Comments on: Speaking Yiddish http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2009/03/speaking-yiddish.shtml Keeping values and meaning in focus. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:16:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jon Baker http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2009/03/speaking-yiddish.shtml/comment-page-1#comment-51043 Jon Baker Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.aishdas.org/asp/?p=568#comment-51043 As is my wont, I see it as a change in technology. You look out the window, you see a big black car (or in Israel, a small white car) with tinted windows. You see the taxi, you don't see the driver. In the pre-automobile period, you'd see a wagon or hansom, where the driver sits on a high bench at the front of the carriage or wagon. So the most prominent thing is the driver. So Yiddish developed in a time when people used horses for transport, and reflects that technology. Our usage reflects our reality, without need to resort to homiletics about the degenerate state of American culture. As is my wont, I see it as a change in technology. You look out the window, you see a big black car (or in Israel, a small white car) with tinted windows. You see the taxi, you don’t see the driver.

In the pre-automobile period, you’d see a wagon or hansom, where the driver sits on a high bench at the front of the carriage or wagon. So the most prominent thing is the driver.

So Yiddish developed in a time when people used horses for transport, and reflects that technology. Our usage reflects our reality, without need to resort to homiletics about the degenerate state of American culture.

]]> By: moshe http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2009/03/speaking-yiddish.shtml/comment-page-1#comment-49043 moshe Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.aishdas.org/asp/?p=568#comment-49043 Gevaldig! Sums up, al regel achas, what America is all about. It is about everything but humans and, by extension, also humanity (metchlichkeit) Gevaldig!
Sums up, al regel achas, what America is all about.
It is about everything but humans and, by extension, also humanity (metchlichkeit)

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