If You Can't Say Anything Nice, Say It in Yiddish

If You Can't Say Anything Nice, Say It in Yiddish PDF Author: Lita Epstein
Publisher: Citadel Press
ISBN: 0806538767
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Get Book Here

Book Description
You don’t have to be Jewish to get back at the shmendriks* of the world Yiddish. It’s the most colorful language in the history of mankind. What other language gives you a whole dictionary of ways to tell someone to drop dead? That schmuck who got promoted over you? Meigulgl zol er vern in a henglaykhter, by tog zol er hengen, un by nakht zol er brenen. (He should be transformed into a chandelier, to hang by day and to burn by night.) That soccer mom kibitzing on her cell phone and tying up traffic? Shteyner zol zi hobn, nit keyn kinder. (She should have stones and not children.) If You Can’t Say Anything Nice, Say It in Yiddish is the perfect glossary of Yiddish insults and curses, from the short and sweet to the whole megillah (Khasene hobn zol er mit di malekh hamoves tokhter: He should marry the daughter of the Angel of Death.) Complete with hundreds of the most creative insults for the putzes** and kvetchers *** of the world, this is an indispensable guide for Jews and Gentiles alike. When it comes to cursing someone who sorely needs it, may you never be at a loss for words again. *Idiots **More idiots ***Complainer; a pain in the tuchas**** **** One’s rear end

If You Can't Say Anything Nice, Say It in Yiddish

If You Can't Say Anything Nice, Say It in Yiddish PDF Author: Lita Epstein
Publisher: Citadel Press
ISBN: 0806538767
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Get Book Here

Book Description
You don’t have to be Jewish to get back at the shmendriks* of the world Yiddish. It’s the most colorful language in the history of mankind. What other language gives you a whole dictionary of ways to tell someone to drop dead? That schmuck who got promoted over you? Meigulgl zol er vern in a henglaykhter, by tog zol er hengen, un by nakht zol er brenen. (He should be transformed into a chandelier, to hang by day and to burn by night.) That soccer mom kibitzing on her cell phone and tying up traffic? Shteyner zol zi hobn, nit keyn kinder. (She should have stones and not children.) If You Can’t Say Anything Nice, Say It in Yiddish is the perfect glossary of Yiddish insults and curses, from the short and sweet to the whole megillah (Khasene hobn zol er mit di malekh hamoves tokhter: He should marry the daughter of the Angel of Death.) Complete with hundreds of the most creative insults for the putzes** and kvetchers *** of the world, this is an indispensable guide for Jews and Gentiles alike. When it comes to cursing someone who sorely needs it, may you never be at a loss for words again. *Idiots **More idiots ***Complainer; a pain in the tuchas**** **** One’s rear end

Jewish Aramaic Curse Texts from Late-Antique Mesopotamia

Jewish Aramaic Curse Texts from Late-Antique Mesopotamia PDF Author: Dan Levene
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004257268
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 178

Get Book Here

Book Description
The corpus of Aramaic incantation bowls from Sasanian Mesopotamia is perhaps the most important source we have for studying the everyday beliefs and practices of the Jewish, Christian, Mandaean, Manichaean, Zoroastrian and Pagan communities on the eve of the Islamic conquests. In Jewish Aramaic Curse Texts from Late-Antique Mesopotamia, Dan Levene collects and analyses a selection of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls. While such texts are usually apotropaic or healing in purpose, those collected here are distinctive in that their purpose was to curse or return curses against human adversaries. This book presents new editions of thirty texts, of which fourteen are edited here for the first time, with an introduction, commentary, analysis and glossaries, as well as photographs. “In this valuable addition to the literature on the role of bowls with aggressive texts in magic practices in this period, Levene (Jewish history and culture, U. of Southampton, UK) presents a summary of newly edited and already published bowls with Aramaic transcription; English translation; its type (e.g., invocation of demons to attack a named person, counter-charm); publication source; formulaic parallels in other texts; and notes." Reference & Research Book News, 2013.

Jewish Curses

Jewish Curses PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789657619124
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is a guide and coloring book of Jewish "curses." This book is not about cursing as in the kind of "cursing" you do when you hit your thumb with a hammer. Something funny happened on the way to the world we live in today. That funny thing was the hilarious belly laugh Borscht-Belt comedy of immigrant Jews. And Yiddish was a critical and funny part of that world. Generations of Jewish immigrants came to our English-speaking world with Yiddish, a secret language which only they spoke, and it carried their culture. Yaakov Kirschen, famous Jewish cartoonist and comedian has written and drawn this treasure of our people. It makes a great gift for a younger generation that came along after that golden age of Yiddish comedy and is a heart-warming gift for those of us who can still remember those days. And even if you're not into coloring, this cartoon "guide" is super fun. Cartoonist Kirschen is an old guy. Mr. Shuldig, the bald hero of his Dry Bones cartoons is also an old guy. Now, after more than four decades of writing and drawing his daily Israeli/American political cartoon, Kirschen has decided to tackle something REALLY important; passing on the essence of Yiddish culture and comedy to a younger generation and warming the hearts of other old folks. His new project is a series called "Grandpa's Jewish Cartoon Coloring Books." Those early Yiddish-speaking immigrants expressed their frustrations and anger through wickedly funny Yiddish curses that dripped with cynicism. Kirschen's book is a funny cartoon guide and coloring book based on English translations of those sometimes rough explosions of Yiddish one-liners which were the basis of what we now call "Jewish humor."

Blessings, Curses, Hopes, and Fears

Blessings, Curses, Hopes, and Fears PDF Author: James A. Matisoff
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804733946
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this delightful book, the author enumerates and classifies the formulas Yiddish speakers use to express their emotionsfrom blessings and thanks to lamentations and curses. A rarity among scholarly books, it brings joy while it teaches; it makes us smile, sometimes roar with laughter, while it develops the most rigorous linguistic argumentation."

The Sword of Moses, an Ancient Book of Magic

The Sword of Moses, an Ancient Book of Magic PDF Author: Moses Gaster
Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.
ISBN: 1596055812
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 57

Get Book Here

Book Description
They have... books with these terrible, awe-inspiring Names... they know that the use of these mysterious Names, without due and careful preparation, brings with it calamity and premature death. -from the introduction How much ancient wisdom was lost in the medieval years! here laments Moses Gaster, one of the most prominent Jewish theologians and folklorists of the late 19th century. In 1896, he translated a fragmentary relic of Gnostic literature, a manuscript concerned with the many secret names of God believed by Kabbalists to wield enormous magical power, but in the discussion that here precedes the translation, Gaster acknowledges that this document only hints at the texts that may be lost forever. It remains a tantalizing peek into archaic occult mysteries. Jewish scholar MOSES GASTER (1856-1939) was born in Romania but emigrated to England, where he lectured at Oxford University. His wrote numerous books of theology, folklore, history, and literature, including History of Rumanian Popular Literature (1883) and five-volume Sephardic prayer book (1901-6).

The Blessing and the Curse: The Jewish People and Their Books in the Twentieth Century

The Blessing and the Curse: The Jewish People and Their Books in the Twentieth Century PDF Author: Adam Kirsch
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393652416
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
An erudite and accessible survey of Jewish life and culture in the twentieth century, as reflected in seminal texts. Following The People and the Books, which "covers more than 2,500 years of highly variegated Jewish cultural expression" (Robert Alter, New York Times Book Review), poet and literary critic Adam Kirsch now turns to the story of modern Jewish literature. From the vast emigration of Jews out of Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to the creation of Israel, the twentieth century transformed Jewish life. The same was true of Jewish writing: the novels, plays, poems, and memoirs of Jewish writers provided intimate access to new worlds of experience. Kirsch surveys four themes that shaped the twentieth century in Jewish literature and culture: Europe, America, Israel, and the endeavor to reimagine Judaism as a modern faith. With discussions of major books by over thirty writers—ranging from Franz Kafka to Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel to Tony Kushner, Hannah Arendt to Judith Plaskow—he argues that literature offers a new way to think about what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. With a wide scope and diverse, original observations, Kirsch draws fascinating parallels between familiar writers and their less familiar counterparts. While everyone knows the diary of Anne Frank, for example, few outside of Israel have read the diary of Hannah Senesh. Kirsch sheds new light on the literature of the Holocaust through the work of Primo Levi, explores the emergence of America as a Jewish home through the stories of Bernard Malamud, and shows how Yehuda Amichai captured the paradoxes of Israeli identity. An insightful and engaging work from "one of America’s finest literary critics" (Wall Street Journal), The Blessing and the Curse brings the Jewish experience vividly to life.

Cursing the Christians?

Cursing the Christians? PDF Author: Ruth Langer
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199783179
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ruth Langer offers an in-depth study of the birkat haminim, a Jewish prayer for the removal of those categories of human being who prevent the messianic redemption and the society envisioned for it. In its earliest form, the prayer cursed Christians, apostates to Christianity, sectarians, and enemies of Israel. Drawing on the shifting liturgical texts, polemics, and apologetics concerning the prayer, Langer traces the transformation of the birkat haminim from what functioned without question in the medieval world as a Jewish curse of Christians, through its early modern censorship by Christians, to its modern transformation within the Jewish world into a general petition that God remove evil from the world. Christian censorship played a crucial role in this transformation of the prayer; however, Langer argues that the truest transformation in meaning resulted from Jewish integration into Western culture. Eventually, the prayer shed its references to any specific category of human being and lost its function as a curse. Reconciliation between Jews and Christians today requires both communities to confront a long history of prejudice. Ruth Langer shows through the birkat haminim how the history of one liturgical text chronicled Jewish thinking about Christians over hundreds of years.

Jewish Curses for All Occasions

Jewish Curses for All Occasions PDF Author: Benjamin Einhorn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Jewish wit and humor
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Get Book Here

Book Description


If You Cant' Say Anything Nice, Say it in Yiddish

If You Cant' Say Anything Nice, Say it in Yiddish PDF Author: Lita Epstein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781906217075
Category : Blessing and cursing
Languages : en
Pages : 202

Get Book Here

Book Description
You don't have to be Jewish to get back at the shmendriks of the world! Yiddish - the most colourful language in the history of mankind. What other language gives you a whole dictionary of ways to tell someone to drop dead? That schmuck, for instance, who got promoted over you? He should be transformed into a chandelier, to hang by day and to burn by night. In these endlessly entertaining pages, you will find the perfect insult for every occasion, from the short and sweet (A plague on you - a finsteren yor) to the whole megillah (He should marry the daughter of the Angel of Death - khasene hobn zol er mit di malekh hamoves tokhter). Complete with hundreds of the most creative curses for the putzes and kvetchers of the world, together with the fascinating background of their origins and much Jewish wisdom born of suffering over the centuries, this is an indispensable guide for Jews and Gentiles alike. When it comes to cursing someone who sorely needs it, may you never be at a loss for words again. After Amo, Amas, Amat it's time to enjoy the joys of Yiddish! This work is very funny, and scholarly too. If you don't buy this book, may a soft balcony fall on your head! It contains all the wisdom (and curses!) born of the Jewish experience over thousands of years.

My First Yiddish Word Book

My First Yiddish Word Book PDF Author: Joni Sussman
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group
ISBN: 1467751758
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Get Book Here

Book Description
Did you know that Yiddish is written in Hebrew letters but pronounced more like German? Introduce your kids to their mama loshen (mother tongue) and open the door to their cultural heritage! The basic Yiddish vocabulary includes more than 150 words for family members, objects in the home and school, colors and numbers. Each concept is presented with a bright picture, the Yiddish word, and the translation and transliteration. The once-thriving language, spoken by millions, is undergoing a revival, and kids will enjoy learning to speak the colorful tongue.