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Tonight I spent four hours at the Siyum HaShas. Truthfully, had I known how long it was going to be, or what was going to happen there, I don't know if I would have gone.
Still, I did go, and the thing is this. I have all the respect in the world for the people who finished Daf Yomi. I celebrate them and admire their acheivement in the field of Gemara.
What I don't get is the program director for the event. When they planned a three hour show, did they put any thought into how they would cram so much activity into those three hours. This was a huge thing, and it took place during dinner time, from 5:40 - 10:30. Ending at nine would have been tolerable; going beyond was pushing me beyond limits that i care to traverse.
And while I am thinking about the Siyum, there is one more thing. Anyone who stands up before a large crowd of American Jews and speaks in yiddish should have his speaking liscense permanently revoked. There is no place in mainstream American Judaism for that language. you want to hide out in some little clandestine coven with a few others who speak yiddish, go ahead and talk to your hearts content. But don't stand before what was most liekly the largest Jewish crowd to ever witness a mass media event like tonight and talk in Yiddish.
The message is lost to the masses, and instead we are told that you don't care about the language we speak or what we think. So don't show up talking yiddish. We've already tuned you out.
Still, I did go, and the thing is this. I have all the respect in the world for the people who finished Daf Yomi. I celebrate them and admire their acheivement in the field of Gemara.
What I don't get is the program director for the event. When they planned a three hour show, did they put any thought into how they would cram so much activity into those three hours. This was a huge thing, and it took place during dinner time, from 5:40 - 10:30. Ending at nine would have been tolerable; going beyond was pushing me beyond limits that i care to traverse.
And while I am thinking about the Siyum, there is one more thing. Anyone who stands up before a large crowd of American Jews and speaks in yiddish should have his speaking liscense permanently revoked. There is no place in mainstream American Judaism for that language. you want to hide out in some little clandestine coven with a few others who speak yiddish, go ahead and talk to your hearts content. But don't stand before what was most liekly the largest Jewish crowd to ever witness a mass media event like tonight and talk in Yiddish.
The message is lost to the masses, and instead we are told that you don't care about the language we speak or what we think. So don't show up talking yiddish. We've already tuned you out.
posted by Air Time at 12:36 AM
4 Comments:
Some yiddish sentences so you can feel you know what's going on.
De lehrer is a hunt - the teacher is a dog
De Ber est mit a lefel - the bear ate with a spoon.
De shvester zest de bruder - the sister hit the brother.
Enjoy!
Ich hob nisht kin gelt. - I have no money.
Holtz mir holt? - Do you love me?
Vus machtz du? - What up, Dude?
If the yiddish portion of the evening would have been limited to six sentences -- any six sentences -- it wouldn't have been so bad.
I felt like I was trapped at a bar mitzvah.
I was at the Javits Center where we had a satellite feed. I would say a nice majority of the people there were chassidish. When the yisddish began, the producers would have some lame attempt at translation-but would ultimately give up when the yiddish proved to be too fast for anyone to transalate. What really pissed me off was when the english translation would start, all the chassidim would start hissing and 'ssshhhh'ing.
(on a side note, I was walking down the aisle at the start and there was this large man-I'll leave his affiliation out of this-was pushing and shoving to get by me. I must admit that I took great pleasure in giving this guy a good gezunte shove where he practically went flying into the seats. I walked away with a "you never heard of excuse me??" while he was left trying to disentangle himself from some poor hapless guy!)
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