Szlojme od reb Chaima: obraz życia żydowskiego na Litwie

ENShloyme Reb Khayims is the last, unfinished novel by Sholem Yankev Abramovitch, better known to readers as Mendele Moykher-Sforim. In the introduction that appeared in Hebrew in the Odessa periodical Paries in 1894, Mendele explained that his decision to write a memoir was prompted by a need to preserve a faithful memory of the past, which in turn he understood as a special kind of obligation towards his descendants and his people. The first eleven chapters of the novel were published in Yiddish in the journal Der Yud in Krakow between February and September of 1899; more chapters were added over the next twenty years. The most complete edition of the entire work was included in a two-volume set of Mendele Moykher-Sforim’s collected works in Yiddish, released in 1928 by the Central publishing house in Warsaw. The world of Shloyme Reb Khayims is populated by the Jewish inhabitants of provincial towns in Lithuania as they went about their everyday lives and celebrated their holidays, sometimes garbed in traditional clothing, sometimes in the new clothing required by tsarist decree. This is the story of diverse social strata, of the poor and the wealthy, of scholars and unschooled people, men and women, all struggling with adversity, all celebrating, all seeking solace in ethical literature, prayer, and work. The protagonist of the novel is Shloymele, the son of the wealthy leaseholder Reb Khayim of Kapulye (Kopyl) in Slutsk county, in what is now Belarus.In the first seventeen chapters, the boy is growing up against the backdrop of the Jewish life cycle and changing seasons. Gradually delving into the world of Jewish learning, he discovers nature and experiences his first love. His happiness is shattered by a family tragedy that forces the teenager to seek his future far away from his loved ones. In the second part, Shloymele deals with the challenges of survival at the mercy of incidental good willed people met along the way. As a yeshiva student, he enters the fascinating world of interpersonal relations while confronting the temptations that gradually distract him from the traditional model of the learned Jew. Shloymele makes friends with artisans, neighbors, village ruffians, and fellow students. These meetings fill the youngster with a feeling of uncertainty which will eventually prompt him to embark on a trip to the southern ends of the Pale. Throughout the journey, the reader is looking over the protagonist’s shoulder and getting glimpses of various and sundry characters in the background, each one a specific type characteristic of Jewish towns of the period.