[Avodah] "Hashem" as God's name

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org>
>>And before the  war, his Yiddish speaking father would have said "de
Aibishter" (the Most  High).<<




>>>>
I think, although I am not certain, that he would  have said "der Aibishter." 
 We Americans, those of us who retain a  smattering of Yiddish, have mostly 
forgotten that in Yiddish the definite  article must be masculine or feminine 
to match the gender of the noun.  In  English most nouns have no gender, so we 
are not even conscious of such a  thing (except for some old-fashioned 
constructions, like using the  pronoun "she" for ships and countries).   Even knowing 
that there is  such a rule in Yiddish, with most words I have no idea whether 
I should be using  "der" or "dos."  I think "di" is plural but I'm not even 
sure about  that.  I never speak Yiddish out loud because I am painfully aware 
that I  can't string together six words in Yiddish without making six mistakes 
in  grammar and pronunciation.  I love to hear the language spoken but as 
time  goes by, more and more native Yiddish speakers are leaving us, and more and 
more  oldsters speak plain American English.  I mourn the passing of the 
language  of my grandparents, the language of warmth and comfort, chicken soup and 
kugel  and faith and shelter in a storm and light in the darkness.




--Toby  Katz
=============






**************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel 
deal here.      
(http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20080905/cb67abd1/attachment-0001.htm>