Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (P.S.)

From The Three Stooges to Seinfeld , Born to Kvetch is a smart and witty portrait of Yiddish and its relationship to both Jewish culture and American life. “An earthy romp through the lingua franca of Jews.... This treasure trove of linguistics, sociology, history and folklore offers a fascinating look at how, through the centuries, a unique and enduring language has reflected an equally unique and enduring culture.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review The main spoken language of the Jews for more than 1,000 years, Yiddish offers a comprehensive picture of the mind-set that enabled them to survive a millennium of unrelenting persecution across Europe. Through the idioms, phrases, metaphors, and fascinating history of this wonderful tongue, Michael Wex gives us a moving and inspiring portrait of a people, and a language, in exile. From tukhes to goy, meshugener to bobe mayse (cok-and-bull story), Born to Kvetch offers a wealth of material, some that has never appeared in English before, on all elements of Yiddish life, including food, nature, divinity, humanity, and even sex.

The entry for kvetchn (the verbal form) in Uriel Weinreich's Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary reads simply: press, squeeze, pinch; strain. There is no mention of grumbling or complaint. You can kvetch an orange to get juice, kvetch a buzzer for service, or kvetch mit di pleytses, shrug your shoulders, when no one responds to the buzzer that you kvetched. All perfectly good, perfectly common uses of the verb kvetchn, none of which appears to have the remotest connection with the idea of whining or complaining. The link is found in Weinreich's strain which he uses to define kvetchn zikh, to press or squeeze oneself, the reflexive form of the verb. Alexander Harkavy's 1928 Yiddish-English-Hebrew Dictionary helps make Weinreich's meaning clearer. It isn't simply to strain, but to strain, as Harkavy has it, at stool, to have trouble doing what, if you'd eaten your prunes the way you were supposed to, you wouldn't have any trouble with at all. The connection with complaint lies, of course, in the tone of voice: someone who's kvetching sounds like someone who's paying the price for not having taken his castor oil—-and he has just as eager an audience. A really good kvetch has a visceral quality, a sense that the kvetcher won't be completely comfortable, completely satisfied, until it's all come out. Go ahead and ask someone how they're feeling; if they tell you, Don't ask, just remember that you already have. The twenty-minute litany of tsuris is nobody's fault but your own.

—-from Born to Kvetch

The New York Times - William Grimes

Mr. Wex, a Yiddish translator, university teacher, novelist and stand-up comic, has many such examples up his sleeve, but Born to Kvetch is much more than a greatest-hits collection of colorful Yiddish expressions. It is a thoughtful inquiry into the religious and cultural substrata of Yiddish, the underlying harmonic structure that allows the language to sing, usually in a mournful minor key.

“Wise, witty and altogether wonderful.... Mr. Wex has perfect pitch. He always finds the precise word, the most vivid metaphor, for his juicy Yiddishisms.” —William Grimes, The New York TimesAs the main spoken language of the Jews for more than a thousand years, Yiddish has had plenty to lament, plenty to conceal. Its phrases, idioms, and expressions paint a comprehensive picture of the mind-set that enabled the Jews of Europe to survive a millennium of unrelenting persecution: they never stopped kvetching—about God, gentiles, children, food, and everything (and anything) else. They even learned how to smile through their kvetching and express satisfaction in the form of complaint.In Born to Kvetch, Michael Wex looks at the ingredients that went into this buffet of disenchantment and examines how they were mixed together to produce an almost limitless supply of striking idioms and withering curses (which get a chapter all to themselves). Born to Kvetch includes a wealth of material that's never appeared in English before. You'll find information on the Yiddish relationship to food, nature, divinity, humanity and even sex.This is no bobe mayse (cock-and-bull story) from a khokhem be-layle (idiot, literally a “sage at night” when no one's looking), but a serious yet fun and funny look at a language that both shaped and was shaped by those who spoke it. From tukhes to goy, meshugener to kvetch, Yiddish words have permeated and transformed English as well.“This treasure trove of linguistics, sociology, history and folklore offers a fascinating look at how, through the centuries, a unique and enduring language has reflected an equally unique and enduring culture.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review A Serious But Fun Look At Yiddish Idioms, Phrases, And Metaphors. Kvetch Que C'est? : The Origins Of Yiddish -- Six Feet Under, Baking Bagels : Yiddish In Action -- Something Else To Kvetch About : Yiddish Dialects -- Pigs, Poultry, And Pampers : The Religions Roots Of Yiddish -- Discouraging Words : Yiddish And The Forces Of Darkness -- You Should Grow Like An Onion : The Yiddish Curse -- If It Wasn't For Bad Luck : Mazl, Misery, And Money -- Bupkes Means A Lot Of Nothing : Yiddish And Nature -- Making A Tsimmes : Food, Kosher And Treyf -- A Slap In The Tukhes And Hello : Yiddish Life From Birth -- Bar Mitzvah -- More Difficult Than Splitting The Red Sea : Courtship And Marriage -- Too Good For The Goyim : Sex In Yiddish -- It Should Happen To You : Death In Yiddish -- Glossary. Michael Wex. Includes Bibliographical References. A humorous history of the Yiddish language from the middle ages to today traces the origins of numerous everyday terms, citing events throughout the past one thousand years that contributed to Jewish European communication practices