A Book I Love And Treasure

by Dr Mervyn Leviton

Some 54 years ago a young girl named Sandra Feiler gave me a present of a book. The book was called A Treasury of Jewish Folklore first published by Crown Publishers of New York in 1948. To this very day it remains a real treasure in my own personal library. Just as an aside, Sandra Feiler, now a grandmother named Sandy Potashnick, is the sister of our own David Feiler and two of her grandchildren are the great grandchildren of Hazel and Jaques Broch.

This book of 740 pages is in fact a rich and beautiful encyclopedia of Jewish stories and legends reflecting European Jewish life during the past 200 years. Its many sections are headed: Holy Men, Human Comedy including Stories of Chelm, Rogues and Sinners, Traditional Types, Scholars and Teachers, Match- Makers, Legends, The World to Come, the Ten Lost Tribes, Animal Tales, Songs and Dances. This final Music section is of special interest as it contains not only the words of dozens of traditional Yiddish songs but also the printed music to accompany the text.

Here are just a couple of my favourite stories from this lovely book.

One day a young man said to his Rabbi, “Rabbi, I’ve never understood what I have to do to really understand and appreciate the purpose of the Talmud?” The Rabbi replied with a story: ‘’If two burglars enter a house by way of the chimney and find themselves in the living room, one with a dirty face and one with a clean face, which one will wash his face?’’ The young man thought about it and replied, “Naturally the one with the dirty face.” The Rabbi replied, “There are two possible answers. The one with the clean face looked at the one with the dirty face and assumed that his face was also dirty so he washed it. The one with the dirty face looked at the one with the clean face and assumed that his was the same so he didn’t wash it.”

“Brilliant” said the young man, “Thank you Rabbi, now I understand Talmud.” “No, you don’t” said the Rabbi, “A true Talmud scholar would say: if two burglars enter a house through the same chimney, how can only one have a dirty face?”

In a section about Olam HaBa, we read of Shmuli, a pious man who asked his Rabbi, “What must I do to merit everlasting life in Olam HaBa?” The Rabbi replied, “Three things you must do: You must give charity, you must care for the sick, and bury the dead.” On his way home from the Rabbi, Shmuli met a poor beggar in the street and invited him to his home for a meal and was delighted that now he had already fulfilled the first part of his mission. But unfortunately the beggar felt sick because he had overeaten. So Shmuli let him sleep in his own bed and rejoiced again that he was able to observe the second mission. But during the night the beggar grew worse, and died the next day. Shmuli arranged for his funeral and accompanied him to the graveside. That night turning his eyes to heaven he said, “Praised be G-d who has made it so easy for a man to merit everlasting life in Olam HaBa”

During this difficult period of our lives when daily news is so often filled with gloom and doom, it is pure medicine when I am able to lose myself in A Treasury of Jewish Folklore.A