It's Monday again, and time to celebrate because Monday at Jewish Humor Central means it's time for another joke to start the week.
Ever since we started this weekly tradition more than a year ago, we've been using jokes from the Old Jews Telling Jokes collection and jokes that we videotaped at our performances at Kutsher's Resort in the Catskills and at residential communities in New Jersey. But we discovered that not all of the old Jewish jokes are told by Jews, especially the "minister, priest, and rabbi" genre of jokes.
In reviewing lots of these "minister, priest, and rabbi" jokes, we found that in almost every case, the rabbi comes off as the wisest of the group, regardless of who is telling the joke.
Here's a classic joke of the genre, as told by the Reverend Chad O'Shea of the Unity Church in North Carolina. The setup: A minister, a priest, and a rabbi went for a hike one day. It was a very hot day, They were sweating and exhausted, and they came upon a small lake. And then...
Enjoy!
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We hope you enjoyed the long month of holidays from Rosh Hashanah through Sukkot as much as we did. Now we're back in a holiday-free zone until Thanksgivukkah arrives at the end of November. So today Jewish Humor Central returns with something completely different.
Mendel is an Orthodox Jew living in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and baby in a small apartment. But he has a secret that he has kept from his parents. Now he gets a call from his mother telling him that they're on their way to visit him from Israel and they're in a taxi about 30 minutes away.
So what's the problem? Mendel's secret is that he loves Christmas, its decorations, and its music. How can he possibly explain this aberration to his mom? He has to get rid of the Christmas tree in his living room. And right away. But how?
This short film from Australia highlights Mendel's dilemma and the actions he and his wife take to deal with it. Are they successful? Watch the film and find out.
Enjoy!
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Today is Hoshana Rabbah, the last day of Chol Hamoed Sukkot. Tonight we start a separate holiday, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah -- a single day in Israel and two days everywhere else.
There are no special foods designated for Chol Hamoed, the intermediate days of Sukkot. But thanks to a Yiddish pun, there is a tradition to eat stuffed cabbage on Hoshana Rabbah.
So what's the pun? You're going to love this one. On Hoshana Rabbah we beat willow branches on the ground and say the phrase Kol Mevasser. If you tune your ears to the Yiddish channel, it sounds like Kroyt mit vasser, or cabbage with water. O--kay!
Whether or not you accept this reasoning, it's still a good idea to try a new dish during this month of seemingly endless holidays meals. In this case, it's a vegetarian version of stuffed cabbage prepared in the kitchen of the Jewish Daily Forward by their team of Yiddish-speaking chefs, Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Jochnowitz.
Whenever we run one of these recipes (and we've run 16 others - just click on "Est Gezunterheit" in the Labels column at the left of the page) we pick up a few new Yiddish words, and today is no exception. Listen carefully to the dialogue and watch the English subtitles and you'll add these new words to your Yiddish vocabulary:
Holuptshes or Holishkes or Prakes or Gevikelte Kroyt or Golumpke = Stuffed Cabbage
(It's been said that Eskimos have dozens of words for snow and ice, so why can't Jews have multiple words for stuffed cabbage?)
Kroyt = Cabbage
Bletter = Leaves
Gefilachts = Stuffing
Semishkes = Sunflower seeds
Shvemelach = Mushrooms
Grintzen = Vegetables
Tzeribeneh Kez = Grated cheese
Leffel = Tablespoon
Leffeleh = Teaspoon
Zilber Papeer = Aluminum Foil
The recipe appears just below the video. We wish you a happy Hoshana Rabbah, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah. Enjoy the video and we'll see you back here on Sunday with another selection from our eclectic mix.
(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:
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