Image: Monkey, Bananas, John Travolta & Samuel L. Jackson and More Bananas” by Mr. Cary and Banksy (license: CC-BY 2.0)
Tired of people who can’t tell their kiddish (blessings for the Sabbath) from their kaddish (prayer for the dead)? Well, it sets Samuel L. Jackson off too! But he found a way of making a bracha (blessing) and mourning the dead at the same time. Now I can’t vouch for the origins of his nusaḥ (custom) but it sounds very effective!
Most people haven’t noticed, the only real part from the Bible is that last section [adapted from Ezekiel 25:17], the first part is actually his own spiel:
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הַדֶרֶךְ שֶׁל הַצָדִיק הוּא מותקף מִכּל הצדדים על ידי העוונות של אנוכי והרודנות של רשעים. |
The path of the righteous man[1] |
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בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֲשֶׁר בְּשֵׁם הָצֶדֶק וְרַצוֺן טוֺב, יוֺבִיל כְּרוּעֲה אֶת הַחָלָשׁ בְּגַּיְא צַלְמָווֶת כִּי הוּא שׁוֺמֵר אָחֲיו הֶאֲמִתִּי וּמְקַבֵּץ טָף אָבוּד |
Blessed is he who in the name of charity |
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וְעָשִׂיתִי בָם נְקָמוֹת גְּדֹלוֹת בְּתוֹכְחוֹת חֵמָה מי שמנסה להרעיל ולהרוס את האחים שלי וְיָדְעוּ כִּי אֲנִי יְיָ בְּתִתִּי אֶת נִקְמָתִי בָּם׃ |
“And I will strike down upon those with great vengeance and with furious anger |
Reb Jules Winnfield, in the name of Marsellus Wallace, circa 1994
Cross-posted to Hardcore Mesorah.
Notes:
“PULP Kaddish” is shared by Shmueli with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.
Is it Purim yet?
It’s not Tu Bishvat anymore, so yeah.
I found another copy of this text here dated February 16, 2008. It’s possible this translation first appeared in the Hebrew language subtitles to the film PULP FICTION. Can anyone confirm this? Also… this appears to be less than faithful translation of Jules Winnfield’s line into Hebrew than I would hope. Can anyone improve on this, keeping Winnfield’s tone of righteous indignation? Bonus points for adding nikkud.
I have a wonderful collection of movies with Hebrew subtitles. Which gets me wondering, is there like an official subtitle team that gets input from the studio on what is appropriate? Whats funny about the botched translation is that many Israelis will point out the absurdity of trying to take faux King James sounding language and bring it back into Hebrew, without sounding redundant.
I love it.
Be-r’shut, I would just suggest subsituting the word “taf” for “yeladim”. I think “taf”/”young children” is more common in Tanakhic pronouncements, and a touch more poetic.
Then, of course, adjust the plural of “lost” to singular: “U-mekabetz taf avud.”
Next, someone please translate Jules’ whole examination of who the righteous and evil, etc., are into Aramaic! Or would it sound better in Yiddish?
Chag same’ach!
that’s a great suggestion!
I think we also need to translate “those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers” into Hebrew since that part’s not really in Ezekiel 25:17.