shabes! shabes!

[itzik <itzik...>]

In the Yiddish custom book, "Seyfer minhogey yeshurin: Yidishe 
Minhogim" (Vilna, n.d - approx.1910s) by Ayzik Hirshovits, he asks, 
"Why, when the klezmer play and the in-laws dance at a wedding, do 
they call the tip for the klezmer ["tants-gelt"} "Shabes"? 
He explains: because in days of old, when the khupe [=wedding 
ceremony] was Friday, the bride and groom did not come together till 
Sat. nite. So to remind the groom to distance himself from the bride 
because it's the Sabbath, the "tantsgelt" given to the klezmer was 
called out, "Shabes! Shabes!"

My comment: Rabbi Hirshkovits, a Litvak from Kovne, is confusing the 
words "shibesh" [trifle,pittance, and here, tip] and shabes. The "s" 
and "sh" sound are often switched, and apparently among Litvacks they 
were sometimes homonymous. By the way, if I remember correctly, 
"shibesh" is one of the those yiddish words that the linguist Paul 
Wexler suggests comes from Persia. Personally, I don't buy the rabbi's 
explanation at all, and I think it's a roundabout way of trying to 
understand why anyone would yell "shabes! shabes!" at a wedding. Does 
anyone know if there is any truth to his expla

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