sticky outside my door

billturner    says:

have you looked at it in a mirror? and upside down?
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

starlen    says:

thai? redacted, due to complete idiocy.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

finn    says:

after asking a friend, I have it on pretty good authority that it's hebrew or a combination of hebrew and yiddish.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Kathryn Yu    says:

thai was my guess, too.

is this the same sticky from thanksgiving, or a new one?
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

judith    says:

it's hebrew. it says something about (perhaps in memory of) the people who opened the house, something something to him, isaac the son of sara sait(?), nachman the son of feyge.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Lady Macabea    says:

Finn, it turns out that the extremely rough translation I gave you was a bit off, but I was right that the tone was pretty negative. A friend of mine writes, "My guess is that it is some kind of a curse written by a native Yiddish speaker who is religious (hence the "basad" at the beginning). The curse itself is in "loshen koydesh" i.e. Hebrew but the names are written in Yiddish...the entire last two lines are a name of a person (two names actually). "hi-ku besanverim" is from the bible and literally means to blind someone. It was probably aimed at a specific tenant only they weren't sure about the apartment number."

Holy cow.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Andrew Huff    says:

A pox on a post-it? Wow.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

david    says:

Basically, walk through the door and you'll be struck blind. Yikes! Time to get a counter curse brewing.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

david    says:

Am I cursed just for reading it? Is Yahoo! cursed for hosting it?
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

thirteen    says:

~I think you have a case for self defense here. Respond with extreme prejudice!~
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Lady Macabea    says:

OK, I've been emailing back and forth with my friend and this is the best we've come up with:

"With Heaven's help, strike blind the people of this house."

The two names at the end--Levy Yitshak ben Sara-Sasha and Nachman ben Feyga--most likely identify the tenants to whom the curse is directed.

But if the names are a signature, then all of you are doomed. :)
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

The First Mate says:

we in the linguistics department (specifically our hebrew speaker) concurs with the interpretation "strike blind the people of this house." but he says its not the Hebrew of a native speaker, so he's unsure and says it is very weird. watch out!
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

thecheesethatgoescrunch says:

It's times like this that I find it comforting to remember that there's no god.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

finn    says:

well at least when we go blind, so will everyone else in the building.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

seawallrunner    says:

get out of there ...NOW
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

JerryKindall says:

Get out now! The curse is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

feeb    says:

I heard something else makes you go blind too...
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

TheRadford says:

So, do you know who Levy Yitshak ben Sara-Sasha and Nachman ben Feyga are?
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

svillarosa says:

Tell everyone about it.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

zygomorph says:

Random points:
1. The "With Heaven's help" part is just something many reliious Jews put at the top of any paper and probably not part of the message; it is abbreviated, not written out in full (letters beit, samech, and daled, standing for bsyata dshmaya)

2. The construction of the names (saying 'son of' and then the *fathers* name) means the people named are dead. Jews refer to living people using the mother's names, dead people using the father's, unless they're announcing someone who will read the Torah in synagogue.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

zygomorph says:

Okay, I am an idiot, the names after son of are female, not male. So the people are alive, not dead. Whoops.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Kathryn Yu    says:

maybe some people just really hate williamsburg hipsters.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

ry    says:

i blame it on the time you iced the floors real genius style.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

finn    says:

interesting comments from metafilter:

I don't think the names on the note are the people intended to be cursed unless your building has tenants over the age of 200. Nachman ben Feiga (aka Rebbe Nachman) has been dead for a while now.
posted by Marit at 4:38 PM PST on December 9

...

Yes, Nachman ben Feiga has been dead for 200 years. He was an extremely influential figure in the history of Hasidism.
So unless we're talking Zombie Nachman, that ain't who the curse is aimed out.
posted by Justinian at 4:50 PM PST on December 9

sgoralnick    says:

i have a hat given to me by an israeli soldier inscribed with the words (in the same scripty hebrew) "may this protect you always...".

you can borrow it if you're not blind yet.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

particle-wave    says:

Definitely not the hebrew of a native speaker. Think of the way you might have composed a sentence a couple of months into a begining foreign language class, using the wrong conjugations and the simple words and syntactic structures of a 5 year old.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

friedmania14 says:

Levi Yitzchak Ben Sarah Sasha is the Berditchever Rebbe, who also lived about 200 years ago.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Holy man says:

The definition of first two rows of the letter is: "And the people who where at the door of the house where cursed with blindness" this is from the bible, and these people believe that when you put it on the door of someone it’s a help that that person will leave that house….
The bottom two lines is just the names of some old Hasidic leaders, and these people also believe that writing or saying these names helps them in the thing they want to do…

Sorry for my bad English, as I’m one of these Hasidim myself…
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Figurine says:

it is hebrew and in the modern day script, the language itself has nothing to do with it. its as if someone were to post something on your door in gaelic hoping you might leave because they want to rent the appartment instead of you. the names are like names of saints that help with the process (they are not saint in the christian sense, but are supposed to linguistically work the same way).

remember also, superstitious/mistical stuff can only affect you if you believe them... nothing more nothing less. hang up a horseshow :)
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Little Marit says:

That was the most interesting AskMefi thread I've read in a long time. C'mon, throw us an update. :}
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

leb2005 says:

I got a correct response from an actual landlord in that area. In the Chassidic world there are some known "Segulos" mystical amulets, notes, writings or deeds that can thwart an evil eye or other bad things.

The first part says "Those people who open the house should be blinded" It is an old time spiritual protection note that protects from thieves and robbers. The saying is from the bible regarding the protection of Lot's guests from outside gangs in Soddom and Gemorah.

The two names on the bottom "Levi Yitzchak ben Sarah Sosha" and "Nachman Ben Fayge" are both Chasiddic Rebbes from approx. 200 years ago that provoke "Rachmim and Shmirah" which is mercy and protection.

Orthodox Jews usually have visible "Mezuzos" (Parchment Notes) on their door posts, so it is common by some Jewish Landlords to post a note or as in this case many notes on their non-Jewish tennants doors.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

finn    says:

That was the most interesting AskMefi thread I've read in a long time. C'mon, throw us an update. :}

There's nothing much to say. We haven't spoken to anyone about it. I am inclined to believe leb2005's interpretation of the note. I had already been thinking that it might be some sort of spiritual protection as there were notes not just on the apt. doors, but also on the ladder to the roof and near the entrance to the building. I'm not sure how that reconciles with the interpretation that the note was to try and get us to move out.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

myle00 says:

Of course this guy that leb2005 talked to, told him it is meant for protection. he wouldn't want you to know that one of the hasidic guys put up some thing like this...

i used to talk yiddish and i'm telling you he changed the content. it's true that it comes from the bible where 'lot' used it to protect himeself from the others. however, here it is used to protect them selves from you!!! if you live there you must know that they don't want the hipsters or artisten, how they call 'em, in the area, that's why they put it up.

and the same is with the names, it is useally used for protection or if they want some thing to happen, here they use the names to support the first part which is meant as a curse, that 'you' should move out otherwise you would go blind, and of course they won't tell you the real content!!!
i know this, because i used to live between them and i left in part because of the hatered like this that was going on against other people.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

peeing_is_believing says:

My grandmother used to warn me about a different action that would blind me.
That one didn't; neither will this one :-)
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

anearthling says:

Poor man's trackback:

Linky.
Posted 48 months ago. ( permalink )

lauronsky    says:

O__o... excuse me... may i ask you what's happened at the end? (if something is happened?)
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

Leo King says:

Looks like Quikscript
Posted 21 months ago. ( permalink )