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*The Yiddish word meaning “to borrow from” is “antlaylen.”
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
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Benjamin Franklin said, “Neither a borrower or a lender be.” And, perhaps, you’ve heard the expression, “Before you borrow money from a friend (“fraynd”), decide which you need more.”
Borrowing is not a new concept. Borrowing is limitless. People borrow almost anything: lawn equipment, tools, cars, money, DVDs, and even wedding gowns. Rabbi’s borrow sermons, but they always tell “di kehile” (the congregation) who they are quoting. No “pulpit plagarism.”
The average (“durkhshnit”) American family uses 40 to 70% of their income for a 30-year “hipotek” (mortgage) to buy a home. Others add more debt than they can repay and then choose “bankrot” (bankruptcy).
The late Danny Thomas lost his life savings of $600 at a time when he was out of work. He and his wife, Rosie, had a baby on the way, and they needed money. Danny worked at part-time jobs so Rosie could buy groceries. HE ALSO BORROWED MONEY FROM A FRIEND. It was a tough time in his life. A week before the baby was born, Danny had a grand total of $7.50 to his name. What would he do? “My despair led me to my first exposure to the powers of faith,” Danny would later recall. On Sunday morning Danny went to church. When the offering plate was passed, he put in his “usual one dollar.” But something unexpected happened that day. A special missions offering was taken. The priest explained where the mission offering would go, and Danny felt he had to give something. “I got carried away,” Danny said, “and ended up giving my seven dollars.” He had given away all his money on Sunday. What in the world had he done? He walked up to the altar rail, got on his knees and prayed aloud. “Look, I’ve given my last seven bucks,” he prayed. “I need it back tenfold because I’ve got a kid on the way, and I have to pay the hospital bill.” He went home with a mere 85 cents in his pocket--all the money he had in the world. “You won’t believe this,” Danny Thomas wrote, “but the next morning the phone rang in the rooming house hall.” It was a job offer. He was offered a part in a commercial. The job wasn’t much but the pay was good: $75. “I literally dropped the phone receiver,” Danny remembered. “First I whooped with job, then an eerie feeling came over me.” He remembered what he had prayed at church the day before. “The $75 fee,” he said, “unheard of for me at that time, was almost exactly ten times the amount of money I had donated to the church.”
The Chicago Jewish Community Online wrote about the word “gemah.” It is an acronym for the Jewish term “gemilut hasadim” (acts of kindness). Beth Pollak says that a “gemah” is a Jewish recycling agency of sorts, a repository of useful items that people may borrow and then return.
The article states that “Nowadays in Israel there is a gemah for almost anything, and most are run in people’s homes and basements.” (Note: The Yiddish word for “basement” is “keler.”)
And, “There is even a woman who runs a Yerushalmi kugel gemah where a person can borrow all the utensils and pans needed to make the classic, uniquely shaped Israeli kugel delicacy.” She returns them when the kugel is out of “der ovyn.” In addition, a laptop gemah lends computers and portable video game machines to children who are in a “shpitol” (hospital).
Beth Pollak ends the article by saying that “recycling might be a new phenomenon in the United States for most people, but certainly not for all. There truly are gifts that keep on giving.” Source: “The Gemach - A Jewish Institution that takes the shame out of sharing” by Beth Pollak.
The Forward (Oct. 10, 2014) reported that a Jerusalem bomb shelter is home to Chasdei Yaela Bridal Gown, the “grest” (largest) wedding dress g’mach, or religious charity, of its kind in Jerusalem. This business is engaged in “hachnasat kallah”--bringing in the bride. This is one of the highest forms of charity (“tsdoke”) in Jewish tradition.
Naomi Zeveloff writes, “Brides are a focal point for charity in Israel, and not
just because weddings are so costly; they also inhabit an elevated status in Orthodox Jewish Society. On her wedding day, a bride is said to enter a
heightened spiritual state with the ability to bless those around her.”
Source: “Needy Brides Say Yes to These Dresses,” by Naomi Zeveloff,
The Forward, Oct. 10, 2014.
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Marjorie Wolfe reminds her readers that you should always remember the proverb: “Yede kale iz shein” - Every bride is beautiful. According to Rabbi Benjamin Blech (“The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Learning Yiddish”), “Religious law demands that you compliment a bride on her wedding day and tell her that she is beautiful. But what if she’s ugly? Are you permitted to lie? Does making the bride happy override the ethical transgression of lying? The rabbis debate the issue and conclude that even if she is as ugly as sin, you are permitted--or, shall I say commanded--to tell her she looks like Sharon Stone.”
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