl
is kosher, but the knife may only be used as a screwdriver from then on. If
there are any adhesions on the skin, the potato is glat treyf and must be
discarded.

You must remove the eyes (in Yiddish, this is known as "eyebering"); as long
as they are not removed, the outer part of the potato is treyf (literally,
"the eyes have it".) Modern latke factories don't bother with the extremely
time-consuming removal of the eyes, so they sell the outer part of the
potato to non-Jews.

You must be very careful if you are making a large batch of latkes not to
slaughter two potatoes from the same plant on the same day. The Bible
explicitly says, "You shall not slaughter it and its plant-mate on the same
day". The Talmud tells of a thief who stole two potatoes and slaughtered
them on the same day. As you know, the penalty for stealing is that you must
pay back double. But if you steal a potato and slaughter it, you must pay
back 5-fold. The Talmud records a discussion about whether, when the thief
slaughtered the second potato, he was obligated to pay the 5-fold penalty or
not, since he was by that same act guilty of the "two on the same day" rule,
and was thereby sentenced to the harsher punishment of juggling 5 eggs and
cleaning up the mess. Let it be a lesson to you: Buy each potato from a
different store, you should never have a problem.

If you peel the potatoes, you are obligated to donate one twelfth of the
potato peels to a Cohen, assuming you have peeled at least 20 potatoes and
you have gotten at least 1/4 cup of peels from each. The best way to do this
is to put the peels in an envelope and mail it to the first Cohen or Katz
you find in the phone book. It is also acceptable to stop people on the
street, ask them if they are Jewish, and if so, talk them into performing
this important mitsvo "putting out the peelings" themselves.

I could go on, and I will.

Remember to salt the potato and leave it to drain for at least 24 hours. We
do this in memory of Lot's wife Latke, who was turned to salt. Use a lotta
salt, in memory of Lot's daughter, Lotta.

You may wonder why Sephardic Jews don't eat latkes. It stems from two
differences of interpretation. The Torah speaks about a "Poroh Aduma", a red
potato without blemish. The Sephardim consider red potatoes too holy to eat,
so they avoid latkes. On the other hand, the Ashkenazim think only Swiss
cheese is too holy to eat. They liken "Poroh Aduma" with "Pereh Odom", the
common person, and consider a red potato glatt kosher. Kosher airline meals
made with potatoes therefore always specify "red potatoes".

The other difference of opinion is the meaning of "you shall not yoke them
together". The Sephardim read this as a prohibition of mixing eggs and
potatoes. The Ashkenazim say, and I quote "Love and Knishes", the
authoritative cookbook, "So nu, use two eggs already. You want more, so you
should use more."

Let me warn you about applesauce. Its proper preparation is just as complex
as latkes themselves. It is best to consult a competent authority.

One last warning. You may remember that the Megilla tells us that the
Persians cast latkes, which they called Pur, from which we get the name
Purim. You must *fry* the latkes to make them kosher. Let them burn a bit,
in memory of the burnt offerings. But don't do like the Persians. Don't cast
them. If you cast them, they'll turn out Pur for you, too.

Postscript: At the symposium at which I presented this talk, Barry
Buchbinder suggested that homentashn have an aphrodisiac effect. My
response: "Poppycock!"

.............................................................................

Alles beste,

~Mike in Tampadorf

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