A couple weeks ago I was Rochster for shabbos and decided to hang out with a random fan of mine who goes to U of R, mid conversation I found out that she speaks fluent Yiddish, amazing simply amazing. We had loads of fun, anyway I got her to do this rant in Yiddish and then she sent me an email which I am posting here. By the way I love chilling with random fans, so hit me up with an email or something. The rant is in Yiddish- but below is a thorough rundown as to what she is talking about.
Something that makes me crazy, is that you never know when you can call yourself a baal tshuva. When is it okay–where is the line? How frum must you become to be a BT, and how unfrum do you have to start before you can call yourself a BT? You know? it’s very easy for people who do nothing, they don’t keep kosher, they don’t keep shabbos, “i’m don’t do anything, and now i’m pretty frum, ohh lala i’m a bt now!” you can see it, they wear skirts, they keep shabbos, they won’t eat in nonkosher restaurants, very easy to see. fine. but what about me? i started out, my parents keep shabbos, we keep kosher–we ate in nonkosher restaurants, but vegetarian, you know he deal, whatever–um, but now, I started to think about it, and now it’s more important to me, and I’ve started doing more things, I’m still wearing pants, I’m still eating vegetarian out, but there’s other things, like I bench after I eat maybe, or, you know, or I say brachot, or…it’s just like my relationship with God is a little more….deep. it means something now. you know, and i think that in a way, I’m a baal teshuva, but I can’t say that i’m one, because they’ll think I’m like totally frum, and I started out not knowing anything– I went to day school! I went to solomon schechter and then a MO high school! what’s up with that??
I don’t know, I don’t understand it, it doesn’t make sense. but I decided in the end not to call myself a BT. i know what I am. I know what I do. I don’t care what other people…….want to call me or not……..that’s a whole other story…okay. bye.
-How do i stop this?
-It’s the shutter.
ALSO something I forgot to mention is that if any jew is constantly examining things in his or her judaism and working toward being a better jew or a better person and doing lots (or a little) mini-teshuva’s for specific things, isn’t that person a BT? and isn’t the point for everyone to constantly be self improving? then wouldn’t that make any jew a BT? WHERE IS THE LINE???
It’s as simple as SHABBOS, KASHRUS, and TAHARAS haMISHPACHA. No doubt there are degrees of observing these things, but if you’re actually making the effort, you’re in
Don’t know why the label matters though
^^yes!
Forget the labels, it is between you and Hashem.
“BT” wasn’t a term in my day. We just “became religious.” It meant/means more religious than yesterday, or more religious than you were raised to be, all relative.
Extra credit if your parents had fits or if you (like I had to do for a couple of years) ate kosher out and traif in your parents’ house.
“Badges? We don’t need no steenkin’ badges!”
Just be you. The rest will fall into place. Great rant. Thanks for the translation. 🙂 It’s nice to realize just how much Yiddish I do understand, and how much comes from German, since it’s enunciated clearly in this video. (And that’s funny, I thought it was Torah, Avodah and Gemilut Chasadim. -Pirkei 1:2) lol (I realize your three come from Torah, I’m just having fun. Too much seriousness in other comments.)
BT is a label use to term “newbies” that take on the entire experience of being frum. “Greenhorns” is probably a more appropriate word.
According to what I’ve learned, anyone that does teshuva by resolving to stop or not do any particular sin, and sticks with their resolution is considered as having done teshuva in regards to that sin.
Furthermore, they are then considered on a higher level than a tzadik in regards to that particular mitzva, as in the words of the Rambam “they refrain from the sin even though they already tasted it”.
A tzadik can become a rasha just by having immoral or idolatreous thoughts, a rasha can become a tzadik just by resolving to do teshuva for a particular mitzva or aveira. That is how dynamic the issue is.
When it comes down to it, we are all likely tzadikkim, reshaim and aspiring BT’s at the same time.
Chozer b’teshuva, Baal Teshuva, Tubishvat- whats the difference. They all mean the same thing.
But maybe we can clear things up by borrowing terminology that has been perfected by our fellow religions. We can substitute BT with BO+ . For example, we can attain more specific nuances such as “Born Again Negiyah Follower,” “Born again peyos wearer,” “Born Again Virgin,” “Born Again shomer shabbos,” “born again bentcher,” “born again minyan man slot number 5,” “born again minyan man- slot 10-F sixth alternate,” and “Born again diner of glatt kosher food unless there are no other choices and you haven’t eaten enough protein in a few weeks and someone offers you a really nice looking steak meal.”
P.s. that yiddish chick has alot of garbage to fill up 2 cans so high (in her living room not to mention the rest of the joint) before she considers dumping it out.
1) Very cool post/video
2) is it me or did she heavy a serious german accent to that Yiddish
3) Am I the only one who was very turned on by that??
I think there are 2 different yeddish accents – the kind that german jews use, & the kind that russian jews use. am i right? well one difference is that in my family, we say “keegel”, but i’ve heard tons of people say “kugel”. Also “zaguzunt” vs. “zaguzint”.
@Oy Vey It did sounds super, duper heavy on the German side of the accent. But it was amazing. Someday, I will know that much Yiddish …
I have nothing to argue to the discussion, though, as a convert and not a BT. I have been told, though, that BTs are more likely to marry converts than Frum-from-birth types. Wahoo?
hey everyone! the yiddish chick here!
1. rob, you’re hilarious. yes, i am a slob. to be fair, i had just moved in, and most of the garbage was plastic bags and such. my room is born again clean.
2. k and chavi: yes, there are two major yiddish dialects. russian, and polish. i speak a super duper polish yiddish, which my father calls “the cockney of yiddish.” we say most of our “ey” (as in heeeyyyy) as “ay”s (as in bite) and “oo”s as “ee”s. my grandmother says “oy vay” instead of “oy vey” and of course our whole family says “kigl” and “pirim.”
kudos for being able to speak it fluently! We all wish we could speak it, well I do at least
Wow. She speaks better Yiddish than I do. But the accent is a weird combo of Yekkie and Polish. It’s a Yiddish I’ve actually never heard before. It’s the “i” sound that is throwing me off which you pronounce like the i in “bit” as opposed to the e sound in “tree.” Whatever. You’re cool and get exactly what you are saying about who you are and stuff. Never let them know you’re doing good things. Way too many headaches.
you rock, jelen. well done. 😆
you guys rock! thanks for all the positive reinforcement. it warms my cockles.
Main Entry:
1cock·le
Pronunciation:
\?kä-k?l\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Old English coccel
Date:
before 12th century
: any of several weedy plants of the pink family; especially : corn cockle
What the heck is a cockle?
i meant the cockles of my heart. as in the nooks and crannies. as in “The wrinkled effect visible on a fabric resulting from inconsistent shrinkage.”
Main Entry 3: cockle
Function: noun; Etymology: Middle English kokell, ultimately from Middle French coquillé wavy or rounded like a shell, from coquille
Date: 15th century : pucker, wrinkle
Chossid, if the heart were an English muffin, it would be the part that holds what you put on it. ((linguistics))
Jelen, you said shrinkage. lol
i think its a great video. also about bt, one thing is as long as your doing more then the day b4. and i think shabbos and kosher help
Everyone is (or should be) a Baal Teshuvah – “For man is not righteous on the earth, only doing good and not sinning”
?? ??? ??? ???? ????, ??? ???? ??? ??? ????
BT is a label like all the others and we would all be better off without them (the labels that is)
Rejewvinate = reform who becomes orthodox
Conservative or Orthodox who become more religious = Frummer from Down Under
Orthodox to Reform = Exodox
Gemmatria scramble-
REform jew= formerER jew
Jelen, love your yiddish rant. I hate labels in general, but I would have to say anyone who is doing more than they were doing before is a “baal teshuvah” in the purest understanding of the world.
What is with me today? I mean word, not world. Sheesh.
Very impressive Yiddish — my three years of german learning came in useful!
And your final point is true and key: being a Baal teshuva is something we should all aspire to be — to be a little frummer than previously, and it should always be happening!
The bizarro thing is that despite not knowing more than some of the most common Yiddish words, I was actually picking up enough of that rant to make a really good guess. I don’t speak Polish either and could somehow follow my grandfather.
As to how frum? More than too little, less than too much. Go with a zen approach.
“You might be too Frum if……”
Speaking of Zen—-what if you get too religious? How will you know?
“You might be too Frum if……”
HF- How bout a list of signs that you are becoming too frum (like the Jeff Foxworthy gives the signs of you might be a Redneck).
No just make it “you might be frum if ….” that makes more sense . . . (has this been done already)?
Good point. I agree with that. We’re just Jewish, ok?
you dont ‘halt shabbes’ you are either shoymer shabbes or heet shabbes.
touche, anonymous. way to correct my yiddish! “heet shabbes” is way more correct, you’re right.
Yiddish?
Even Paul McCartney speaks yiddish.
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I didn’t know Galitzianers could be this sassy… or this sexy. 😉 I would guess most people with a bone to pick would be Litvaks, but being a sefardisch id (or “yid”, as it were), I wouldn’t know.
I’ve always said this: “BT” is a CULTURE. It’s about appearances and conformity, as well as “shedding the past”. Too often I see very bright Jewish individuals drowning in the anti-intellectual conformist milleu that is BT culture, mostly because they did not have the background that could allow them to discern between “acceptable” and “just plain ridiculous”.
As my Rov, a die-hard Litvak if there ever was one (as far as Conservative goes), joked: “What do you get when you combine a Yekke with a BT? A CHUMRA that arrives on time.”
Would YOU consider yourself a BT simply because you picked up in observance or religiosity? I myself would consider you more mahmira due to the observance factor, and that you’ve gotten stronger in dveykus (or “dvaykis”, as it were) because of your stronger personal connection to HQB”H. But BT? You appear not to subscribe to that culture, and yasher keyakh (“yoosher koyakh”?) on that.
Completely davka secular -> Reform/Conservative = ???
Reform -> Conservative = ??
Orthodox -> Conservative = ??
Haredi -> MO = ?
Haredi -> Indie Egalitarian Conservadox = WTF?!?!
Secular -> Intellectual Modern Sephardic Orthoprax = ?!?!
ALL of these are examples of people I know. The term “ba`al teshuva” could be (and has been) applied to some of these people, but they are not part of the same culture as some of those who proudly call themselves BTs.
wow, bar, that was really encouraging and inspiring! thank you!
As someone who has gone from totally non-observant to somewhere between Conservative and Modern Orthodox, I can totally relate.
(Actually, if you scroll down a few posts you can find my “How Frum Are You?” test- as long as I’m dealing with labels, I might as well take it to a silly extreme!)
That was how I started this blog- How frum are you? Well I am going to tell you how frum you are
Well Frum I don’t think you count as a BT. I would say, BT is someone like myself, who enjoyed pork and cheeseburgers for quite a long time (to remember the taste) until they realized that their grandmas/great-granfmas are Jewish and now all of a sudden the whole Torah and Mitzvos thing applies to them!
By the way, you never actually rant about such people:
people whose family are all Jews except for the mama’s mama = goyim VS people whose family are goyim except for mama’s mama= yidden
How fair is that???? Why should people who only have a Jewish grandma identify themselves with her and not with the rest of the fam???
It is not German yiddish versus Russian Yiddish dialect, it is Litvish (north-eastern) versus Polish/Ukranian (South-Eastern)