The Horse and the Whip

Eliezer Shteynbarg

1932

“May an unforeseen disaster
Overtake your worthy master,
The wagoner, Reb Benjamin,
And strike at you along with him.”
The horse was saying
to the whip and neighing,
“Did you ever
Hear of such a thing? I never . . .
Tell me why I’m always beaten.
And for nothing, too! You think it’s fun to drag this dray?
Remember, first of all, I haven’t even…
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Creator Bio

Eliezer Shteynbarg

1880–1932

Born in the shtetl of Lipkany (Lipkon, in Yiddish), Bessarabia (present-day Lipcani, Moldova), Eliezer Shteynbarg was an educator and writer, famous for his original fables. Ostensibly written for children, Shteynbarg’s fables were masterfully crafted with an eye toward a sophisticated adult reader, incorporating playful yet shrewd social commentary on Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Seamlessly weaving together religious and secular themes and language, the fables were praised as uniquely Jewish texts that nevertheless drew on a broader European tradition of modern fabulists, including Jean de La Fontaine and Ivan Krylov. A dedicated pedagogue and cultural activist, Shteynbarg played a leading role in Romanian Jewish cultural life throughout the interwar period. He died in Czernowitz (present-day Chernivtsi, Ukraine).

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