The Yeshiva, Volume 1[The author is the] winner of the Jewish Book Council's award for best novel of 1978 ... [The novel] does not concern itself with the interaction between the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe and the hostile non-Jewish communities that surrounded the, but rather with what takes place within the Jewish community itself. It is a saga about Talmudic students and their teachers, laced with plots and subplots involving brooding moralists consumed by guilt and doubts. It presents a panorama of life in Eastern Europe's yeshivas, or Talmudical academies, that has never been depicted before in fiction. The novel teems with life. We meet a host of characters, students of the yeshiva, rabbis, teachers, merchants, townspeople, peddlers, workers, and even thieves and lunatics. We see all these people through [the author's] eyes, a gentle view but one never distorted by nostalgia or sentiment. However, this book is not all somber and serious. It is laced with humor, tragi-comic situations, and hilarious descriptions and incidents. Stories of yeshiva students' idiosyncrasies, the way a community picks its rabbi, the hiding of secular books under the Talmud during school and after, and a bungled burning of books from the town library are just a few of the many lighter and comic situations presented ... This is a novel for all persons and all emotions, a book that will remain in the consciousness long after it has been read.-About this book. |
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afraid Amdur Argentina asked beard began bench beth medresh Bialystok brother Chaikl Vilner cheder Confrada congregants daughter Eltzik Bloch eyes face father felt Frankel Freyda friends girl hands Hannah Hannah-Leah head heard Hertzke Holy Ark husband Jewish Jews kitchen knew Kreyndl laughed Leitshe Lolla Lomzhe looked maid married Melechke Mindl mitzva mother Musar Musarnik Nareva Naum Navaredok night Passover prayer stand rabbi Reb Avraham-Shaye Reb Hirshe Gordon Reb Lippa-Yosse Reb Menakhem-Mendl Reb Shlomo-Motte Reb Tsemakh Atlas ritual fringes Ronya Rosh Hashana rosh yeshiva Sabbath shouted shul silent sitting Slava smile Sroleyzer Stasya stood Stupel Sukkos talk Talmud tefillin tell thought tobacco merchant told Torah scholar Torah study town Tsertele Tu Bishvat Valkenik Valkenik rabbi Vella Vilna Volodya Vova Barbitoler wife window woman yeshiva boys yeshiva students yetzer ba-ra Yoel Yosef Varshever young Yudel