Yahweh, Yahwism, Yahwistic,yarmulke, year, Yiddishist, Yiddish, Bernard Malamud, The Magic Barrel

This ends the Y section...filled with Jewish and Yiddish words. 

Yahweh: []Hebrew, Yahweh]  the Hebrew God.

     Yahwism: the worship of Yahweh.

     Yahwistic: adjective, relating to Yahwism

yarmulke [Yiddish, jarmutka skullcap]   a skullcap worn by Orthodox Jews in the synagogue and at home.

year: the time it takes for the sun to return to the same, arbitrary fixed position in the sky. 

Yiddishist: an expert in the Yiddish Language.  A synonym: Semitist

  I recall reading a New York Times obituary about the demise of a famous "Yiddishist." 

Yiddish [a Yiddish word meaning Jewish] This is actually a High German language, not Hebrew, spoken by Jews largely in  Eastern Europe.

     Favorite Yiddish or Jewish writer?  Without a doubt, it is Bernard Malamud.  My favorite short story of his is The Magic Barrel (a short story and also a collection of the same name).  

     I imagine only aficionados of the written word can relate to this experience…I unexpectedly came across his obituary in The New York Times while I was working in the inner city in Paterson, N.J. around 1985. (Paterson, to my consolation, was the home of William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg.)  I felt such anguish and desolation, as if some one had kicked me in the stomach.  His writing, his gentle, perceptive and empathetic voice was gone forever.   I had the same experience years later upon seeing the same on James Herriott.