Re: Yahrzeit

[Robert A. Rothstein <rar...>]

We may be getting to the point of abusing the patience of many list
participants, but for those of you who haven't yet hit the "delete"
button, permit me to cite the results of some time spent burrowing in
German dictionaries.  The massive 19th-century work of the Brothers Grimm
lists four meanings for "Jahrzeit": 1) an anniversary; 2) an annually
occurring commemoration or celebration; 3) a religious ceremony in memory
of a deceased person on the anniversary of death; 4) season or time of
year.  Contemporary dictionaries mostly omit the word; those that include
it provide only a variation on the third meaning, namely, a memorial mass
celebrated on the anniversary of death, and limit this usage to Swiss
German.  (One dictionary suggests that it is becoming archaic even there.)
In the fourth meaning "Jahrzeit" has been replaced by "Jahreszeit," as CD
pointed out.
    So, pace friend Oppenheim, it does not seem to be the case that "[t]he
German 'Jahrzeit' has the same meaning as the Yiddish 'yortsayt'" --
unless German-speaking Jews use the German word in that sense.
    Thanks to Michael Spudic and Lori Cahan-Simon for understanding my
intent.
            Bob Rothstein

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