Why do US frummies "make Pesach"? Is this Yeshivish dialect?

amother

Mon, Apr 06 2020, 9:34 pm

daagahminayin wrote:

It’s very beautiful. All of our hard work and effort really does create the holiday in a sense, and if we didn’t do it, it wouldn’t be the same. It’s our partnership with Hashem, our way of creating a space for holiness in the world.

I like this take -- making as creating -- even if "make" just comes from an inexact Yiddish translation.

Any Israelis / solid Hebrew speakers know what frum Israelis would call "doing the pesach prep"?

sub

Mon, Apr 06 2020, 9:44 pm

עושים פסח
אמא איפה אתם עושים את הפסח השנה?
Some might say חוגגים

Last edited by sub on Mon, Apr 06 2020, 9:48 pm; edited 1 time in total

zaq

Mon, Apr 06 2020, 9:47 pm

amother [ Royalblue ] wrote:

Same reason they say make Shabbos.

In Yiddish the universal verb is make. You make hair. You make a tumble. You make a play. You make challah.

The rest of the world styles hair, tumbles, acts in a play, bakes challah. It was the confusion with the thread yesterday where OP said her son made her cabinets.

Except that Yiddish people say their kids “DO trouble.” Yankee kids MAKE trouble, after which they’re IN trouble (if they get caught).

sub

Mon, Apr 06 2020, 9:55 pm

there are those who don’t make pesach. I did not make pesach last year, I went to a hotel in eretz yisroel. My daughter did not make pesach , she went to her in-laws. So you might ask people where will you be or who are you going to for pesach. So hosting wouldn’t have been the correct word.
So make pesach connotes being home and doing things for pesach.

amother

Periwinkle

Mon, Apr 06 2020, 10:19 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

That's a rather flippant response.

Maybe take a look at the Yiddish first.

zohar

Mon, Apr 06 2020, 11:01 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

This isn't equivalent to other Yiddishisms like "by" instead of "at." It is a phrase that is translated from Yiddish because there isn't an equivalent or accurate way of saying it in English. I would compare it to "learning." While it may be a technically correct word, most English speakers would say "studying." But "studying" is not "learning". And "hosting" and "preparing for" is not "making Pesach."

zohar

Mon, Apr 06 2020, 11:06 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

For one, I highly doubt "making pesach" is a universal term and I presume frum Sephardim/Mizrachim in the US who don't have much of a connection to "Yeshivish" dialect don't use the term. I just personally think it's a weird term and that it sounds funny, grammatically.

Second, I wouldn't say pesach prep is *unique* to frum people. Probably *much* less so now 20-30 years ago, but still plenty of affiliated non-orthos do some sort of pesach prep. They could be going through their fridges and freezers and throwing away actual bread, and eating off a set of pesach dishes they have in their garages -- without doing all of the hard work that frum ppl do.

My sephardi relatives and aquaintances say "making Pesach". I do not know if they adopted it from the Ashkenazim and how they said it in their native languages.

amother

Chocolate

Mon, Apr 06 2020, 11:45 pm

amother [ Royalblue ] wrote:

Who says make shabbos? Make early shabbos, maybe. Kids, put away the muktzah, I'm making shabbos now. In both these examples, making shabbos refers specifically to lighting candles.

I've never heard anyone say they are making shabbos, making sukkos or making anything to mean, staying home and not going away, other than pesach.

So I doubt this has anything to do with Yiddish.

And, sure, it's fine to say style hair, bake challah or whatever. But those are not the only verbs used in informal speech. The rest of the world makes bread, too.

amother

Burlywood

Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:10 am

amother [ Royalblue ] wrote:

Thank you, this was very informative.

To the posters who have never heard of "making Shabbos" - where I grew up it was very common to say that. I never heard make a tumble but I can totally imagine it being used.

amother

Magenta

Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:21 am

A friend of mine went to a secularist Yiddish speaking camp. It was only after she became religious that she understood why free time on Friday afternoon was called "machen shabbes."

tryinghard

Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:29 am

sub wrote:

עושים פסח
אמא איפה אתם עושים את הפסח השנה?
Some might say חוגגים

But this is about celebrating Pesach, not about going through the process to have the home be ready for Pesach to be celebrated there. How would you differentiate between the two in Hebrew?

amother

cornflower

Tue, Apr 07 2020, 3:00 am

turca wrote:

Make Shabbos? I have never heard of this one.
Ok, I’m not part of an Yiddish speaking community, but I live in Brooklyn and I do understand/ use a lot of the yeshivish slang

Interesting! What about "I'm making shabbos sheva brachos for my niece" or "I'm making shabbos this week instead of going to my parents"
Grew up in a very modern orthodox community and def heard this term.
"What are you doing for shabbos this week?"
"making, having guests." like that sort of usage.

amother

Aubergine

Tue, Apr 07 2020, 3:09 am

sub wrote:

עושים פסח
אמא איפה אתם עושים את הפסח השנה?
Some might say חוגגים

That's not referring to any pesach prep. That's referring to where you are eating the seder. (Usually it refers to only the seder - at least in my circles, where no one actually moves into their parents' house for the whole pesach).
It doesn't even refer to hosting the seder. If you say אני עושה פסח בבית השנה, it just means you are home this year for pesach (for the seder mainly), not that you are necessarily hosting.

Pesach preps in Israel are simply referred to as cleaning for pesach מנקים לפסח

amother

Aubergine

Tue, Apr 07 2020, 3:12 am

tryinghard wrote:

But this is about celebrating Pesach, not about going through the process to have the home be ready for Pesach to be celebrated there. How would you differentiate between the two in Hebrew?

No special all encompassing verb. Just things like:
עושים ניקיון פסח
מנקים לפסח

chanchy123

Tue, Apr 07 2020, 3:27 am

amother [ Aubergine ] wrote:

No special all encompassing verb. Just things like:
עושים ניקיון פסח
מנקים לפסח

You can say להכין פסח
But a lot of people would just say התחלתי פסח or הכל אצלי פסח
I think לעשות פסח is a Yiddishism
Anyhow grew up in a MO family (in Israel but parents are from US) we always said make Pesach and I never have it a second thought. But I think we also would say make Shabbat/chag. Meaning preparing for Shabbat or chag. Not celebrating

etky

Tue, Apr 07 2020, 3:48 am

amother [ Aubergine ] wrote:

This exactly.
Same expression can be used for other major holidays too, especially Rosh Hashana.
Means spending the holiday (or an important part of it) not preparing for it.
Pesach prep is just מנקה לפסח.
Wanted to add that I also grew up in a very modern orthodox community and "make Pesach" as well as "make Shabbos" were common phrases even among those of us who had no connection to Yiddish.
This was in NYC, in the seventies, so geography/generation might possibly account for it.