A proverb is generally said to be a concentrate of folklore and folk-sagacity, a statement earthy, popular, and with an immediately felt point. However, the proverb is not this by origin but, as it were, by reaction. In a book of the New Testament, we find the following injunction: “Now speakest thou plainly and speakest no proverbs.” This indicates what the original idea of a proverb was: an enigma, a parable, a religious or philosophic statement with a hidden, esoteric meaning. But in the course of time the idea of a proverb was turned on its head. It came to be an oblique, “common” wisdom, a sharp and pungent contrast of the “facts of life” to all the rhetoric of intellectuals, priests, and politicians. “God loves the poor and helps the rich,” a Yiddish proverb says.
The Yiddish proverb, as the heir to the Bible, the Talmud, medieval Arabic philosophy, East European folklore, and the secular enlightenment of the modern era, has a wide expanse in which to sow and reap. It is armed with the inevitable ironic thrust against all “ideologies” which would rouge over the sordid trials of living, making a living, suffering, and dying. Already in Ecclesiastes we read: “A living dog is better than a dead lion”—there is no room here for the “noble lies” of chivalry. And a later proverb says succinctly: “The crow flies high and alights on a pig.” Nor is there any reason why the official representatives of the Jewish religion itself should be exempt: “Better an unknown thief than an out-of-town rabbi.”
The proverbs printed here are taken from a volumn, Yiddish Proverbs, edited by H. J. Ayalti, which is to be published shortly by Schocken Books as number 20 of the Schocken Library. They appear here by Schocken’s permission. The book will have the transliterated Yiddish text and an English translation by Isidore Goldstick on facing pages.—Ed.
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A friend is got for nothing, an enemy has to be paid for.
The tavern can’t corrupt a good man, the synagogue can’t reform a bad one.
A man should live if only to satisfy his curiosity.
“For example” is no proof.
The shlemiel lands on his back and bruises his nose.
A shrew of a wife may yet be somewhat in the right.
“Thou has chosen us from among the nations”—why did You have to pick on the Jews?
So many Hamans and but one Purim.
A dead man is mourned seven days, a fool—his lifetime.
Your health comes first—you can always hang yourself later.
When a Jew can’t be a cobbler, he dreams of being a professor.
When a poor man gets to eat a chicken, one of them is sick.
A man who’s too good for the world is no good to his wife.
If you’re going to fight with the rabbi, you’d better be on good terms with the saloonkeeper.
When a mother calls her child “bastard,” you can take her word for it.
With luck, even your ox will calve.
The girl who can’t dance says the band can’t play.
If God were living on earth, people would break his windows.
He who has a grudge against the chazan also begrudges the “Amen.”
Spit in a whore’s face, and she will say it is raining.
That fools are fond of sweets is an in vention of the wise.
The wise man lays plans, but so does the fool.
A Jew beats you up and shouts “Help!”
Truth rests with God alone, and a little with me.
He owes God for his soul, and the butcher for the meat.
“Who is a hero?”—he who keeps down a wisecrack.
Ten waters will not cleanse you of Jewish talk.
God will provide—if only God would provide until He provides.
You don’t stumble because you are weak, but because you think yourself strong.
If The rich could hire others to die for them, the poor could make a nice living.
It’s good to feast with your fellow, but not from one plate.
Knock your head against the wall—but there must be a wall.
Nine rabbis don’t make a minyan, but ten cobblers do.
Many complain of their looks, but none of their brains.
Poverty is no disgrace, but it’s no great honor either.
Better a Jew without a beard than a beard without a Jew.
Truth never dies, but lives a wretched life.
If you have the bread, you can always find a knife.
If the horse had anything to say, he would speak up.
He who is known for an early riser may lie abed till noon.
If praying did any good, they’d be hiring men to pray.
Only one God and so many enemies.