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A Jewish Wedding
Deep in fields the klezmers can be heard
Driving horses foaming at the mouth,
Relatives, both poor and rich, arrive
To Reb Sane’s daughter’s wedding feast. [ . . . ]
But from a…
How can it be told in simple, quiet words?
How can you gloss over the sharp outcry
So that people will listen to it and be silent,
With mute eyes, even without a sigh?
Without a sigh, since every…
We live in a time of a universal striving for science and civilization, and the spirit of the time warms the hearts of everyone alike with its breath. It permeates the depths of the soul and reason…
Reb Shmelke:
Well, I can see that you are a clever man, so I will tell you the whole story in brief. [He takes a drink.] As you see me before you, I’m called Reb Smelke [Shmelke, as pronounced by a…
All along the street, on both sides, on the lowest floor of the houses there are a multitude of stores, large and small. The majority of them are pressed into holes so narrow as to allow passage for…
This tombstone of a Torah scholar from Sieniawa, Poland includes motifs and symbols often found on Jewish tombstones in Poland, such as a crown and palm trees. Other common symbols on Jewish…
It was Shabbat morning. I was still lying in bed. My mother was already up and awake, wearing her clean white headdress. The other bed opposite mine, where my mother would sleep, was already made…
Even though the town has a well right in the middle of the marketplace, many of its finest people use river water that they have to carry from the edge of the town half a mile away. The river water is…
From the cradle to the grave,
A heavy burden crushes us . . .
Constrains the mind, destroys our strength,
Wreathes our brow with thorns . . .
And yet, with amazing power
Our lips run along the…
From the silence of the night I heard a clamor,
Like the clank of chains of bondage, the sound of linked fetters
Jangling each other—
The heavens opened,
And suddenly a great flood of light burst…