December 9, 2006: Zlateh the Goat

Hannukah is fast upon us and, although she reads very well herself now, I have been reading some Isaac Singer children stories to Madeleine. These tales are mostly set in Chelm, a village of lovable idiots in Yiddish lore. We finished the book tonight with the title story, "Zlateh the Goat." It is an astonishing work of compressed compassion and something of an animal rights masterpiece. (Singer was a vegetarian.) Tears were in the eyes of father and daughter when I shut the book.

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In the spirit of multicultural non-offense to anyone isn't 'x-kah' the proper holiday word?

Posted by: syn at December 11, 2006 3:35 AM

syn, actually no. The 'X' in 'Xmas' is actually a Greek chi. The Greek spelling of "Christ" - and the Christian Gospels were written in Greek - begins with a chi, so since the beginning of the Christian era, 'X' [chi] has been an abbreviation for "Christ". So, sorry, but 'X-kah' won't cut it.

However, your heart is in the right place, PC-wise. I'm sure we can come up with some euphemism for Channukah which will be utterly innocuous and drain all meaning from the holiday.

Many thanks to our esteemed host for reminding me of I. B. Singer's marvelous children's stories. The stories of Schlemiel and the other lunatics in Chelm, the City of Fools, were great favorites in our Catholic household when our children were small. The story where Schlemiel and his wife sell each other shots of brandy at the Chelm fair, passing the same ruble back and forth until they're both completely wasted, is side-splittingly funny - and also the perfect metaphor for welfare-state economics. Or the eerie story when Schlemiel goes to Warsaw, but because a trickster turns his boots around when he's asleep, he believes he's come instead to a duplicate Chelm, complete with duplicate wife and family ... it's a Twilight Zone episode set in old Poland, yet weirdly funny at the same time. What wonderful stories - many thanks for the reminder!

Posted by: Brown Line at December 11, 2006 8:42 PM

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