A Sukkah’la lyrics

א סוכה’לע א קליינע
פון ברעטעלעך געמיינע
האב איך מיר א סוכה’לע געמאכט
צוגעדעקט דעם דאך
מיט אן ביסעלע סכך
זיץ איך מיר אין סוכה’לע באנאכט

א וינט א קאלטין
בלאזט דורך די שפאלטן
און די ליכטעלעך
זיי לעשן זיך פיל
עס איז מיר א חידוש
ווי איך מאך מיר קידוש
און די ליכטעלעך זיי ברענען גאנץ שטיל

צום ערשטן געריכט
מיט א בלאסן געזיכט
ברענגט מיר מיין טעכטערעל אריין
זי שטעלט זיך אוועק
און זאגט מיט שרעק
טאטעלע די סוכה פאלט באלד איין

זיי נישט קיין נער
האב נישט קיין צער
זאל דיר די סוכה ניט טאן באנג
עס איז שוין גאר
באלד צוויי טויזנט יאר
און די סוכה’לע זי שטייט נאך גאנץ לאנג

The back of the Rabbis’ Sons record called Hallelu.

@DY……….
now I know we are contemporaries. Down in my basement are all those Rabbi’s Sons albums bought when I was a very new teenager

Wow! You typed out the whole thing?

Yes, and fixed one typo. They actually sing it a bit differently than that.

I found this. It might be the original poem:

א סוכה מאת אברהם רייזען {1876-1953}

אסוכה אקליינע,
מיט ברעטער געמיינע
האב איך קוים מיט צרות געמאכט:
געדעקט דעם דאך
מיט א ביסעלע סכך,
און כ”זיץ אין איר סוכות ביי נאכטץ
מיט פארזאגטן געזיכט
דאס ערשטע געדיכט
עס טראגט מיר מיין וויב באלד ארייןץ
זי שטעלט זיך אוועק
און זאגט מיט שרעק:
דער ווינט ווארפט די סוכהבאלד איין
פון ווינט דעם קאלטן,
וואס בלאזט דורך די שפאלטן,
מיין ליכטעלע לעשן זיך וויל,
דאך מאך איך מיר קידוש
און זעט נאר דעם חידוש,
מיין ליכטל ברענט רויק און שטיל…
כאטש דער זומער איילט שוין אונטער,
שטייט שוין באלד פון יענער זייט.
זע נאר יידיש יינגעלע טייערס,
ס”אראגעסט עס קומען או:
ראש השנה מיט א שופר
שימחת תורה מיט א פאן.
אלע געסט און אייביק נייע,
תמידאנגעלעייגט און ווויל,זון און פרייד אין זייערע אויגן,
זיסער שמייכל אויפן מויל

Miriam377, that translation sound like it comes from this:

My Sukkahleh is small, not fancy at all
but is especially dear to me.
Schach I put on a bit, hoping to cover it,
there I’d sit and think. (2x)
The wind was a cold one,
the cracked walls were old ones,
the candles were flickering low.
At times as if dying, but suddenly rising,
as if they did not want to go. (2x)
My sweet little daughter
sensing the danger,
got scared and started to cry.
“Father,” she cried,
“Don’t stay there outside
the Sukkah is going to fall!” (2)
Fear not my child, its been quite a while
the Sukkahleh still stands strong.
The wind has been worse my dear,
but its almost two thousand years
yet the Sukkahleh still stands strong! (2x)

(Mendel’s Messages)

The translation is not precise, which is inevitable since they made it rhyme.

Ash
You do not recall correctly DY is right. The spelling in yiddish for the word fool is נאר.
The word נער in Yiddish is pronounced Ner since as you correctly point out ayin makes a short e sound.
Words Like שבת and נר (candle) are usualy spelled the same way since they dont have vowels (in yiddish as you know the letters Aleph, Ayin, Vav … are the vowels, there are no nekudos) so there is no confusion as to how שבת is pronounced you just memorize the vowels. In yiddish the word נער is pronounced Ner it has a vowel. If you want to write Fool ie Nar the correct spelling in Yiddish is נאר it is ALSO the correct spelling for the word Nur as in only.

Of course if you incorporate a Hebrw/Aramic word for fool נער it isnt wrong, it just isnt yiddish (Then again the word נר isnt Yiddish either a candle is ליכט)

“Are you saying that the Yiddish and Hebrew word mean the same thing but are spelled differently?”

without question.

This comes up a lot with last names where the origin is yiddish. For example the name Goldberger. In Yiddish it is quite lengthy גאלדבערגער with the א…ע..ע serving as vowels, however in Hebrew the vowels are nekudos though often omitted/assumed thus an Israeli might spell his name גלדברגר. Its the same name, pronounced the same one is spelled in yiddish the other in Hebrew.

Thus the word נער pronounced Nar is not a yiddish word. There is a yiddish word that means the same thing and is pronounced the same way, and stems from that word. To get the word pronunced Nar in Yiddish it is spelled נאר.
OTher than names I cant think of any other such example at the moment, though Im sure they are out there.

As for your last question the correct spelling is בײנאכט. different locales pronounce that differently as Baynacht Bynacht so the spelling may have shifted to באנאכט. You have to keep in mind most Yiddish speakers dont really care what YIVO has to say. so there isnt really a formal body governing the “correct” spelling of words. Im sure you will find the word fool spelled נער in some places though it isnt technically the correct yidish spelling. Furthermore there is generally no formal yiddish grammar class that most current speakers study. I did have a basic spelling book/class in the second grade but after that we just learnt by rote and “what sounded right” based on what you heard

ASH

” Very much with question…”

You arent realy Questioning nor even disagreeing with my point. My “without question” was in reference to this “Are you saying that the Yiddish and Hebrew word mean the same thing but are spelled different”

You agree that at the least the word נאר is yiddish as “they have a very similar number of results, and many from heimish websites/publications for both.”
Of course נאר isnt a Hebrew word thus this is, as I said, “without question” a “Yiddish and Hebrew word mean the same thing but are spelled different”
Unless you are arguing that the word נאר does NOT mean fool, which you very much imply isnt the case (as you say ” because many words are simply written in Hebrew.” Yes if you write the word “in Hebrew” the word is נער, no argument there.

The only question is whether the Hebrew word נער is ALSO a Yiddish word. This point is more semantics, since if we ignore YIVO (not WIVO) Yiddish evolves it is possible that now the Hebrew word נער is considered Yiddish much like coup which is clearly French is now an English word. However you said “נער in the first version is clearly the Arameic word (for fool, the line means “on’t be fool”) and so would be written with an ayin” which is clearly not correct. IF you had written “so COULD be written with an ayin” I concede that it can.

for what it is worth if you Google translate Fool” into yiddish you get נאר.

(your interesting tidbit abut Yiddish names is only tangentially related, we arent discussing differences among different dialects of Yiddish rather Yiddish vs. Hebrew)

“but for an actual first-language Yiddish speaker it would be quite odd to spell it in a way that it too similar to “nohr/nur” (“only”) ”

Ive been trying to think of an example here is one: what does פאר mean?
Without context (or sticking in a nekuda) you dont know. Here are two contexts to help:

איך פאר אהיים (travel)
איך מיז זיין אהיים פאר די זמן (before)

(of course the word זמן is technically Hebrew but like the word שבת it doesnt contain any yiddish vowels so it is left alone)

“Is it true that the difference between Banacht and Beinacht would be a litvish vs chassidish yiddish?”

Im not sure at all. I am open to other suggestions.

Wow Just discovered something that blew my mind a little bit
the Yiddish word נאר may not stem from the Hebrew word נער. The German word “narr” means fool, the Yiddish is likely from the German
This is a better explanation than the one I offered as to why it is spelled with an alef

ubiquitin,

Very interesting point.

Quote from wiktionary:
From Middle High German narre, from Old High German narro (“fool, idiot, clown, stupid or crazy person”). Further origin unknown. Cognate with German Narr (“fool”), whence Dutch nar, Swedish narr, Estonian narr, etc.
The word may have been influenced in Yiddish by Hebrew נַעַר‎ (ná’ar, “a youth”), though there is no need for this assumption.

If you search “קיין נאר” on otzar you get 229 quotes from seforim. For “קיין נער” you get 50.

The issue with the German theory is:
In the German, the plural of “narr” is “narren.”
In Yiddish, it should be “דריי נארן” or “דריי נארס.”

However, the plural term used in Yiddish נאראנים. Although this isn’t exactly Hebrew (which would be נערים) – this seems to be borrowing from the Hebrew style, which might show that נאר originates from Hebrew.

Similar to how one משוגענער (or sometimes משוגע’נער?) becomes two משוגעים (although משוגעים is pure Hebrew, while נאראנים is a mix).

Some other interesting examples to think about:

According to my otzar hachochma searches:

The Yiddish spelling of “balebos” is much LESS common that the Hebrew:
דער באלעבאס 289
דער בעל הבית 3,131
דער בעה”ב 863

However, the Yiddish spelling of “sheigitz” is much MORE common:
דער שייגעץ 156
דער שקץ 32
דער שגץ 60