העורך Editor

Against the Yiddish Language

Against speaking, that is. You may study Yiddish.

Nay, you should study Yiddish because it contains heilige (holy) Halacha and Masores. Agreed. Yes, the Shach did speak Yiddish (although many greats preferred Hebrew, as, to the best of my recollection, ignored by Vayo’el Moshe‘s section against Hebrew).

Another plus is, then you can absorb certain Shi’urim at gutte (good) Yeshivos.

Also, I keep davening (praying) minelayers mine through the whole Soloveitchik/Teitelbaum oeuvre (as opposed to just VM/Rabbenu Chaim Halevi), so being able to translate the Yiddish for those specialists would be important.

But don’t employ the ‘shprach fun Yiddish’ (Yiddish language) on purpose (unless it’s the best way available in your situation to stay away from modern, evil culture). Of course, plenty of the interesanteh vocabulary is just Hebrew or English or Arabic or…, as the saying goes of the man who spoke seven languages, all of them in Yiddish.

(And I don’t even wish to repeat the valid point copied here.)

Then why not speak Yiddish?

My strong conviction is: Spoken Yiddish has all the bitter, kvetching lack of Emunah of krechtzing (moaning) Jews for a millennium in Galus, and the “richer” the Yiddish, the more wretched the Yiddishkeit within, generally. The full implications of many of its expressions are wrong as seen by optimistic, Emunah eyes.

The language appears shlepping on its way out, anyway. Yiddish is promoted by the same sorts of nostalgic people who reject all other modern, God-given blessings.

Here’s an ad hominem commercial break:

It’s promoted in an idiotic fashion, too. I know of several Chadarim (day schools) located in Chutz La’aretz who insist on translating Chumash into Yiddish for their students who don’t understand either Hebrew or Yiddish. I try not to think about this dereliction of duty because it makes me ponder what Halacha can be learned from the story with Yo’av in Bava Basra 21a-21b (or worse).

End of the commercial break.

I am loath to try and prove this. My inner voice snipes “you can’t prove it” at every example I think of. Some will agree with this point on Emunah, and others won’t, no matter what I say. So I leave this at “So say I”. Absorb some good books on Emuna, and tell me if it honestly fits into Yiddish. I should think not. Tatteh zisse, Bashefer, Aibeshter, etc. is “Batel Berov”.

Not up to your usual standards, huh…?

I never said this was going to be the definitive, well-argued “case” against Yiddish!

Of course, I mean substituting Hebrew in its stead…

רץ ברשת: העולם על פי השמאל הישראלי

העולם על פי השמאל:  
שלטון השמאל = דמוקרטיה
שלטון הימין = סכנה לדמוקרטיה
עיתונות של השמאל = חופש הביטוי
עיתונות של הימין = הסתה!
מינוי שופט שמאלן – מינוי מקצועי
מינוי שופט ימני – מינוי פוליטי
מחבלים – לוחמי חופש
מתנחלים – מתנחבלים
פיגוע בתל אביב – אסון הירושימה
פיגוע בירושלים – מעבירים לערוץ 5
ערבי – צעיר
יהודי – יהודי
רוצח גנדי – מפגע בודד
רוצח רבין – כל הימין
גנדי – עבריין מין
משה דיין – אחד מ… ל״ו צדיקים
ביבי – מסית ומפלג.
גבאי/בוז׳י – אוהב ומאחד.
מפגין שמאלן – אזרח שאכפת לו
מפגין ימני – גזען
פוסט שמאלני – מאמר דעה חשוב
פוסט ימני – פשיסט! לדווח לצוקי!
חג ערבי – איזה יופי, מסורת.
חג יהודי – כפייה דתית, נמאס!
דתי יהודי – פרימיטיבי אוכל חינם
דתי מוסלמי – מכובד שיש לתמוך בו
ירושלים – התנחלות, להחזיר!
שיח מוניס – שלנו מאז ומעולם.
מצעד גאווה בירושלים – חשוב, לא לכפייה דתית!
מצעד גאווה באום אל פאחם – השתגעתם? זה פוגע ברגשות הערבים.
דגל אש״ף בסכנין – למה לא, דמוקרטיה!
דגל ישראל במשחק בית״ר – אסור! פוגע ברגשות הערבים.

Democracy for Dummies

Whaddaya mean, democracy is illogical?!
I’ll explain it to you s-l-o-w-l-y:
If Shimon and Reuven are running for the same position and you vote for Reuven, and Reuven wins, you agreed, so it’s voluntary. If you voted for Shimon, you agreed by voting at all. (In fact, you likely would have preferred to vote for the winner, to be “one of the guys”, right? Don’t answer that.)
If you voted for Reuven for specific reasons/promises (how naive!), and he did what politicians do, no matter. It’s called “Lo Plug”.
What if you didn’t vote at all, or voted because of peer or spousal pressure? You still agree. You should have voted willingly.
Voting means you agree with everything done to you and/or others by Reuven.
Your affected disagreement is just Yetzer Hara, as with the husband who refuses to divorce his wife. You really do agree.
To summarize, when we wish to know what Gilah thinks, we don’t ask Gilah. That wouldn’t be progressive or scientific. Instead, we ask Rinah, Ditzah, Chedvah, Shalom and Re’ut.
Just ask Reuven.