Once more we dive headlong into the High Holidays. But as we well know, it’s not all “épl un hónik” (apples and honey). Part of the spirit of the season is repentance. And that has to do with sin. It turns out that the High Holidays provide Yiddish with a ready supply of vocabulary on that score. Despite a welter of synonyms, which we will get to momentarily, there are two primary words for sin in Yiddish. The first is the Germanic one: “zind” (compare that to German, Sünde). This is the most generic term. We easily understand the phrases “míes vi di zind” (as ugly as sin) or “fínster vi di zind” (as dark as sin). Since it is believed the weight of transgression leaves its mark on the transgressor, we can say “zorg un zind leygn zikh afn pónem” (worry and sin are written on the face). The verb is “zíndikn” (to sin), and the sinner, a “zíndiker.”
The other primary word for sin comes from Hebrew, namely “avéyre” (plural, “avéyres). The Hebrew root means to go across, which shares precisely the same semantic origin, via Latin, as English “transgress.” The word “avéyre” encompasses a wider range of associations and figurative expressions than “zind.” Think of the register and poetic differences in English between “sin” and “iniquity.” The word does occur in a general sense similar to “zind.” For example, “tsoln vi far an avéyre” (literally, to pay as if for a sin), that is, to pay a heavy price. Or to take another example, “tsíen vi tsu an avéyre” (literally, to be dragged as if to sin), that is, dragged kicking and screaming. But it also has strong Jewish resonances as well. One way of expressing that a person abhors something is “er hot es lib vi a frúmer yid an avéyre” (literally, he loves it the way a pious Jew loves sin). Since we’ve invoked pious Jews, even they are not necessarily immune to sin. As the saying goes (which rhymes only in the Lithuanian dialect), “kénen téyre iz nit keyn shter tsu an avéyre” (knowledge of Torah is no obstacle to sin).
Using this same root, a sinner is a “bal-avéyre” or a “bal-avéyrenik.” As for the verb, there it gets a little more complicated. One can use the Hebraic “óyver zayn,” as in “zey zénen óyver” (they are sinning) or “er iz óyver an avéyre” (he is committing a sin). One can also use the verb “ópton,” which means generally to accomplish something, and in more specific circumstances to commit or perpetrate something. “Ikh tu im op” means “I am playing a trick on him.” To intensify things you could say, “Ikh hob im ópgeton af térkish,” meaning “I played a really nasty trick on him.” Interestingly, you can use the verb “ópton” with “avéyre” to mean “commit a sin,” but that same verb is not used with “zind.”
A final note about “avéyre” before moving on: it is not uncommon to find the word pronounced “nevéyre.” By way of explanation, let’s take a couple of examples from English. The word “orange” originally had an “n” at the beginning (compare to Spanish “naranja” and older Italian “narancia”), which eventually migrated to the indefinite article; so “a norange” became “an orange.” Similarly with the word “apron,” which was originally “napron” (compare to French “napperon”). An interesting example in the other direction is the word “newt,” which absorbed the “n” from the indefinite article. In that case, however, English still retains the original non-“n” form in the word: “eft,” which is a technical term for a young or juvenile newt. Thus from “an avéyre” to “a nevéyre.”
It is Yom Kippur that fills the ranks of Yiddish’s synonyms for sin. “Ovn” (from Hebrew “avon”); “áshme” (from Hebrew “ashmah”); “khet” (from Hebrew “khet”). These, however, are largely poetic or specialized in some way. On Yom Kippur, they are used mostly as part of the two confessions of sins — the so-called long confession, known as “al khet,” and the short confession, known as the “víde” (Hebrew, “vidui”). One of the verbs indicating to confess one’s sins is “zogn víde” (to say the vidui). One can also “shlogn zikh oshámnu” (literally, beating oneself to the oshámnu), which comes from the first word of the short confession, “oshámnu” (we have sined), as well as a reference to the practice of striking one’s chest with one’s fist at the reciting of each of the sins listed in the litany. One can just as easily “shlogn zikh al khet,” this time referring to the first words, repeated continuously, of the long confession. From this arose the expression, “fun al khet vert men nit fet” — you don’t put on weight from penitence. But Yiddish is also aware of the sometimes exaggerated character of such outward expression of penitent piety. From this arose the idea that, “a froy brengt aróys mer in a krekhts éyder a mánsbil in gantsn al khet” — a woman expresses more in a groan than a man in the whole of his al-khet confession. Many a true word.
But of course, there’s more than one side to a coin. We are only human beings, after all. And “ven nit di móyre volt zis gevén di avéyre” — if it weren’t for the fear, the sin would be sweet.
On that note, let me wish you all a sweet new year. As always, “léyent gezúnterhéyt” — read it in good health.
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