The Secret of Yiddish
Aaron Zeitlin presents kabbalistic teachings clearly and didactically in his poetry. Nathan Wolski’s description of Zeitlin’s early writings as “mythopoiesis” accurately captures Zeitlin’s commitment to expressing the kabbalistic myths in Yiddish in a productive and usable manner. Whereas the Zohar was written in Aramaic, already an elite anachronistic, mostly literary language by the time it was written, Zeitlin chose to offer kabbalistic teachings in the Yiddish vernacular. In “The Secret of Yiddish,” Zeitlin offers a theory of Yiddish explained kabbalistically. He begins the poem by explaining Hebrew’s sacred status, as a point of contract with Yiddish:
Hebrew is eternity–as is Jerusalem.
It is the language of holy revelations,
Of true prophecy that is fulfilled,
Of the Song of Songs and of Psalms,
The language of God himself, Living and Eternal.
And Yiddish? The Kabbalah says:
Israel is Amalek in reverse.
Loshn-koydesh iz di eybikayt–vi s’iz Yerushalayim.
S’iz der shprakh fun giluim,
Fun nevue emeser vos vert mekayam,
Fun shir-hashirim un fun tehillim,
Di shprach fun got aleyn, al khai-vekayam.*
Un Yidish? Di kabole
Zogt: isroel iz amalek der farkerter.
Later, he describes Yiddish:
I shall explain
Yiddish kabbalistically!
The language of Israel’s reverse, Amalek,
We have turned over and reversed
Transformed it
To Yiddish moans and Yiddish tears,
To Yiddish grief for the shekhinah’s exile
Rozhinkes mit mandlen**
To Yiddish shrewdness
To Hasidic tale,
In heartfelt tekhines.***
Ikh taytsh
Yidish kaboledik!
S’loshn fun israel dem farkertn, Amalek,
Ho’mir mehapekh–geven oyf fakert,
Es farvandlt
In yidishn krekhts un in yidisher trer,
In yidishn troyer oyf goles hashekhina,
Farrozhniket es un farmandlt
In yidisher pikkhes,
In hasidisher mayse,
In hartsliken tekhines.
If Hebrew is understood as the holy language, Yiddish is the kabbalistic language, meaning in this case that it expresses divinity through contradiction and apophasis. Rather than being Jerusalem, Yiddish is understood through Amalek: the mythic enemy of the Jewish people. But just as Yiddish transforms German, the language of its oppressor and the national enemy, into its opposite form in a language that is distinctly Jewish, so does Israel, the nation of the Jews, reverse the evil of Amalek. The truth is not unrelated to falseness, divinity and profane are intimately tied, one being the reverse of the other.
If we take the apophatic implications of this poem even further, it might press us to interrogate what exactly Zeitlin means by Hebrew’s holiness. If the kabbalistic explanation of Yiddish is that it is the reverse of Amalek, and therein lies its holiness, then what is the kabbalistic explanation for Hebrew? If kabbalistic truth resides between the juxtaposition of opposites, in the transformation from one thing into its reverse, then the holiness of Hebrew becomes almost suspect in its straightforward transparency. The Yiddish word for Hebrew, loshn koydesh, means literally “holy tongue.” The reverse of Hebrew might be Amalek again, which then reverses to become Yiddish. At any rate, there is no way of understanding Jewish languages here without their opposite.
Lider, vol. 1, p. 329-30.
* “Raisins and almonds” is a reference to a very well-known Yiddish folksong, “Rozhinkes mit mandlen,” a song with very sentimental feeling
*** Tekhines are a form of prayer in Yiddish, unlike traditional Jewish prayer conducted in Hebrew. Tekhines could be written or conducted spontaneously, also in contrast to typical Jewish prayer which is not spontaneous and recites liturgy. Tekhines were conducted by men and women, but more frequently by women who were not educated in Hebrew and could only conduct personal prayer in their vernacular language, Yiddish.
