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Why is Yiddish considered a holy language if it is made up of German and other languages?
Because of the countless Torah learnt in it by Gedolei Yisroel for over 1,000 years. And the fact that it was the lingo franco, common tongue, of Klal Yisroel for a thousand years plus.
The “holy tongue” is Hebrew. Aramaic is secondarily holy because the Gemara was written in it.
Yiddish when it was spoken as the daily language of most Ashkenazi Jews was no more holy than English is in the US today. It had plenty of not so holy uses the same as any spoken language. The Forvetz (Forward), was at one time one of the most anti-religious newspapers in NYC, and it was published in Yiddish. (Now it’s not anti-religious, just non-religious, and it’s printed in English.)
In the US and – I believe – in Israel there has been a dispute because when the first Torah-observant immigrants came from Europe, they learned Torah in Yiddish because that was their mother tongue and some Gedolim insist that the tradition be carried on. Other Gedolim here in the US, such as Reb Moshe zatzal and Reb Yaakov zatzal, poskened that children should be taught Torah in the language they think in. For most students in the US outside of BP and Willy that would mean English.
So is Yiddish holy? Depends on who you ask. It’s all a matter of history.
And if you ask a Sefardi, he’ll probably ask, “What’s Yiddish?” Their daily language before/outside of Israel was/is Arabic or Persian.
There is only one topic which we are willing to continually re-discuss. This is not it.
(Hint: it rhymes with shmidduchim)
Who says it is? And if it is a holy language, is Ladino as well?
The forvetz was never the most anti-religious paper in NYC. That “honor” goes to the freiheitz which was worse. Ladino is not a holy language because sefardim have thankfully not succumbed to that particular fallacy.
In recent years, I think Ladino fell out of daily use, and Arabic replaced it, although it remains a language of beautiful music and poetry.
Midwest2; Sorry to say. You are factually wrong. The Sephardic Jews have a common language that is the equivalent of Yiddish to Ashkenazi Jews. That language is Ladino. It is based on Spanish with Hebrew and Arabic words mixed in. There were many Seforim authored in Ladino. One of the most famous is “Yalkut M’am Loez”, by R. Yaakov Koolee. It’s written in Hebrew letters.
“And if you ask a Sefardi, he’ll probably ask, “What’s Yiddish?” Their daily language before/outside of Israel was/is Arabic or Persian. “
Or Ladino, as others have noted.
There are more sefarim in Ladino than in Yiddish. There are more sefarim in Arabic than in Yiddish. There are more sefarim in English than in Yiddish. I’m not anti-Yiddish, but facts are facts.
That’s because the Yiddish speaking Gedolim of the past 1,000 years have written their Seforim HaKedoshim in Loshon Kodesh — which isn’t an everyday spoken language.
I heard that the Rambam’s Arabic Seforim were actually written in a Judao-Arabic language.
Popa, that was genuinely very funny. I actually LedOL.
I’ve been here only a few months and this topic keeps coming up.
I think French is more a “holy language” than Yiddish since before Yiddish even existed, Rashi used French in his commentary on the Torah.
I don’t particularly think that Yiddish is holy that being said I spent a summer living with my grandparents when I was a teen and I will say that I regret not having them teach me some yiddish.
They are secular but like most Jews of that generation in the USA they grew up speaking Yiddish at home and English at school (My grandfather also learned German, Latin and French)
The amazing thing is when a year or two ago a doctor asked him to write a sentence for some form of test he wrote out the first line of the Aenied, which he had learned in High School. He will be 99 this march!
My bubby A”H always used to say that hashem taught the torah to moshe rabbeinu in yiddish on har sinai and then when he came down he taught the torah in yiddish to the klal. some people didn’t want to learn the new language so Moshe rabbeinu finally gave up and split the klal into ashkenazim (those who learned yiddish) and sefardim (those who didn’t).
Yiddish is a holy langauage casue it is a language spoken by the Jews, and Only Jews!Has significance cause used as a hefresh between us and goyim! Is the key to keep us as yidden!
If I say “English is a holy language” will that motivate some here to learn it? 🙂
If I can speak German, and I know terms like “shabbos” and “yontif”, is that just as good?
Jews have spoken aramaic, Greek and Arabic. Does taht make them holy?
not I – Yiddish is a wonderful language, and I wish I knew more of it. However, Yiddish has only been the language of part of the Jewish people and for less than a thousand years. The hefresh is the Torah – knowing it and practicing it.
Yes, Aramaic (like Yiddish) is holy.
trying my best Yes, Aramaic ??(like Yiddish)???is holy.
WRONG totally different
This has been discussed previously
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/targum-onkelos-msinai-definiion-olease
and
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/aramaicladino-yiddish-judeo-_-from-when-why
Yiddish has been brought up in a number of older threads here. My main contribution to those threads is that I like the word Oisvarf. In addition, I also like the word hutzenplutz, but my Rebbe called it hutzenklutz which I like better.
Yeshivabochur123, I’m so sorry to hear that you grew up so misinformed and around such simple, uneducated people.
I’m glad you know better today.
The Aramaic that we are talking about is only one dialect of Aramaic…the Jewish version of it.
Same for Spanish (Ladino), German (Yiddish)and Arabic (just called Judeo-Arabic I think).
To me it seems like we have a history of taking the main spoken languages of where we are and be megayer them.
Shev143, why did you insult YeshivaBochur123? He told a cute joke. I really think you owe him an apology.
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