What shlemiels these mortals be
Yiddish is well-known for having a large number of words to describe various complex shadings of fool. The European Jewish culture that gave us Yiddish displayed an exquisite (and humorous) sensitivity to and perception about the failures and foibles of humankind, including our propensity to delude ourselves.
So here are some forty Yiddish words for fool—and I don’t think that’s all that exist, either. One wouldn’t think there were so many distinct types, but there are. For example, who hasn’t known examples of these two (although I’d never heard either Yiddish word before)?:
Nar: He left his law practice to become a clown.
Nayfish: A doormat. When he’s robbed, he apologizes for being short on cash.
As for Obama, try this one on for size:
Ongeblussen: A self-involved blowhard. If his last name is Moses, he thinks the Bible gave him a mention.
There’s also an entire strain of traditional Jewish humor that involves tales of the Jews of Chelm, who are portrayed as foolish:
The jokes were almost always centred on silly solutions to problems. Some of these solutions display “foolish wisdom” (reaching the correct answer by the wrong train of reasoning), while others are simply wrong.
[NOTE: The title of this post is a paraphrase of a line of Puck’s from one of my favorite plays, Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The original goes like this:
…Helena is here at hand;
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover’s fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!]
What fools these mortals be. Always repeating the same cycle of mediocrity, yet expecting brilliant results. The absolutely shining examples of the mortal human race, are exiled, pulled down, and obliterated for being different, for being exceptional. Yet the Race thinks itself able to Progress… progress towards what exactly, Ultimate Entropy?
The American people, or at least some of the rarer breed, have begun to learn the true meaning of hate. Although many waste it on a figurehead, the Left’s Messiah, when the real threat is not merely the head.
What is next on the progression list I listed years ago? Acceptance? Discipline?
The Greek Tragedy of the Rise and Fall of the American experiment is supposed to be one where the audience knows not the final end. What do we call our present era, when the subject of the tragedy knows very well what the end is. A farce?
they must have a lot of experience dealing with fools…
tevy was a fool of one kind. and when his wife asked him if she loved him, she said as much without saying it…
The ship of fools is an allegory, originating from Plato, that has long been a fixture in Western literature and art. The allegory depicts a vessel without a pilot, populated by human inhabitants who are deranged, frivolous, or oblivious, and seemingly ignorant of their course.
I was friendly with a co-worker back in the 1980s, a Jewish chap. He was fond of insisting, “anyone who thinks all Jews are smart hasn’t met my relatives!”
Clarification, the audience knows in general that the end is not happy. Objectively, the audience can appreciate what happens without being prey to human emotions and social rules of the people they observe.
The allegory depicts a vessel without a pilot, populated by human inhabitants who are deranged, frivolous, or oblivious, and seemingly ignorant of their course.
Athenian Democracy, similar to current day, given Plato’s grudge against the Athenians for executing his mentor, teacher, and father figure. Even the philosopher and warrior philosophers have emotions, which they do not subliminate to Social Authority and the payCheck of their employers’ retirement fund.
Obama Hid North Korea Rocket Component Transfer to Iran
thats kind of foolish…
Is there a Yiddish word for combination of fool and knave?
Will obama enter the Yiddish lexicon as a word for describing a narcissistic punk bent on destruction?
CV:
Well, there’s “farbrecher” (con man).
Yum! Oh, I’ll have to dig through them. I look, first, for the ones that fit me in my various stages. It makes it easier to notice such in others, so when and where to avoid their advice, or them whole if there is nothing but foolishness of one sort or another. Most of us are at least partly foolish. Start at home, if nothing else, it is hoped, to shy away from folly… or at least perfect it? :p
It has been my privilege as a nurse to care for many old Austinites, Jewish and not. When downtown was, essentially Congress Avenue and Sixth Street, all of the business men and women knew one another. The Jewish community was small, of course, and the Temple was just a few blocks off the Avenue. One guy, Morris H. was so famously stupid, his every venture into idiocy was the talk of the small town that was the capital of Texas. He once lost money, for example, betting on a baseball game that was recorded and broadcast. While everyone else knew it was the recording, Morris did not. They told it after Temple on Saturday, and after church on Sunday. And, yes,the old ladies knew all the Yiddish words for fool. It appears that they all applied to poor Mory.
×”×¢×œ×¢× ×Ö· ××™×– ד×Ö¸ בייַ ×”×Ö·× ×˜,
×ון די ×™×•×’× ×˜ , מיסטוק דורך מיר ,
×¤Ö¼×œ×™×“×™× ×’ פֿ×ַר ×Ö· ליבה×ָבער ס ×ָפּצ×ָל .
וועלן מיר זייער פ×Ö·× ×“ פּ×Ö·×’×¢×Ö·× ×˜ זען ?
×”×ר , וו×ָס פ×Ö¸×ָלס די מ×ָרט×ַלז זיין !
… Helena iz do bay hant,
aun di iugnt , mistuk durkh mir ,
pliding far a libhober s optsol .
veln mir zeyer fand pageant zen ?
har , vos fools di mortalz zeyn !
I loved the second headline:
Legend has it that Eskimos (Inuit) have hundreds of words to describe snow. We Jews have hundreds of words for “pains in the neck.”
We have them because we need them.
In re the President: I don’t know if there’s a Yiddish word for “a man who digs the foundation out from under his own home — and yours — all the while proclaiming how virtuous he is. When the house collapses, he’ll blame you and pat himself on the back simultaneously”.
Interesting.
Narr with two r’s is standard German for fool and Verbrecher is standard German for criminal. A confidence man (‘con’ man) is a Hochstapler (as in Thomas Mann’s Felix Krull: Hochstapler).
I’ve found that as a (reasonably good) German-speaker, I can usually understand about 2/3 of spoken Yiddish….
Here is a motley collection.
Kapo should be on the list.
CV Says: Is there a Yiddish word for combination of fool and knave?
Schlemihl and Schlimazl
[hossenfeiffer incorporated… ]
remember laverne and shirley?
Schlemihl and Schlimazl
i mentioned this too…
ie. mentioned the used of the two terms in popular tv show (laverne and shirly) and mentioned tevy.. (then i went to look it up this morning, an voila… (voila is not yiddish… 🙂 )
I don’t know if there’s a Yiddish word for “a man who digs the foundation out from under his own home – and yours – all the while proclaiming how virtuous he is. When the house collapses, he’ll blame you and pat himself on the back simultaneously”.
schnorer… 🙂
[though not quite… ]
neo-neocon: “The title of this post is a paraphrase of a line of Puck’s from one of my favorite plays …”
I like how that line is used in the song, “Perfidia.” I’m not sure if it’s in the original, Spanish language version, but it is in the English version. You all probably know it, but if you haven’t, here’s a good version by Linda Rondstadt, https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bN946sNhvHc
catorenasci, I have found the same regarding german. I don’t know the history of Yiddish, but it seems almost like a pidgin German.
Rufus and catorenasci, the opposite is also true — my father spoke fluent Yiddish, so he had no problem with German; during the war, he often acted as an interpreter.
Artfl, if you think Jewish women in the shtetl had no way of getting dignity or respect except through their husbands, you don’t know much about Jewish women or the shtetl.
I never heard of the word “nayfish” either, but would not be surprised if it is the root of the word “nebbish”.
40 shades of fool? Is this the Jewish response to 50 shades of gray? Oy vay! 😉