Yiddish Proverbs and Idioms

Introduction

Some of the proverbs I have collected appeared previously in the yearbook Der hoyz-fraynd published by M. Spektor in Warsaw (1888–1889). The collection I am now presenting to the reader as the second edition is almost twice as voluminous as the first one and has been revised according to a completely different editorial principle. In this book, the proverbs are arranged by keywords, meaning that they are listed under the main concept to which the proverbs refer. For instance, all the proverbs that contain the word God as the main concept can be found under the keyword “God.” But there are many other proverbs that also contain the word God. The purpose of the index is to help people find these proverbs as well. The index indicates under which keyword and under what number one can find the proverb one is looking for. I hope that the readers will quickly understand how to use this feature.

I collected these proverbs in Russia, Poland, and Galicia over the course of approximately thirty-five years. But, unfortunately, I believe that this collection is still incomplete. Many proverbs are still missing, for instance from Lithuania, Romania, and other regions about which I lack familiarity. The reason for this deficiency is that this part of our folk literature has thus far been neglected. At least, I am not aware that any larger Yiddish proverb collection has been published from these areas. Therefore, I started to collect them myself; I started to listen to how our people speak to one another in the street and at the market, and on rare occasions I even got help from a friend who was also interested in the topic. But, as I mentioned before, this happened very rarely and brought few results. There was only one person, Mr. B. V. Segal, who gave me considerable help in the preparation of this second edition. I am thus obliged to express my gratitude to him.

One last thing remains to be said: as for the orthography, I followed the rules of the more modern Yiddish writers, but I had to make an exception with some words. I am certain that my readers will approve of this choice.

I truly hope that people will like these proverbs. I would be very happy if some readers were to take the trouble and continue collecting proverbs and make this work even more complete. [ . . . ]

Mentsh [Man/Person/One]

1. When someone becomes heated, he does not hear thunder and does not see lightning.
2. As long as a person lives, the whole world is too small for him; after he dies, the grave is enough.
3. When things go well for a person he forgets about God. (Similar in the Chumash/Five Books of Moses: You grew fat and gross and coarse—They forsook the God who made them [from Deuteronomy 32:15, JPS 2006 translation].)
4. The reason why God gave man two ears and one mouth is so he would listen more and speak less.
5. Every man is blind to his own faults. (See b. Shabbat 119a and b. Ketubbot 105b: A man cannot see [anything] to his own disadvantage.)
6. Every man has a madness of his own.
7. Every man must look at what is behind him and not at what is in front of him. (One must always remember what he once was and not what he might become.)
8. Before one gets to know a person, one must first eat a bushel of salt together with him.
9. Whichever road a man wants to take, it is God who leads him there. (See b. Makkot 10b: in the way in which a person wants to go, God will lead him there.)
10. A man’s nature changes every seven years.
11. One can forget everything except eating.
12. A decent person behaves decently in every situation.
13. Man is sometimes stronger than iron and sometimes feebler than a fly.
14. Man is like a cobbler: a cobbler needs a wife, and man needs a wife, too. (A humorous proverb.)
15. Man is like a fly. (Cf. 13.)
16. A person can’t have anything worse over him than another person.
17. Man is not born with a sack. (This means that man is born into this world without anything, he must earn everything through work.)
18. If man were a prophet he would never encounter any troubles. (Cf. 38.)
19. A person must never swear to anything.
20. A man with good manners can push his way through any door.
21. Man can bear more than ten oxen can carry. (Cf. 13.)
22. A sinful person must endure everything.
23. A man can easily fool himself.
24. Man is nothing but flesh and blood.
25. Man is what he is and not what he was. (Because one always changes according to his circumstances. See b. Rosh Hashanah 16a: man is judged only according to his actions up to the time of judgment.)
26. Man is like a carpenter—today he is alive, tomorrow he is dead. (A humorous proverb.)
27. Man walks in the dark and does not know what is happening behind his back.
28. Man has big eyes but cannot see his own mistakes.
29. Man has two choices: he can either slave away or sweat blood.
30. Man should not fear the future but rather repair what he ruined in the past.
31. Man sins, and the rooster is sacrificed. (This means that often innocent people are punished.)
32. Man proposes and God disposes. [Lit., Man thinks and God laughs.]
33. Man probably endures only out of curiosity. (People say jokingly that man wants to live long only to see what will happen in the world.)
34. Man travels, but God holds the reins. (Cf. 47.)
35. If only man were worth as much as God can help.
36. A man can harm himself ten times as badly as his enemies would harm him.
37. His worst enemies could not wish upon him as much as man can imagine for himself.
38. If every man were a prophet, there would be no need for eyes. (Cf. 18.)
39. If everyone pulled in one direction, the world would tip over.
40. If people knew what they thought about one another, they would kill each other.
41. Be a decent person and you’ll [be allowed to] sit in the sukkah. [I.e., if you behave decently, you’ll be welcome in the community.]
42. A person will become like the person they’re associated with.
43. Man should not be tried with all that he can endure. (Or: with all that he can get used to.)
44. You don’t know a man until you have conducted business with him.
45. You don’t know a man until you have sat in the same wagon with him. (Cf. 8.)
46. No two people and no two opinions are the same.
47. Things will be as God commands, not as man wants them to be. (Cf. 34.)
48. One has to explain oneself to other people, more often than one has to explain oneself to God.
49. Four kinds of people are considered as if they were dead: a pauper, a leper, a blind person, and a childless person. (See b. Nedarim 64b; b. Avodah Zarah 5a.)