Word Prompt – NUDNIK – Ruchama Feuerman

Picked up from the internet: If a nudnik won the lottery, she'd complain about the taxes.

A nudnik is someone who, when you ask how he's doing, tells you. Even when a nudnik agrees with you, it feels like an argument. A nudnik is worse than a bad person. From a bad person you can walk away; from a nudnik you can't escape.

I like the brevity of this one: Az s'iz gut, iz es nisht gut genug (If it's good, it's not good enough).

And now, something original, a limerick:

There once was a maidel from Maine,

Who loved to kvetch and complain.

When she received a love letter,

It only upset her –

Because it arrived with a stain.

But wait, can't we learn something good from the nudnik? Doesn't Pirkei Avot says every person has something to teach? Okay, I'll give it a shot. The nudnik teaches an important lesson: never quit. Everybody else wishes he would, but he never does.