A Jewish Circus Vocabulary

At "Gragger", Workmen's Circle's radical Purim party

Badchanim/Badchaniot: (meaning "joker" or "clown") is a scholarly comedian who traditionally entertains before and after Ashkenazic Jewish weddings. They are generally learned men and women comparable to a maggid or sermonizer. Currently they are only common in the Hasidic world. In Europe during the Middle Ages, there were among the Jewish communities traveling merrymakers who probably originally patterned themselves after the troubadours, but soon
developed their own tradition of wedding entertainment with jokes related to Scriptural verses or Talmudic passages (taken from Wikipedia). The marshallik was a humorous master of ceremonies.   The letz was a clown: a juggler, acrobat, and entertainer (from Jill Hammer).

Lismoach Chatan U'Kalah: The mitzvah of causing newlyweds (traditionally the "bride" and "groom") to rejoice, which often manifests in clowning, juggling and other entertainment when the newly weds emerge from yichud, after the wedding ceremony, for the traditional wedding meal.

Purim Spiel or Purimshpil, meaning a Purim play — shpil means 'game' or '(stage) play' inYiddish –– is usually a comic dramatization, as a traditional type of Jewish play, or informal theatrical production, with participants, usually children, wearing costumes that depict the characters in the story in the Book of Esther, the central text and narrative that describes what transpired on Purim and why it has become an important Jewish holiday. By the 18th century in eastern Romania and some other parts of Eastern Europe, Purim plays (in Yiddish, called, Purimshpiln) had evolved into broad-ranging satires with music and dance, precursors to Yiddish theater, for which the story of Esther was little more than a pretext: indeed, by the mid-19th century, some were even based on other stories, such as Joseph sold by his brothers, Daniel, or the Binding of Isaac (taken from Wikipedia).

Schtick: a comic theme or gimmick. "Shtick" is derived from the Yiddish word shtik (שטיק), meaning "piece"; the closely related German word Stück has the same meaning. A shtick can refer to an adopted persona, usually for comedy performances, that is maintained consistently (though not necessarily exclusively) across the performer's career. In common usage, the word shtick has also come to mean any talent, style, habit, or other eccentricity for which a person is particularly well-known, even if not intended for comedic purposes. Among Orthodox Jews, "shtick" can also refer to wedding shtick, in which wedding guests entertain the bride and groom through dancing, costumes, juggling, and silliness (taken from Wikipedia).

Adam Lavitt is entering his final year of rabbinical studies at Hebrew College, where he is also pursuing a Master's in Jewish Education and a certificate in Pastoral Counseling.  His main interest lies in building community through experiential, embodied, Jewish education, and takes improvisational dance, farming and circus arts as some of his inspirations in designing meaningful Jewish experiences.  His goal is to find a way to facilitate Jewish learning and practice that brings our minds back into our bodies, and into meaningful relationship with the earth.