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Friday, November 14, 2008

And There Was Great Rejoicing צהלה ושׂמחה



דער צער איז מיר אָפּגעגאַנגען
My sorrow has melted away (der tsar iz mir opgegangen)

עס איז מיר אַראָפּ אַ שטײן פֿון האַרצן
A stone has been removed from my heart (es iz mir arop a shteyn fun hartsn)

מע װײסט ניט פֿאַר װאָס גאָט צו דאַנקען
One doesn’t even know what to thank God for (me veyst nit far vos got tsu danken)

והעיר שניפּישאָק צהלה ושׂמחה
And the city of Shnipishok rejoiced and was glad (ve-ho-ir snipishok tsahole vesimkhe).

This is a comical paraphrase of a verse from the Book of Esther
“And the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad” Shnipishok is a small city immediately north of Vilne (Vilna, Vilnius). It is the butt of many jokes because people from Shnipishok are always claiming to be from Vilne, and because it sounds funny.
None of this has anything to do with cabbage, except that cabbage makes me happy too.

4 comments:

  1. you have reminded me how very close we are to purim!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:01 AM

    No--what does it mean?

    ReplyDelete
  3. it means the joyous peysekh season will soon be at our throats.

    No sooner have the last echoes of the shofar faded away, than it is time to get out the peysekh keylim.

    ReplyDelete