Monday, January 25, 2010

10-01-25 What is: Hefker Petruschke?


Translation: 
Fruit in this garden are "Hefker"! 
You are welcome to enter and take some. 
Enjoy

For lack for better term, I recently found myself resorting to the colloquial Yiddish term "Hefker Petruschke" to describe conditions of the US justice system today. For those not fluent in the dead dialect, here is the etymology and meaning:

"In case comparative law is of interest to you, in Babylonian Talmudic terms the judges are engaging in conduct asserting that the courts and the dockets were "Hefker Petruschke".  I looked up the English definition:


Hefker: Ownerless property. This situation results from renunciation of ownership, a court decision, or the death of a proselyte with no Jewish heirs.

A derivative used in colloquial Yiddish was:
Hefker Petruschke - which meant total chaos.  :)


jz

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