( he, יִמַּח שְׁמוֹ, yīmmaḥ šəmō, may his name be erased) is a
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
curse
A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...
placed after the name of particular enemies of the Jewish people. A variant is ( he, יִמַּח שְׁמוֹ וְזִכְרוֹ, yīmmaḥ šəmō vəzīḵrō, may his name and his memory be erased). ''Yimakh shemo'' is one of the strongest curses in the Hebrew language.
Usage
The term, although Hebrew, may be inserted as a set phrase in languages other than Hebrew, including Yiddish, for example, "''Dos iz a kol-boynik, yemakh-shmoy!''" ("He is a scoundrel, ''yemakh-shmoy''!") and English. When the phrase is used in English of plurals the Hebrew plural ''-am'' ("their names and their memories" ''yimach shemam ve-zichram'') is applied. The
epithet
An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
may be abbreviated as "Y. S." in some English texts. In Hebrew the abbreviation is () The curse connects with examples of erasure of names in other cultures. It has been called "the classic Jewish curse."
Haman and others
The phrase originates with
Purim
Purim (; , ; see Name below) is a Jewish holiday which commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, an official of the Achaemenid Empire who was planning to have all of Persia's Jewish subjects killed, as recounted in the Book ...
and
Haman
Haman ( ; also known as Haman the Agagite or Haman the evil) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was an official in the court of the Persian empire under King Ahasuerus, commonly identified as Xerxes I ...
, but can be applied to any abhorrent enemy of the people such as
Sabbatai Zevi
Sabbatai Zevi (; August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676), also spelled Shabbetai Ẓevi, Shabbeṯāy Ṣeḇī, Shabsai Tzvi, Sabbatai Zvi, and ''Sabetay Sevi'' in Turkish, was a Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turk ...
,
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Bohdan Zynovii Mykhailovych Khmelnytskyi ( Ruthenian: Ѕѣнові Богданъ Хмелнiцкiи; modern ua, Богдан Зиновій Михайлович Хмельницький; 6 August 1657) was a Ukrainian military commander and ...
, Spain,
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
Russians, Poles,
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, any other Nazi, or even in cases of personal slight, such as of a bullying father, or conversely as the father of
Israel Zangwill
Israel Zangwill (21 January 18641 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of cultural Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and ...
of his playwright son.
Chofetz Chaim
The '' Sefer'' ''Chafetz Chaim'' (or ''Chofetz Chaim'' or ''Hafetz Hayim'') ( he, חָפֵץ חַיִּים, trans. "Desirer of Life") is a book by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, who is also called "the Chofetz Chaim" after it. The book deals wit ...
used the epithet of the man who tried to persuade him to abandon his studies.
There are only a very small number of texts where ''yimakh shemo'' is used of Jesus, although the tradition that
Yeshu
Yeshu (Hebrew: ''Yēšū'') is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in rabbinic literature, which historically has been assumed to be a reference to Jesus when used in the Talmud. The name ''Yeshu'' is also used in other sources ...
( – ( minus the
ayin
''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac ܥ, and Arabic (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only).
The letter represen ...
) is related to the ''yimach shemo'' has a little popular circulation, maybe an inheritance from medieval polemical traditions. An early introduction of this connection into Lutheran literature was made by convert
Johan Kemper )
, birth_date = c. 1670
, birth_place = Kraków, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
, death_date = 3 May 1716 ( O.S.)14 May 1716 ( N.S.)
, death_place = Uppsala, Swedish Empire
, spouse = SiphraAnna Strömer (m. 1701)
, othe ...
.
Amalek
Although the immediate context of the phrase ''yimakh shemo vezikhro'' is related to Haman, some sources suggest that the second part of the phrase, "and his memory" (), harks back to the instruction to "obliterate the memory of
Amalek
Amalek (; he, עֲמָלֵק, , ar, عماليق ) was a nation described in the Hebrew Bible as a staunch enemy of the Israelites. The name "Amalek" can refer to the nation's founder, a grandson of Esau; his descendants, the Amalekites; or the ...
Exodus
Exodus or the Exodus may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible
* The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan
Historical events
* Ex ...
17:14. This connection is supported in some sources by the idea that Haman is a descendant of Amalek.
Usage in English and Yiddish literature
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only w ...
places the phrase in the mouth of the titular character of his novel ''
Herzog
''Herzog'' (female ''Herzogin'') is a German hereditary title held by one who rules a territorial duchy, exercises feudal authority over an estate called a duchy, or possesses a right by law or tradition to be referred to by the ducal title. ...
'' to comically depict his anger. Leo Haber's ''The Red Heifer'' (2001), set in New York's Lower East Side in the 1940s, includes the term in a glossary.
Related terms
In Yiddish a derived noun, formed with the Slavonic ''-nik'' nominalizing suffix, is 'scoundrel' (feminine ) but this is not used with the strength of the original epithet .
The term ''yimakh shemo'' is often used in combination with the term ''meshummad'' from the root ''shamad,'' which signifies to destroy.
The obliteration of Amalek's memory has been compared to the Latin by several European academics.