Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish (review)

Hebrew Studies 47 (2006) 462 Reviews cases in which masoretic pairs of “homonyms” are not really homonyms at all, but rather are best seen as semantic variations on the same word. These he calls polysemes. The chapter concludes with a brief statistical survey of homonyms versus polysemes in the different masoretic lists. Chapter 12 shows how the masoretic lists are reflected in the marginal masoretic notes found in biblical manuscripts. In chapter 13, Dotan publishes two Geniza fragments for the first time. Excellent photographs of these mostly legible manuscripts can be found on pp. 169–178 (ten plates). These fragments contain lists of homonyms of the type discussed in earlier chapters. However, in the Geniza lists, each word is followed by a short definition (in Hebrew or Judeo-Arabic). These fragments , then, illustrate perfectly how the earlier masoretic lists began to develop into what might be considered a real dictionary. These provide solid evidence for the thesis Dotan set out to prove, that the Hebrew lexicographic (and grammatical) tradition had its true beginnings in the work of the Masoretes, and not in the work of their Arab neighbors. Chapter 14 consists of a short conclusion. This book is written in a very high Hebrew style, making it rather difficult for a non-native reader. The content is also quite technical, which often also makes for slow reading. Its overall structure, however, is fairly clear, and the author makes good use of illustrative examples, in the form of sample masoretic lists and the like. The careful reader will be sufficiently rewarded in the end. Dotan has provided yet another very important work for anyone interested in masoretic studies or in the early Hebrew grammarians and lexicographers, and he deserves our thanks once again. Aaron D. Rubin Penn State University University Park, PA 16802 adr10@psu.edu WORDS ON FIRE: THE UNFINISHED STORY OF YIDDISH. By Dovid Katz. Pp. xvi + 430. Boulder, Colo.: Perseus Books, 2004. Cloth, $26.95. There are times when Yiddish seems to be everyone’s favorite language. Dovid Katz’s engaging book is part of the current spate of works on Yiddish that includes Michael Wex’s Born to Kvetch (Harper Perennial, 2005) and Jeffrey Shandler’s Adventures in Yiddishland (University of California Press, 2006). Katz attempts to compensate for the current dearth of Yiddish users by addressing the subject with great passion. In 400 pages, Hebrew Studies 47 (2006) 463 Reviews he compresses a thousand years of the language’s history, as well as a forecast for its future, and creates a broad and eminently readable historical panorama packed with information about the development of Yiddish and Yiddish literature. The richness and nuances of the language are finely exemplified in detailed analyses of common terms and phrases and of literary passages. Especially valuable is his chronology of the history of Yiddish publishing in Europe, which illustrates some fine points of various literary styles. The comprehensive overview of the roots and development of Yiddishism and the Bund details the crucial—but often underestimated— foundational role of the Zionist-socialist ideologue Ber Borokhov in the field of Yiddish linguistics. Katz’s vast research enlivens the book with tidbits such as the fact that the oldest known sizable Yiddish manuscript, dating to 1382, was found in Egypt, of all places (p. 60). In answer to the common post-Holocaust question, “Does Yiddish have a future?” he proposes the interesting idea that its future lies with the world’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities. The book’s easy style and broad variety of topics are highly appealing. However, the very accessibility of the book is largely due to two major features that are double-edged: its apparent guiding principle—the idealization of Ashkenaz—which dictates a rather narrow and simplistic view of Jewish cultural history, and an almost complete lack of notes and references . It is these aspects that enable many of the book’s sweeping statements and innovative notions. Jewishness itself is essentialized: we learn that the “age-old Jewish spirit” resides in Yiddish (p. 313), ruling out other, nonYiddish -speaking communities. Katz confidently states that “the greatest [secular outburst of creativity] in all of Jewish history came to Ashkenaz in...