Yamulkas in Berlin 6:30

Vasily Surikov
1848 - 1916

 

 “No, I'm just a very naughty boy. I do all sorts of bad things. I kick kittens. I make rude gestures at nuns.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes

 

 

 

The Flag by Sholom Aleichem

The Plain Facts

1. Length:Twelve Pages 


2. Genre:Old Country Tales, Memoirs, Sholom Aleichem, Yiddish Literature.


3. Characters:
• Kopele Cock-crow (A.K.A. Topele Tottrow)
4. Setting: A small village in Yidburrough, somewhere between Germany and Poland.

So, what's It About Man?

A young boy with a speech impediment learns what it is to grow up as an under-dog, mispoken "Boychik" ("a young lad").

Yamulkas in Berlin 4:30

Rain-Droplets Up-Close

“He spoke to her as if she could understand him, never in high pitch or in monosyllables, and never in nonsense words. This is milk that I am feeding you. It comes from Mordechai the milkman, whom you will meet one day. He gets the milk from a cow, which is a very strange and troubling thing if you think about it, so don't think about it . . . Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

 Esther by Elizabeth Swados(1988)

The Plain Facts

1. Length:82 pages long.
2. Genre:Theater Production
3. Characters:
• King Ahashuerus
• Mordechai
• Haman
• Esther 
• Narrator-Ethyl
• Narrator-Lucy 
• Beggar One  thru Four
•  Contestants One thru Four
• French Waiter 
• Farmer 
4. Setting: The village in Persia where the King Ahashuerus reigns.  He reigns with an iron will, and desires to be entertained.  The time of year this play takes place is during the festival of Purim.    

So, what's It About Man?

.  This play shares the great joys held in the holiday of Purim, and the art of story telling.

Yamulkas in Berlin 3:30

Queen Esther, 2003, Oil on Canvas, 43 x 63 in by Orit Arfa

“I felt unsteady as I lead Xerxes to his seat. Women in his kingdom were but dressing for a man's bed and a satisfactory way to provide heirs. The king had once banished a queen on the advice of his counsel. Now would he accept the word of his queen and banish the adviser? Dear G-d, I pleaded silently, how can it be that I should change history? I am a prisoner myself – how can I asked for the freedom of a nation?”
― Ginger Garrett, Chosen: The Lost Diaries of Queen Esther

Visiting with King Ahasuerus (1909 - 1911)

The Plain Facts

1. Length:read the excerpt of 13 pages.
2. Genre:Yiddish Old Country Tales
3. Characters:Tevye speaks to Shalom Aleichem.
4. Setting: a little village where Tevye lives, and the woods and nature that surrounds it. The story takes place during Purim a time of great festivity much like Mardi Gras. The  Jewish people celebrate God's providence in giving victory to the Jewish People over the great Persian Empire.

So, what's It About Man?

.  This story shares the great joys held in the holiday of Purim.

Yamulkas in Berlin 2:30

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.”
― Plato

Song of Songs by Shalom Alecheim(1909 - 1911)

The Plain Facts

1. Length:read the excerpt of 13 pages.
2. Genre:Yiddish Old Country Tales
3. Characters:Tevye speaks to Shalom Aleichem.
4. Setting: a little village where Tevye lives, and the woods and nature that surrounds it.

So, what's It About Man?

THis is Sholom Aleichem's meditative story on the book from the Old Testament, The Song of Songs.  

Yamulkas in Berlin 1:30

However disagreeable the phenomenon may seem at moments of sensitivity it is seldom more than trivial. The dislike of Jews was a ready way for WASP literati to identify themselves with the great tradition. Besides, it is something like a hereditary option for non-Jews to exercise at a certain moment when they discover that they have a born right to decide whether they are for the Jews or against them. (Jews have no such right.)-Saul Bellow as quoted from the Jewish Literary Review

  Tevye Reads the Psalms Shalom Alechiem (1914 - 1916)

The Plain Facts

1. Length:6 pages 
2. Genre:Yiddish Old Country Tales
3. Characters:Tevye speaks to Shalom Aleichem.
4. Setting: a little village where Tevye lives. 

So, what's It About Man?

Tevye reads the psalms and reflects on the state of the Jewish People.  A people still in exile.   Tevye is speaking to Shalom Aleichem, and Shalom Aleichem is writing down the words.   I can envision a little imp like man, with a round belly, speaking in time with Fiddler on the Roof: If I were A Rich Man. This was the last Tevye story written.