He other truth is, being light of heart, loving, and laughing through life will be an antidote to many poisons. It will strengthen your immune system to fight off many ills. Hatred, resentment, and non-forgiveness will break down your health more than cigarettes and booze.

In short: Materialistic unbelief. Full-blown denial of God’s central role in deciding how long anyone is going to live.

But let’s keep pretending there’s absolutely no conflict between science and religion…

I almost drove off the road in Alabama as I was listening to a college football radio station and I hear this red neck sports guy is on and he says about some coach “He has some real CHOOTZ PA.” with a heavy emphasis on the PA. And hearing Aussies adopting Yiddish words without a clue really cracked me up. They love Seimfeld by the way, go figure.

Colon Powell shocked some Israeli PM by speaking Yiddish. He used to work for a Kosher butcher in the Bronx.

My favorite Jewish quip – If one poysun calls you an ass—-eh, not so bad. If two people call you an ass……wear a saddle.

re: censorship

Sometimes even Yiddish gets censored. Once I was watching Blazing Saddles on TV and on the sound track Lily von Shtup was rendered Lily von Shhhhh.

And often onomatopoetic: kvetch. shtup.

Several centuries ago, the Pope decreed that all the Jews had to convert to Catholicism or leave Italy . There was a huge outcry from the Jewish community, so the Pope offered a deal: he’d have a religious debate with their leader. If the Jews won, they could stay in Italy ; if the Pope won, they’d have to convert or leave.

The Jewish people met and picked an aged and wise Rabbi to represent them in the debate. However, as the Rabbi spoke no Italian, and the Pope spoke no Yiddish or Ladino, they agreed that it would be a ‘silent’ debate.

On the chosen day the Pope and rabbi sat opposite each other.

The Pope raised his hand and showed three fingers. The Rabbi looked back and raised one finger.

Next, the Pope waved his finger around his head. The Rabbi pointed to the ground where he sat.

The Pope brought out a communion wafer and a chalice of wine. The Rabbi pulled out an apple.

With that, the Pope stood up and declared himself beaten and said that the Rabbi was too clever. The Jews could stay in Italy .

Later the cardinals met with the Pope and asked him what had happened.
The Pope said, “First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity. He responded by holding up a single finger to remind me there is still only one God common to both our faiths.

“Then, I waved my finger around my head to show him that God was all around us. The Rabbi responded by pointing to the ground to show that God was also right here with us.

“I pulled out the wine and host to show that through the perfect sacrifice Jesus has atoned for our sins, but the Rabbi pulled out an apple to remind me of the original sin.

He bested me at every move and I could not continue.”

Meanwhile, the Jewish community gathered to ask the Rabbi how he’d won.

“I haven’t a clue,” said the Rabbi. “First, he told me that we had three days to get out of Italy , so I gave him the finger.
“Then he tells me that the whole country would be cleared of Jews but I told him emphatically that we were staying right here.”
“And then what?” asked a woman.

“Who knows?” said the Rabbi. “He took out his lunch, so I took out mine.”

Alter Kocker: An old man or old woman.
An alteh machashaifeh: An old witch

You are completely correct that Yiddish has an inordinate number of terms of sarcasm and humorous derision. I used to make that same joke—that Eskimos have all those words for snow and Yiddish has all those words for loser. And yes, the Eskimo-has-so-many-words-for-snow thing is somewhat of a myth; I wrote a bit about it here (and if you want to follow some interesting discussions in the comment section of that post, the comments are in backwards order because they were automatically transferred from my old blog, so you have to scroll down to the bottom to start reading in an order that will make sense).