These organic tamari-roasted almonds are one of my favorite things to bring along on trips and festivals and places where you might want to have some provisions for the journey. In Yiddish צידה לדרך tseydo ladorekh, the food one brings along for the road, is a metaphor for good works that will serve as sustenance in the world to come, but what I want to tell you about right now is the bowl.
This beautiful bowl was made for me by my adored nephew, the Wee’an. The decorative elements are images from some of our most beloved alternate realities. The A-shaped thing on its side is, of course, a Starfleet insignia and the bagel-shaped ring is the seeing stone from The Spiderwick Chronicles. For those of you who have not had the pleasure, we learn in The Spiderwick Chronicles that the seeing stone reveals the vast civilizations of fairies, brownies and goblins, normally invisible in our universe. Well, you already know what I’m going to say next, right?
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LEARN YIDDISH!
There are gorgeously-colored and intricately-textured worlds lying just out of sight that will become accessible to you once learn the language. Yiddish is your seeing stone and the Yiddish language is the tseydo ladorekh without which you really cannot safely leave your house. What are you waiting for? Learn Yiddish already!
Classes at all levels begin February 16 at The Workman’s Circle.
Now is also the time to register for a Yiddish summer program.
You can study Yiddish in New York at the first and greatest summer program of all.
The Uriel Weinriech program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture of NYU and the YIVO institute is the jewel in the crown of both institutions. This is the original Yiddish boot-camp. If there is any way on earth you can possibly set aside six weeks, I have to insist that you enroll in this program.
If you are a full-time undergraduate college student, you can apply to the wonderful Yiddish Summer at the National Yiddish Book Center. Tuition is free!
You can study Yiddish in Vilnius, According to Leyzer Ran, the most Yiddish city in the world.
You can study Yiddish in Tel Aviv, a first taste of the epoch of redemption.
You can even study Yiddish in Paris. It’s Paris! You’re learning Yiddish! If it gets any better than this, I just can’t see how.
I am learning Hebrew right now, but would eventually love to learn Yiddish. This is a language that people cannot allow to be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteMy Rabbi and Rebbetzin speak Yiddish to their children. I love listening to them speak.
כ'האב נישט געליינט די גאנצע פאסט(נישט געדאגט, כ'וועל), אבער כ'מיין אז איר האט א טעות, גיט אכט ס'איז א ד' אין די ווארט "דרך".פ
ReplyDeleteMelissa, hope you will give it a try.
ReplyDeleteJoe,שכּח
I am in Sydney Australia and my mother speaks Yiddish only to her sisters and then only if something private is to be said. The language is basically dead in our family. I know no other family who speak it. I grew up learning all sorts of words and sometimes I surprise my mother with things I know and can totally remember. I have no idea how to spell yiddish words and I probably have an australian accent. Anyway just having had a baby I have recently been reminded of all the words to do with babies and things babies do. Sometimes my mother when she is quietly with the baby is talking to the baby in yiddish! The language is so colourful and elegantly descriptive. There is a lacking in the english language that quite can not cover the imagery that Yiddish conjures up. I often think of a word and I say to my husband the yiddish word for that is ... and he says it sounds funny but you can really feel it in the sound. You are the first person I have communicated to about this. My family don't talk about it. My grandfather is dead log ago but my grandmother lives far away in USA in Lakewood. She is in her 90s. I wish I could join your classes but it is geographically impossible. If you did classes via Liveperson.com at a reasonable rate I would consider it. By the way I am a wedding cake designer. I love food. My mum has taught me all the Hungarian/German recipes that she knows. We ate like that 100% when my grandparents came to visit when I was a kid. We only have it on special occasions or when we get a craving now.
ReplyDelete