A Strand of Hair
Published in Issue #22 Translated from Hebrew by Herbert J. Levine and Reena Spicehandler subscribe to unlock the full storyTranslators’ Introduction:
We sometimes forget that the current generations of Jews are not the first to worry that our descendants may not be Jewish. More than a hundred years ago, while living in Odessa in the last period of his life, Mendele Mocher Seforim (named after his character, the itinerant book seller) began a series of Hebrew stories on the Jewish holidays, of which he completed five. (This is the third to appear in Jewish Fiction .net). These are unlike anything else in his oeuvre in Yiddish or Hebrew, as they are not satires. They are attempts at constructing a viable world of Jewish belief and commitment, rather than deconstructing the existing social structures through irony and ridicule. We offer you this story that revolves around Passover as a poignant example of how tradition and modernity collided a hundred years ago, even as they continue to collide around our Seder tables.
As spring arrives, work increases in the world of the Holy Blessed One! Every living thing — from crawling animals to four-legged ones, from birds to human beings — comes out for its tasks, builds and repairs, cleans and sets up nests and homes in caves and in holes, in fields and in forests, in hamlets and in villages. At such a time, the female rules the home. By her order, windows are opened which had been closed during the rainy season; by her word, the household furnishings are moved about. She changes the places of the tables and chairs, the benches, beds and wardrobes, and rearranges them...
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