Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Di Mayseh fun di Tzig


(play it loud)

פון מאקס כהן

A story written and filmed by seemingly Yiddishist students at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. I wonder what the message is that the author is trying to convey; with the goat looking for greener pastures, the son following the goat and leaving, and the father killing the worthless Tzig before he reads the note his son wrote and attached to the goat's neck. Is there a subliminal message here about the cruelty of the father to both the son and the goat? What about when the old man says "zi hut altz, un fohrt kayt zi di shtrick;" is that some kind of Mussar Shmuess how man always looks for greener pastures, when all that he needs is right at home?

I hate it when I don't understand the messages these types of stories try and send, It makes me feel so inadequate, and uneducated.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

עמך אנכי בצרה

Anonymous said...

ich farshtei oich nisht.

Mottel said...

I find their Yiddish to be rather drab to listen too . . .
Now the Yiddishisten of Warsaw and Vilnius -they were a pleasure!

Anonymous said...

The original story is a Yiddish legend of age. (Definitely not written by some Yiddish students from NY in the 21st century). The story was adapted recently through the Nobel prize laureate Shai Agnon, an Israeli writer.
For a discussion about the origins of the story and the motifs that could be found in it see:

http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/Mazkirut_Pedagogit/Sifrut/SipurKatzar/AgnonShmuelYosef/MaaseEz.htm

Anonymous said...

Thats because you ARE uneducated you self-hating Jew.