finitum non capax infiniti

This summer I did something that I have not done at all since…well, since I can even remember: I read a bunch of books that had nothing to do with the Bible/Biblical Studies/Theology. It started with reading 1776 by David McCullough and Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Then I finally took my sister Jennifer’s advice and read through all of the Harry Potter books. I finished off the summer by reading all of Chuck Palahniuk’s books (he’s the guy who wrote the novel Fight Club….my favorite being a tie between Survivor, Rant, and Invisible Monsters) and The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. I found that reading these books went a lot quicker than reading, say, The Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism.

One of the books I also got to read is called Born to Kvetch by Michael Wex. I had heard Wex on NPR in 2005 when his book was released, but never found the time to read his book until this summer. I’m glad that I did.

Born to Kvetch is an interesting look into the development and culture of the Yiddish language. Wex makes learning the origins and evolution of Yiddish fun to read as he writes with irony and humor. The term kvetch is a verb in Yiddish which means “complain.” For the European Jews who started the language we know as Yiddish, kvetching was a way of life, a way of knowing, a way to view the world.

Ever since the nation of slaves that came to be known as Israel were led into the wilderness under Moses, kvetching has been a part of Jewish life. They are told they are God’s chosen people and promised land forever…and then they are exiled. Modern Jews still view themselves as in exile and waiting for the Messiah. This is the basis for kvetching. Wex explains,

Judaism is defined by exile, and exile without complaint is tourism, not deportation: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion” (Ps 137.1). If we stop kvetching, how will we know that life isn’t supposed to be like this? If we don’t keep kvetching we’ll forget who we really are. Kvetching lets us remember that we’ve got nowhere to go because we’re so special. Kvetching lets us know that we’re in exile, that the Jew, and hence the “Jewish,” is out of place everywhere, all the time.

Throughout the book Wex describes how the language of Yiddish not only conveys the Jewish mindset, but also represents it. The words and phrases Yiddish uses says something not just about what is meant to be said, but also about the worldview of the person who is saying it.

For instance, there are two Yiddish phrases that Wex presents that have the same meaning as bull-crap does in English. One is a mamoshes vi der goyisher got, which literally means “as much substance as the god of the Gentiles.” This was used by Jews living in Germany to spit the German Christians. The “god of the Gentiles” is meant to mean Jesus and the “substance” is meant to refer to the Eucharist. Their point in using this phrase as a substitution for b.s. was to say, in a coded Yiddish way, that just like Jesus is not really present in the Eucharist like the Christians claim he is, you’re story or fact is also untrue.

The second phrase used to mean b.s. in Yiddish is nisht geshtoygyn un nisht gefloygn. It literally means “it didn’t climb up and it didn’t fly.” This was referring to Jesus dying on the cross and resurrecting from the dead. The Yiddish speaker, when using this, was say that just like Jesus didn’t die on the cross and rise from the dead, you’re story or fact is also untrue.

Wex continues to give many examples of how the language of Yiddish shapes Jewish life and worldview. It was interesting to read coming from a bayit goyim (Gentile home). It was also interesting to see how deeply the Hebrew Bible has shaped Jewish life in the modern era much more than even the NT shapes Christian’s lives. Even though it was a funny book that was aimed at a popular audience, I still found myself challenged at several points to take Scripture more seriously: to read it, know it, and live according to it.