Word Prompt – PEKALACH – Cheryl Kupfer

My initial reaction to the Yiddish word “pekalach” for the Word Prompt was: What can one possibly say that’s insightful about a tiny package filled with candy that is customarily thrown at a chossen at his aliyah on Shabbat? Nowadays this practice has spilled over (pun intended) to include bar mitzvah boys.

But I realized that pekalach has another and more profound meaning. A pekel is the word for “burden,” usually a significant, or long-term millstone that can weigh a person down. For example, someone with a chronically ill spouse or child, or irreversible financial loss, could be said to carry a heavy pekel.

But pekel is the single form of the word pekalach. Pekalach is plural and also has the connotation of small. In Yiddish, for example, a yingel or maidel means boy or girl. A yingele or maidele is a small boy or girl. Thus, pekalach could be viewed as multiple small burdens. One has several issues but they are less weighty. Like needing a root canal and a new transmission. These pekalach are very exasperating but not a pekel! Perhaps we should not sweat “the small stuff” – the pekalach – but be grateful and feel blessed that we do not have to deal with a life-draining pekel.