As Larry Yudelson reported in The Jewish Standard, the boxes were discovered by Jessica Russak-Hoffman while searching for Sukkot gift wrappings on Amazon.com.
But what led Russak-Hoffman to press the buy button was the extremely incompetent product design by someone who didn’t realize that when you cut-and-paste Hebrew from the web to an app, there’s always a chance the Hebrew letters will forget they’re supposed to flow from right to left.
Which is how a design which wishes “happy sukkot” in English can present Hebrew characters that approximately spell out tuchus — the Hebrew-derived Yiddish word for bottom or buttocks — which — who knew! — is what you get when you write “sukkot” backwards.
(Tuchus, Merriam Webster informs us, was first cited in English way back in 1886; derived from the Hebrew tachat, “under, below,” it is too slangy, even in Yiddish, to appear in the three Yiddish dictionaries we have at hand.)
But if you want to wish your friends a Sukkot-themed bottoms-up this year, you may be out of luck. The particular product that Russak-Hoffman bought is now unavailable; her tweet went viral, with 70,000 views, not only due to the backsided nature of the Hebrew text, but also the hilarious marketing photos, which included the Sukkot/Tuchus boxes on the table for both Pesach and Chanukkah observances.
Compounding the error, Amazon's photo of the Sukkot boxes shows the breaking of a matzah, which of course is a feature of the Passover seder and has nothing to do with Sukkot or tuchuses.
We'll be celebrating Sukkot and Shabbat for the next three days, and we'll be back with our usual mix of humor and music on Sunday.
Chag sameach and Shabbat Shalom!
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Only one problem with this otherwise very cute story: the Hebrew word that was supposed to say “Happy Sukkot” was, in fact, incorrect. However, it did not spell”Happy Tuchus,” but spelled “Happy Tuchot.” Still wrong, but not so funny. Good story, though.
ReplyDeleteSorry to have to tell you that you're incorrect. The backwards Hebrew word does not say "Tuchot." To do so it would have to end with a "taf" or a "tet". If you look closely you will see that it ends with a "samach" which is of course the first letter of "Sukkot. So the misspelled phrase is indeed "Happy Tuchus." But thanks for your comment and interest in Jewish Humor Central.
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