Category Kabbalah Kronicles

Yiddish curses are an art form, not an outburst. Ten of the best, what makes them work, and the three rules for delivering one properly.

Bashert is the Yiddish word for destiny — the soulmate assigned to you forty days before you were born. My grandmother explained it with a potato peeler.

What does shalom mean? Everyone says peace, but the Hebrew word really means whole and complete. A warm, funny grandfather's-table look at the deepest little word in the language.

There is an old joke that defines chutzpah better than any dictionary. So what does chutzpah really mean? A grandfather explains the Yiddish word for nerve, sweet and sour.

The real tikkun olam meaning isn't 'save the world' in one grand gesture — it's mending the broken thing right in front of you, one crack at a time.

What does mazel tov really mean? Not congratulations. A grandfather unpacks the real meaning of mazel tov, the Kabbalah behind it, and exactly when to say it.

My grandmother spit three times at her own kugel to keep the evil eye away. Here's what ayin hara really means — and the lesson about envy hiding inside it.

Forget the dictionary. A mensch is someone who does the right thing when nobody is watching, and doesn't bring it up later when they are. Here's the rest of it, the way my grandfather Velvel taught me.

Kabbalah teaches that the world is full of broken vessels and trapped sparks of holy light — and laughter, the Kabbalists believed, was one of the most powerful ways to crack a husk and free a spark. Here's why Jewish humor is older, and deeper, than the punchlines.

My grandfather used to say, English is for business, Hebrew is for prayer, Yiddish is for telling the truth. Here are eight Yiddish words that prove him right — mensch, naches, bashert, chutzpah, and four more.