Word Prompt – NUDNIK – Eli Lebowicz

There’s nothing more fitting than coming home from doing a comedy show in Toronto and just wanting to watch the NBA Finals on my phone (because I was unsuccessful at figuring out how to watch the game on my Smart TV, which is the most 2026 thing of all), and then realizing I committed to writing about the word nudnik. Of course, the word usually refers to a person, but I think here it’s just something you must do but you don’t really feel like doing (like realizing you didn’t daven Maariv when you’re about to go to sleep) which can feel like the personification of a nudnik.

I knew when I took the assignment, it was going to be a last-minute thing, like when you’re cramming to finish a masechta of Mishnayos the night before your friend’s grandfather’s shloshim, and the last ones that were left were all in Kodshim and you didn’t realize how long Zevachim was when you signed up for it. Every writer needs an editor to do some gentle bothering, jabbing, pestering, bugging, prodding into making sure their assignment is in by a deadline. And if I didn’t have one, this never would’ve gotten finished in time. Thanks for being a nudnik.