So What Do You Taynah?

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By Mordechai Schiller
Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 2:49 pm | " "

Taynah is Hebrew for claim. In Yiddish, from the Hebrew, it means complain, argue or plead. Now, considering the
fact that you may not be claiming anything; nor complaining (thank G-d), nor pleading anything what on earth did I
mean?
I should tell you that I wasnt actually writing in Hebrew or Yiddish. (And I dont mean the alphabet.) I was writing in
Yeshivish a mixed language of Hebrew, Aramaic, Yiddish and English.

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Yes, yes, I know. Yeshivish is not really a language. Chap nisht (literally, dont grab the Yiddish equivalent of dont
jump the gun). Well get to that later.
Writing in The Jerusalem Post, David Sarna was irked by an email that came his way from someone organizing a
habura, by which he meant a group for Talmud study.
That was Exhibit A. Exhibit B was a posting on intellectual property, styling it Mini Haburah: Intellectual Property:
Nehneh and Shutfus.
Why was he so irked? Because, he said, Habura means wound. What both meant was havura.
He then asked, Why did these erudite shul members transliterate [the word] as habura instead of havura, adding
an unwanted dagesh [dot]? Then he made a point of the missing dot:
The distinction amounts to a mere dot. As Hillary Rodham Clinton said in her testimony on Benghazi, What
difference does it make? To the Talmud, it makes a world of difference.
Then he found out the writers werent writing in Hebrew. He was informed that it was Yeshivish.
Mr. Sarna would really go dotty over an exchange of emails I had with my eminent colleague Rabbi Dovid Schwartz.
Rabbi Schwartz was proofreading an article I had edited and he questioned a transliteration:
The article said, Today, when there are no korbanos, the Pesikta dRav Kahana tells us, uneshalmah parim
sefaseinu. (Since we are unable to offer sacrifices, we substitute our prayers.)
Rabbi Schwartz looked up the verse ( Hoshea 14:3) and, lo and behold, theres no dot in the letter that would have
rendered the word parim. Thus the correct reading should be uneshalmah farim sefaseinu pronouncing the
word as farim, with a soft feih, rather than a hard peih.
I shot back from the hip: Over my head. Popular pronunciation vs. precision. Bottom line: How are you going to
keep them down on the farim once theyve heard Parim?
(If youre too young to get that, ask me after class.)
Dovid Katz, a Brooklyn-born Yiddish scholar who relocated to Vilnius, wrote Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of
Yiddish. Unfinished, because even though Katz isnt Orthodox, he views the Yiddish spoken by Chassidim and in
yeshivos as the great hope for the future of a language prematurely declared dead. He observed, A new dialect of
English, sometimes called Yeshivish, is taking over as the vernacular in everyday life in some circles in America and
elsewhere.
Katz cited Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish, by Chaim Weiser. While Yeshivish draws on Hebrew,
Aramaic, Yiddish and English, much of the English is a literal translation of Yiddish or Talmudic phrases. Yeshivish,
according to Weiser, might be considered a linguistic descendant of Talmudic Aramaic. It is an outgrowth of the
recognition that the most important goal in life is to learn and understand Torah. Certainly, the goal of ensuring the
successful transmission of ageless Torah outweighs any perceived advantage of maintaining the purity and integrity
of a particular language.
So now, lets look at What do you Taynah?
It is a greeting in Yeshivish that presumes (a) you are most probably thinking about a Talmudic issue (what else
would you be thinking about?) and (b) you likely have some analysis or insight to discuss.
To illustrate the unique qualities of the lexicon, Weiser offers some classic English works with translations into
Yeshivish. For example, The Pledge of Allegiance:

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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under G-d, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Yeshivish Translation [with some annotation]:
I am meshabed [I obligate] myself, bli neder [G-d willing], to hold shtark [be loyal] to the siman [symbol] of the
United States of America and to the medina [nation state] which is gufa [ultimately] its tachlis [purpose]; one festa
chevra [tightly knit band], bezras Hashem [with the help of G-d], echad veyuchid [united as one], with simcha [joy]
and erlichkeit [goodness] for the gantza oilam [all of us].
As Abie Rotenberg sang in Yeshivishe Reid*:
Its descriptive and precise, punkt the language to be used,
If you want to shteig in learnin or just to chap a shmooze.
Aderaba, its essential its chashivus is immense.
Why without it the Gemora, would lechoira make no sense!
So listen close yeshiva guys, its the shtoty thing to do
Be marbitz this great language to all our fellow Jews.
*Yeshivishe Reid, Abe Rotenberg, used with permission.
Please send smiles, sticks and stones to language@hamodia.com.

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