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by Abba Lando
Dedicated to the pure memory of my Mother, my Teacher,
who bequeathed to me the love for our language.
Translated by Rabbi Molly Karp
Many of the olim from Lida, upon their arrival in the land of Israel, got the same rhetorical question, which had some indication of praise: “Is it really only a few months that you are here? According to the Hebrew speech in your mouth, I thought that you are a veteran in the land… And the Lida-ite, the new oleh, had to explain (with more than a little smugness about his Lida origins) that it is no wonder, since in Lida, Hebrew was a “daughter of the house”[1] from time immemorial, both among the members of the old generation, as well as in the mouths of the youth, in and outside of the school.
And indeed, from time immemorial the Hebrew language had always held an honored place among the Jews of Lida, in their spiritual lives, the secular and the religious Jews as one, and likewise in their practical lives, in the daily affairs between one person and the next. It is possible to suppose that Lida was not fundamentally different in this from the rest of the Jewish towns in the country of Lithuania, yet, on the other hand, there is no doubt that between one town and the next there were differences in style, quality and quantity. And since we are dealing now with Lida, it is appropriate to tell about one of its typical characteristics, from what we saw and heard in Lida.
Not only in prayers and blessings was the Hebrew language common in the mouths of the Jews of Lida. It seems that the “first generations” did not know another language, in written materials, also in day-to-day dealings, in public and private life, in negotiation, in bookkeeping, and, to a significant extent, also the exchange of letters.
Business contracts, bills of sale, arbitration documents, bank deposits, and the like were always written in the holy language. The thing was the natural way for Jews who refrained from turning, at the time of differences of opinion or conflicts of any kind, to the governmental courts, and the local rabbi, or one of the judges, or an individual arbitrator, or two arbitrators, one for each side (one chosen by each party), and a third that joins them as an “adjutant,” would be the ones to resolve the conflict. This is not to say that every written document of this kind was edited in pure and embellished Hebrew, of course; all was according to the knowledge and expertise of the author. The writer of a document of this kind did not refrain, generally speaking, from embedding a foreign word in his writing, Russian, German or Polish, and even Yiddish, in placed where there traditional Hebrew sources lacked (or he was not aware of it) a suitable and accepted word. And so you find in pure Hebrew business writing “wagons,”[2] railroad shipping documents,[3] “payment on delivery,”[4] (collection by the post or by the railroad administration), and even “interest,” (even though the word “interest”[5] was known to every young student. Maybe it is worthwhile to refrain from a word whose sound in Hebrew is too reminiscent of the prohibition on interest that's in the Torah?) and the like.
The Hebrew date was, among the generations who kept the tradition, not only something that was principally religious, but also a practical life habit: the indication “day one” Parashat Nitzavim,[6] such and such in Elul (or even without the indication of the day of the month), said to a Jew more than “such and such in September.”
The recording of business accounts in Hebrew was self-evident. Indeed, the purity of the language in this area was sometimes excessively defective, since the need in recording was fluent and fast. In any event, everyone tried to write his accounts in Hebrew, or at least, like Hebrew. In this regard, a few typical curiosities are remembered by the writer of these lines: in one of the synagogues in Lida “a report of the gabbaim on synagogue income and expenses” was hung on the wall and in it, among the rest, was a paragraph like this: “Lestaliar avor patshinke beinkel”!
Go out and learn:[7] within these four words, you find three words in Yiddish (or Russian): staliar [carpenter], patshinke, beinkel [bench], and compared with them, three Hebrew roots, that is: the preposition “l” [for] in the word lestaliar, the Hebrew word “avor” [for], and at the end, the connection of the two words “patshinke beinkel” in the Hebrew construct form.[8] And in sum, it “sounds” like Hebrew.
In the notes of a Lida shopkeeper: “To Erl Manovafruts for a sack of wheat[9] (or barley) or grain (rye) or oats, and the like. And on the other hand, you suddenly encounter in a registration of a sale of “p”g (??). The one who struggles with a translation of this kind will search the Hebrew dictionaries, the lists of abbreviations, in vain. Yet the Lida shopkeeper knew the interpretation that it was “perel groifen” [pearl barley], and the acronym created the impression that it was Hebrew.
Hebrew Within Yiddish
Not only within the form of written texts alone did the Hebrew language penetrate the daily lives of the Lida Jews; it mingled also in the language of his speech in Yiddish, crumbs and chunks, and left its imprint on the style of his speech inside his house, in his negotiations, and in his spiritual life. The Hebrew foundations did not dissolve within the Yiddish language. Rather, a mosaic remained integrated into it, and granted to each and every man a treasury of Hebrew words, language patterns, sayings and expressions in Hebrew, each one according to the level of his education, comprehension, and area of interests.
Hebrew nouns within Yiddish served mostly as an indication of the religious purpose of the object, such as: bima, shulchan [table] (which was on the bima of the synagogue), aron (the holy ark, or, to distinguish, a coffin for the dead), amud (for prayer), menorah (for the lighting of candles in the synagogue), parochet [curtain for the ark], etz chaim [tree of life] (of the torah scroll), siddur [prayerbook], machzor [a High Holy Day prayerbook] (for prayer), sukkah,[10] schach,[11] lulav,[12] etrog,[13] hadassim [myrtles], arvot [willows], pitom,[14] Elijah's Chair,[15] mikveh, sefer,[16] ploosh (the vestibule of the entryway of the synagogue, which is open on two sides, that it, one could pass through from both sides), ke'arah [bowl or basin] (for tzedakah or Yom Kippur evening), and tens of others. In secular life the use of Hebrew nouns for material objects was more limited, for the most part to indicate types of things, such as: garments (and also in the singular, garment, without a specific indication of which garment), implements, clothing, foods, personal effects, building (without indication of the nature of the building), and many others.
A butcher, even if he did not read and repeat,[17] used Hebrew professional terminology such as “behayma gasah” (an ox or a cow), behayma dakah (goat, lamb, young calf), sirchah (an attachment of the lungs to each other, or to the breast, a thing that is likely to render the animal treif; and from this on loan, pegam [flaw], any kind of inadequacy in a matter), veset [esophagus], nikkur [gouging], bedikah (checking) and the like.
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Names of professionals (also in the area of religious professionals), those with special roles: chazzan, shochet, menaker,[18] mohel [ritual circumciser], sofer, moded [measurer], (among forestry merchants), mechaber [author], katzav [butcher], rav [Rabbi], dayan [judge], mashgiach [supervisor], shammash, mesharet [servant], shomer,[19] shlish [a third] (who is chosen by two arbitrators in a dispute, who will be the third to decide between them; or a person who the two sides entrust in his hand – deposit some item, money or a possession, in order for them to take out to one side on specific conditions), and many more.
To indicate family relationships: mishpacha [family], krovim [relatives], sheni basheni (or shlishi) [cousin], mechutanim [in-laws].
For the indication of personal qualities, personality, abilities, moods, spiritual tendencies, and the like: tzaddik (tzaddik bador),[20] ba'al tovah [benevolent], ba'al middot,[21] “shemen zayit” [olive oil] (entirely saying gentleness, sometimes ironically), rasha (and more strongly, merusha) [wicked], achzar [cruel], gazlan [robber], “isha ra'ah” [wicked woman], anav [humble], tamim [honest], tam [simple], oz panim,[22] ba'al ga'avah [proud], tzenuah [modest], chatzufah [having chutzpah], “chacham l'ha'rayah,”[23] ma'amin [believer], apikores,[24] kofer ba'ikar,[25] chassid shoteh,[26] mumar l'hach'ees,[27] chacham (and more strongly, mechucham) [wise], pikayach [smart or sharp], shoteh [a fool], teepaysh [stupid], lamdan [a scholar], muflag [exalted], charif [a sharp person, spicy], baki [expert or proficient], matmid [diligent], gadol (b'Yisrael, baTorah),[28] boor, am ha'aretz,[29] maskil [enlightened or educated], melumad [a learned one], medakdek [precise or punctilious], ba'al cheshbon,[30] mayvin [an expert], menagen,[31] simcha [joy], tza'ar [sorrow], marah shechora [melancholia], nechama [consolation], bitachon [confidence], ba'al bitachon [confident], ta'avah [desire], and many more of that kind.
Tens of Hebrew expressions were in the mouths of tradesmen, large and small: socher [merchant], meschar [commerce], sechora [merchandise], pidyon [revenue], l'achadim [to individuals] (in modern Hebrew – in retail), hachra'ah (extra weight, a little more than the exact), pesolet [waste], pachat (the shopkeeper's losses in weight, or in measure, subsequent to sales to the “individuals,” or due to the movement of the sacks from place to place, and the like), hachnasah [income], hotza'ah [expense], cheshbon [account], kabbalah [receipt], chatimah [signature], s'chum [amount], sach hakol [in total], koneh (buyer, in modern Hebrew lokayach [taker, or customer], shtar chov [bill of debt], shtar mechirah [bill of sale], chov [debt], chov yashan [old debt], halva'ah [loan], loveh [borrower], melaveh [lender], arev [guarantor], arvut [guarantee], machak (pronunciation in Yiddish: with an open chet) [the middle letter], machen a machak [make an erasure] beetayl chov (cancelled a debt, all or in part), pikadon [deposit], esek [business], ree'vuach [a profit], shutaf [partner], shutafut [partnership], k'tav [writing] (in the meaning of any kind of document, and in jest, “a nar mit a k'tav” [Yiddish: a fool with a document].
In describing an economic situation: parnasah [livelihood] (in plenitude, in constriction), ma'amad [status], ba'al bayit [bourgeoisie] (with the meaning – established in his status), gvir [lord] (with the meaning of – wealthy, sometimes with the additional – adir [noble]), ashirut [wealth], otzar [treasure], matmon [hidden treasure], dachkut [urgency, poverty], yored [descend] (become impoverished), naki [clean] (got out of the business, or from the partnership, naki = lost everything, nothing remained to him), kabtzan [beggar], dalphon [pauper], evyon [needy], ani meduka [oppressed poor], metupal [cared for] (in a large family), otzrot korach [treasures of Korach][32] (extreme wealth).
And here is a special expression, which was created from part of a verse, to indicate a small amount of any kind: (from the book of Exodus, Parashat Mishpatim [22:9] “In all charges of misappropriation–pertaining to an ox, an ass, a sheep, a garment, or any other loss, whereof one party alleges, This is it”). “I didn't have any of it because this is it.”
Many terms and expressions that were taken from Hebrew legal sources were common in the mouths of Jewish businessmen, even those who were not themselves well-versed in the sources, but from what they absorbed through hearing, through the Jewish-Hebrew atmosphere: shomer chinam [guards for free], shomer sachar [guards for a wage], hamotzi may'chavero [one who takes from his friend], shutaf l'rivayach v'lo l'hefsed [a partner for profit but not for loss], shutaf mah she'asah asah [a partner whatever he does], agod (meaning, interest, you take it or I will take it.) An accepted expression, at the time of the dissolution of a partnership, for the transfer of properties to the side that increases the price, kibalta b'kinyan [you received in acquisition] and many more.
In negotiation or in litigation: k'tav shutafut [writ of partnership], sichsuch [dispute], din-Torah [Torah law], peshara [compromise], breirah [arbitration], borer [arbitrator], shlish (a third arbitrator, who is chosen by the representatives of the two sides, to decide between them), muchzak [the side that holds the property, that is, the side that holds sway in the conflict), and more.
Various terms in the area of physiology, logic, and the like: chushim [senses], shmi'ah [hearing], r'iyah [seeing], chush harayach [sense of smell], and private, sensitive matters: achor [behind], tzoah [excrement], may raglayim [water of the legs, that is, urine], tzorech (go as needed), nekavim [orifices] (go on orifices), bayt ha'keesay [house of the chair, or toilet room], afush [stench]. Diseases: atzirut [constipation], shilshul [diarrhea], kadachat [fever], zicaron [memory], tefisah [perception], koach hadibur [the power of speech], limud [learning], hasharah [conjecture], s'varah [opinion], klal [general principle], prat [detail], gezerah shavah [analogy], kal va'chomer [all the more so], metushtash [blurry], charifut [sharpness], bekiut [proficiency], niggun [wordless tune], neginah [playing of music], metikut [sweetness], mayvin [an expert], m'vinut [understanding], and the like.
Many, especially the Hebrew verbs, which were adapted to Yiddish speech by means of the addition of the suffix “n,” “en”, or “nen,” and also by means of the addition of the helping verbs “zein” [to be], “vern” [become], or “machen” [make]:
Aser”en [to forbid], bedek”nen [to check], harag”nen [to kill], kasher”n [to make kosher], memit”n [to put to death], meser”n [to transmit], peter”n [to absolve], p'sal”en [to disqualify], poal”en [to work], kenas”nen [to fine], shecht”en [to slaughter], and the like.[33]
Eskar vern [become diseased] (apparently, from the word askarah, disease. In the mouth of the masses, in oaths or in curses). Ma'arich zein [be extended], mevatel zein [be nullified], gover zein [be strong], megaleh zein [be revealed] (megaleh sod [a secret] zein), m'gulgal vern [become rolled], dan zein [be judged], mehaneh or neheneh zein [be enjoying], zocheh zein [be winning], mezacheh zein [be entitled], mechuyav [obligated] (zich mit'chayev zein [obligated himself]), zich mitchaten zein [become married],[34] metaher zein [become purified], yotze zein [fulfil one's obligation], motzi zein (to do for someone, to fulfill someone's obligation), modiah zein [be informed], mechabed zein [be respectful], machriz zein [be declared], masbir zein [be explaining], maskim zein [be agreeing], over zein [be passing], may'eez zein [be daring], nitpael vern [become excited], mifatzeh zein [be compensated], mefarnes zein [be making a living], mekaneh zein [be jealous], mekatzer zein [be brief], mashpia zein [be influencing], matreh zein [be warning].
Sometimes quite long verbs were comprised of the joining of complete Hebrew language expressions to the helping verbs mentioned above: dochek haketz zein [hurries to bring the end, is impatient], mekatzer yamim zein [shortens days], mosair moda'ah zein [transmits information], mekabel b'kinyan zein [receives in acquisition], menachem evel zein [comforts a mourner], mekabel panim zein [welcomes], mekabel psak zein [receiving a ruling], meshaneh makom zein [changes place, moves].
Hebrew also penetrated into schoolchildren's games. And here for example is the chant[35] “counting,” for casting lots (who will be the pursuer in the game, when the others flee from him):
I went on the way – he touched me
A strong man – his name is “Kozak”
A nagaika[36] in his hand – a sword at his side
He said to me – dingy davi.[37]
It is worthy to indicate a few vernacular linguistic creations of the simple people,
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as if Hebrew, that are built on the pattern of the Hebrew language, or from a section of a Hebrew verse, out of some distortion of their pronunciation and their transformation by that means into Yiddish:
“a mater yisurim” (from the mouths of the women of Lida of the old generation).
Meaning – severe suffering. (from “matir asurim” [frees the captives].)
“a dira melucha” as mentioned above. Meaning – an elegant apartment (from “ adir bimlucha” [majestic in kingship] which is in the Passover Haggadah.
“el harina” [to the gutter] so the Lida wagon master (Hirshe the Doliner) used to speak to his horse to hint to him that he should get close to the sidewalk, to the sewer gutter alongside it (“rina” in Yiddish)
“Reb Yishmael says with a lock” a beloved coachman used to say (according to “Reb Yishmael says “with 13 qualities”…etc.)[38] when he used to find the merchandise warehouse locked with a lock (“shloss” in Yiddish.)[39]
Creations of this kind mentioned above were not always the fruit of illiteracy, necessarily. In many cases (at least, such as in the case of the last two examples mentioned above) are nothing but word plays of folk people (the style of Tuvia the Dairyman[40] who is remembered for good), out of an intimate closeness with Hebrew texts that were common in their daily speech.
Until here we have brought examples from those same Hebrew foundations that the Jews of Lida used, and the simple folk of Lida among them, out of Yiddish conversation, and about which it is possible to say that they were spoken “by the people.” Indeed, learned people and intellectuals were accustomed to season their speech plentifully with Hebrew nouns and verbs, linguistic types and forms, sayings, proverbs and expressions of the Sages like these and more, until there was more Hebrew in their mouths than Yiddish.[41] And they also had less influence on the scholarly surroundings. A Lida-ite Jew did not need to be a great scholar in order to blurt out in conversation “don't look at the pitcher, look at what's inside it”[42] or “the one who pursues honor, honor flees from him”[43] or “the fool does not feel [disgraced]”[44] or “no one brings proof from fools;”[45] “if there is no flour there is no Torah;”[46] “the one who extracts from his friend, the proof is on him [the burden of proof rests on the claimant],”[47] and more and more tens of sayings and aphorisms like them, without knowing their exact source.
There is not enough space to cover it all, and this is not the place to interpret the entire rich treasury of the Hebrew foundations that was found within the Yiddish language in Lida, a topic that is worthy of serious research in and of itself. Our intention in this was only to demonstrate, within the limits of what is possible here, the linguistic atmosphere in which a Jew in Lida lived, an atmosphere that was saturated and drenched, redolent and fragrant with the Hebrew language, to the extent that it was present in a traditional Jewish environment.
Hebrew Learning in Lida
I used the expression “learning” in its customary meaning, which includes both learning and instruction. Indeed, there were many in Lida, even two or three generations before our time, who were proficient in the literary Hebrew language, who knew how to write it clearly (in the style of that time, of course), yet we wondered if they learned the language from a teacher or guide. Rather, apparently, this was the way: after the Jewish youth filled his belly with written and oral Torah, he turned by himself (sometimes with the help of an advisor from among the learned men in the city and the like), to the Tanakh and its interpreters, studied “Mendelsohn's Translation,”[48] in “Study of the Hebrew Language” by Ben Ze'ev,[49] and completed his knowledge (maybe more correctly, improved his style), with the reading of old and new Hebrew literature (the new of then, of course). In this way, there grew in Lida a devoted generation of Hebrew intellectuals whose spiritual sustenance was Hebrew literature, Hebrew journalism, from “HaCarmel” and its predecessors to “HaLevanon,” “HaMelitz,” and their daily successors, “HaYom,” “HaZman,” and “HaTzefirah.” In this way there also grew a group of correspondents who sent their writings about what was happening in Lida to the editorial staff of the Hebrew periodicals.[50] We will add that among those who knew Hebrew in Lida there were, already in the [18]90s, and maybe even the 80s, a few young women, experts in the Tanakh, in Pirke Avot (and also among them those who travelled on the paths of Mishnah and Aggadah), voracious readers of Hebrew literature (Weisel,[51] Adam HaCohain,[52] Michel, Kalman Shulman,[53] Mapu, Smolenskin, Gordon), a thing that was uncommon in those years. One of them, Miriam Altshuler, sent writings in pure Hebrew to the Hebrew periodicals.[54] A few of the educated people from Lida left the city of their birth afterwards and acquired a name for themselves in the wider world. Shmuel Leib Gordon, whose first greatness was in the Lida beit midrash, became famous as a teacher and a composer of books for the teaching of the Hebrew language and linguistics, and in the main, as a composer of a commentary on the Tanakh. Sh.D. Kantorovitz, who served as a Hebrew teacher in Lida and whose writings about the city were published in their time in the Hebrew periodicals, also moved to Warsaw and acquired a reputation as an expert pedagogue and teacher of the Hebrew language and the composer of a Hebrew grammar book. Also the writer Yitzchak Goide, born and educated in Lida (who became well-known afterwards, whose beginning was in the Jewish Pale of Settlement in Russia and afterwards in the United States, and a talented Yiddish writer, and in the main as the author of a monumental book on the history of the Jewish theater), began his literary career with a few stories in Hebrew, which were published in the “Penny Books” of Ben Avigdor.
There was an educated Hebrew environment in Lida that dedicated itself to improvements in the education of the younger generation. And indeed, we find in Lida from the [18]90s and on a Hebrew cheder that had in it something of an innovation: instructors that imparted to their pupils not only knowledge of Torah and prayer and the beginning of Gemara learning, but also Tanakh, the grammar of the language, and its style. These faithful workers in Hebrew education in Lida are worthy that in our writing the history of Lida, their names should be mentioned for a blessing. (And may we be forgiven if, from the shortage of our knowledge, we skipped over a few of them who maybe are also worthy to be mentioned at this opportunity.)
Ezra Altshuler
He was not just what was called at that time “Master of Tanakh,” but rather, he was an expert in the Tanakh and its interpretations, exacting and educated. He also did not pay attention to the saying “everyone who teaches his daughter Torah it is as if he has taught her vapidity,” and he taught his daughter Torah to the extent that she became proficient in the language, and she even sent some of the fruit of her pen to the Hebrew newspapers mentioned above. He was one of the “privileged” teachers, who accepted only distinguished students,
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whose parents intended to deepen their knowledge of Tanakh and language. In the periodicals from that time, it is possible to find his notes on matters of language and the events of the day that are signed with the name “Eza”l.” Within his educational work, he made an attempt to compose a book, with whose help the youth of Israel would be able to acquire for themselves in a short way complete knowledge of the language of Scripture, of its entire treasury of its words and expressions. The book that was composed in the year 5664 [1904], apparently, and earned warm approval from Rabbi Reines, may his memory be for a blessing, was published in the year 5670 [1910], by the name “Springs of Water.”[55] [56], He died in the year of the German conquest, at the time of the First World War, in his apartment that was in “Soltz Yard” in Lida; his cheder was there, too, all the days.
Reb Zalman Yudelevitz
He settled in Lida in the 90s of the previous century [1890s], and according to what the people of our town, his relatives and students told about him, Mr. Yosef Yudelevitz,[57] brought into his cheder a method of studies which had something of an innovation in them not only in Lida alone, that is – the method of “Hebrew in Hebrew,” and in addition to that, a few days in the week, speaking only Hebrew. In addition to that, stories from the chronicles of Israel and the like. Indeed, a revolution in the approach to Hebrew learning then. He was also one of the regular writers in the Hebrew periodicals, and his published words excelled in their good reasoning, and their style.
Reb Shimon Kreinovitsh
He too was from the generation of teachers who were Torah scholars and grammarians, with a style, one of the masters of “purity” in the language of Ever. He too, from time to time, was among those who sent the fruit of their pens to the editorial staff of the periodicals. He was considered as among the excellent instructors who, besides Torah, Prophets, Writings, and the beginning of Gemara, also taught his students the Hebrew language, its grammar and styles. A pleasant-looking person (and master of the strap…), he had influence over his students. Apparently, he also had a respectable amount of knowledge of the Russian language.[58] He died before the First World War. His son, Mordechai Kreinovitsh, a dentist, wrote stories in Russian about the lives of the Jews in the Pale of settlement, which won praises in their time from Professor Klausner.[59]
The Unified Hebrew School was, it seems to me, the name of a kind of partnership between four teachers from the new time, from before the First World War. I am not sure if it was really a partnership, and so I don't guarantee the accuracy of the name. This was, as I understand it, only an agreement for cooperation and for directing the students from one to another, according to each one's expertise. And these are they:
Chaikel Vishnevsky
My first teacher and rabbi, remembered for good. A pedagogue from Lida and lover of children, especially those with any kind of ability. The innovation – the educational approach to the child and the pedagogic method of learning, which was new among the instructors. Here too the children learned from 9:00 (or 8:00? I don't exactly remember) in the morning until 6:00 in the evening, with a two-hour break, it seems to me, for lunch. But the learning was not exhausting, not boring, because the teacher (“My Master the Teacher” was, in Hebrew, the form of address in our day) attempted to interest the tender children. His knowledge of Judaism was maybe not so deep, but he used everything he had well for the guidance of his students. Included in this was his little knowledge in playing music (he played the harp a little according to notes). He taught the children to sing in a chorus, from the songs of Zion, and he included the talented among them in the Hebrew receptions, which were held by “The Lovers of the Hebrew Stage” and in the older youth choir that took part in these receptions. During the chapters of Chumash that we learned, the foundations of grammar were also taught to us. For the learning of the forms of the nouns and the verbs, he used to arrange written lists in large clear handwriting, every inflection and every conjugation, and would repeat them to the students, in turn, for memorization. The melody that accompanied this repetition helped to fix the forms in the memory: I wrote, you wrote [masculine] (kamatz),[60] you wrote [feminine] (shva),[61] he wrote, she wrote, (raising of voice in the melody, and a pause), we wrote, you all wrote [masculine], you all wrote [feminine], they wrote (lowering the voice, and a protracted pause).
A second innovation in this cheder (which does not belong to the educational area), the meticulousness about cleanliness and hygiene, and an additional educational innovation was the inclusion of girls in the class – (three, or four, was their number at the time of my learning).
After six “times” of learning, we completed the Five Books of the Torah, accompanied by a selection of Rashi's interpretations, and the book of Isaiah. And armed with this asset, we passed to the second level of that same union of the cheders – to:
Reb Ozer Volinsky
The distinguished instructor of the beginning of Gemara and the continuation of the learning of Tanakh. He was known as a fine elucidator of the passages of Gemara, and also the chapters of Tanakh, out of devotion and passion. His expressions of affection for the student out of his excitement for the student's understanding sometimes remained uncomprehended (because the affectionate pinch hurt…), but woe to the reluctant and lazy student, or the one with difficulty understanding. Nevertheless, in this place we expanded the treasury of our knowledge of the Hebrew language nicely with him (those of the students that won pinches…) out of the learning of the Tanakh, the passages of the Gemara, together with the chapters of reading the Hebrew anthology, with the guidance of the Rebbe, incidentally (it seems to me “The Good Friend”). For grammar Reb Ozer was not an expert, and therefore his friend in the union was invited to give us lessons in this field –
Reb Sholom Leib Krupski
A learned Jew, master of Tanakh, grammar, and a maskil. He educated a generation of students, and among them also the students of Reb Ozer Volinsky. He guided them in supplementary lessons
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in Hebrew and its grammar. All his days he was a devoted Zionist, and in this spirit he educated all his children, all of whom in the course of time made aliyah to Israel.
Reb Eli Chaim Pupko was the fourth in the group mentioned above, but, to my sorrow, I did not know him personally, and I have no details about him in my memory.
Reb Yosef Epshtein (The trucker) was among the instructors that were at the highest level, expert in the old sources, and a member of the family in the later Hebrew literature of all the generations, expert in Israelite history, and fluent in the Hebrew language at all levels of its development until the new era, a master explainer of Talmudic passages, leading his students with discernment in the cycles of the Tanakh, in accordance with their age and comprehension - (for the most part, until about the age of Bar Mitzvah). The highest level class (of the two classes that he had) learned not only Tanakh and Pirke Avot from his mouth, but also grammar at an advanced level (according to “Language Teacher” by Ch. Tz. Lerner, to which he remained faithful over all the new books for learning, which he despised), and Israelite history (according to Liboshitzki. A student who revealed interest also received Gertz from his private library, and Kalman Shulman's translation of Joseph Flavius[62]). We read a selection of chapters in Hebrew literature – (out of an anthology. And the interested and worthy received the books of Mapu, Kalman Shulman, Smolenskin and the like from the Rebbe's book cabinet, and direction and guidance). We learned how to write compositions on topics that he suggested to us, or that we chose freely by ourselves, in living, fluent Hebrew. He brought into “his cheder” Hebrew speech. I don't know when this innovation was brought in, at any rate, with my entrance into studies with him (in the year 1913, it seems to me), the language of speech among us was Hebrew, and not only for the need of explaining the learning material (except for the learning of Gemara, which was, it seems to me, in “Yiddish”) but also outside of it. And the one who led the Hebrew speech, was strict that the students should be careful with this mitzvah also outside of the walls of the cheder. His Hebrew language was rich and his style was free (although not lacking poetic phrases). And there still rings in my ears his rebuke to a group of students who he heard speaking Yiddish among themselves on the streets of the city: “the sound of the jubilations of your jargon I heard yesterday in the streets of the city…” A Jew keeping religion and tradition in all its details and minutia, but who had liberal views, and was inclined to ease also in this area due to the changing conditions. He also brought us into the secret of Sephardic pronunciation of Hebrew, many years before we began to use it. He established many students, who respected and cherished him, and for his part he was respected always by those who emerged from his Beit Midrash onto whom he had the chance to impart some of his spirit, and at every opportunity, would mention their names before his young students. Among the rest, he took pride in his veteran student Kadish Silman,[63] who ascended to the land of Israel and acquired for himself a name as a master teacher and a Hebrew writer. Many of his students now dwell in our land, and their Hebrew speech they brought with them – from Reb Yosef Epshtein's cheder, may his memory be for a blessing.
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| Reb Yosef Epshtein and his students (a young class) |
I included those of the “unknown soldiers” a large part of whom were on the “front” of the revival of the Hebrew language in the mouths of the youth of Lida, who are preserved in my memory, whether out of personal acquaintance or from hearsay. And from them (and from a few others like them, who I did not know), cornerstones and tent pegs[64] of the national renewal movement in our city, and they deserve a memorial in the history of our city.
From the walls of the yeshiva founded by Rabbi Reines, came an additional stimulus, at a higher level, for the spreading of the Hebrew language in our city. Teachers at a very high level, like Pinchas Shifman, Moshe Cohen, Koplovitz, preached their lessons in Hebrew, and many of the students themselves spoke Hebrew among themselves as a matter of principle, and even founded a union that decreed this mitzvah for its members. And I have no need to speak more about this here.[65]
There is also told about the Hebrew schools in Lida, the kindergartens and the Hebrew gymnasia, in another place in this book.
In the [19]20s and 30s the sound of the Hebrew language was heard in the streets of Lida from the mouths of hundreds of young men and women, students of the Hebrew school, members of the youth movement and “HeChalutz,” from tens of men and women who were Hebrew teachers.
After we already mentioned the Hebrew foundations withing the speech of the Yiddish language, there still remains for us to mention the widespread custom in Lida to give Hebrew names to commercial enterprises and factories. Of those that are remembered by me: “Erdel” for the manufacture of galoshes, “Kemach” (a union of flour merchants in the city), “Shemen” (the oil press, which belonged to Yashe Goldberg and his partners), “Gazaz” (the factory for soft drinks).[66]
We will add that in the language section of the population census of the Polish state from the year 1931, in the district of Lida 2002 Jews listed Hebrew (Yiddish – 12,544), as their spoken language, and it may be supposed (if it is difficult to say with certainty), that a large part of them were Lida-ites. Indeed, it cannot be accepted with a presumption of certainty that this number of Jews in the Lida district really spoke Hebrew in their homes. It is very possible that many of them sought to demonstrate with this their national inclination. In any case, the matter is worthy of noting.
Lida: In the Hebrew Journalism of “Those Days”
“Embracing the past,” they call it in our time, whether from nullification or from understanding and participation. But who would dare to judge us, if in moments of “my soul is wrapped around you” we will transfer ourselves in our imagination again to that landscape of the days of childhood, that passed and is no more, and we will also peek into the farther past, that in our childhoods already
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had belonged to the past, to the previous generations, which we only knew from rumor.
While in this mood, I paged through volumes of the old periodicals, “HaMelitz,” “HaLevanon,” “HaCarmel,” and others from seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred years ago and more, in my searching among their pages yellowed with age, and their dried covers, among the articles from the country towns, for the name “Lida.”
Not all the writers are known to us today by their names that were signed under these articles, but there are some of them that are still remembered by us, either from personal recognition or from hearsay: instructors in Israel (in later times they insisted on the title “teachers”), judges, communal functionaries, and Jews that were just educated, whose “had a great grasp of the language of Ever,” the maskil instructor Zalman Yudelevitz, the instructor Reb Shimon Kreinovitz, who is still well-remembered by the adults among those from Lida that made aliyah, Sh. D. Kantrovitz, the well-known grammarian, Reb Shmuel Tzvi Kamenetzky, an educated Jew and an active Lover of Zion in Lida, (the son of the Lida communal functionary Reb Chaim Moshe Kamenetzky), a scion of the family of the Rabbi Reb Elimelech), the judge Reb Yaakov Kopshtein, Reb Arieh Leib Ish Horovitz, Reb Yisrael Iliyotovitz, the writer signed “Eza'l,” and he, apparently, was the distinguished grammarian instructor Reb Ezra Altshuler, and here also is the name of a woman writer of pure Hebrew – Miriam Altshuler, Reb Ezra's daughter, among the writers!
There were not many significant events that were likely to take place in a Jewish town like Lida, that had something in them that could supply the newspapers with sensational material. In any case, there are reflected from within these withered leaves the daily lives of a Jewish community in Lithuania, its grief and its rejoicing, and above everything, the effort to fill life with spiritual content, within a difficult battle for existence.
Here is an article from the year 1887 on the completion of the repair of the Great Synagogue which is described as “very ancient, and it is not known exactly in what year it was founded.. however this we know, that it was inaugurated as a synagogue about two hundred years ago. And to our knowledge “the synagogue stood ruined and destroyed for many years…” until God awakened the spirit of one of the grandchildren of our congregation, an educated and intelligent gentleman, the honored Lord Ya'akov son of Ya'akov Hermaniski, and with him stood his educated helper, the respected lawyer Reb Eliezer Pupko, and they began… they did not rest and they did not cease or rest until…” etc. Indeed, from the precise report of income and expenses, it is known to us that “the educated gentleman did not pour out much gold from his pocket for the holy purpose, and from all of the 2018 silver rubles that the repair of the house cost, only 303 silver rubles came from “individual pledges,” and the rest – “from the sale of the customs on meat for four years” – in any case, honor was given to the two notables who took pains with the mitzvah with the proper devotion, for praise.
Not here is also information from the year 1884, that has in it interest not only for the people of Lida alone, that may disturb the heart of every Jew wherever he is: an event that was in Dokudova, about an unfortunate Jew who dwelt illegally in a village, he and his pregnant wife and his son (according to the “hourly rules” of the enemy Ignatiev), and when they informed on him –
“The police took the woman who was crouching to give birth out of her bed, and outside. Only after entreaties they left the old man and the woman, but the son was forced to leave.”
It's no wonder that the intensifying hatred of Israel arouses and strengthens the aspiration for redemption. And indeed, we read in the year 1885, in an article that is signed by Chaim Binyamin the friend (his identity is unknown to us) that “on Yom Kippur eve, they put up there basins in all the prayer houses to found “Mazkeret Moshe,”[67] and many answered with a willing soul.”
“And two respected men volunteered to go each week in the city to gather pledges for the establishment of a new colony in the land of the deer.”[68] Is there not here a modest beginning for more significant activity, whose fruit ripened over a few decades, and which brought hundreds of the people of Lida to the shores of the land?
Yet for the meantime, redemption is still far away, and there is no neglecting the lives of the hour: the children of Israel are poor, children of the impoverished going about in the streets, without Torah and without the desired way of the world, and those of them who are gathered to the government schools for the children of Israel are walking around naked and barefoot! The Jews of Lida awakened to action, and the correspondents informed about the results:
Miriam Altshuler informs in 1887 that “the hearts of the youth of our brothers the children of Israel in this city whisper that it is a good thing to worry about others, the children of the poor, whose parents are unable to succeed in teaching them Torah or a trade.” A society has been founded for this purpose, the plan was determined in detail, and also, a monetary foundation was laid for the activity.
And Reb Shimon Kreinovitsh informs in 1891 about a “Desire Ball,”[69] that was held in the government school, and its purpose was to acquire clothing and shoes for the children of the poor of the people. The ball achieved great success, and praises from the district minister, the supervisor (inspector) of the schools, etc. The school itself “rises like a flower under the effort of Dr. G. Katzenelzon, the school supervisor, and the two faithful teachers Sh. Heilpern and D. Dubovsky who shepherd the flock in their pasture with a pleasant staff.”[70]
These are the kinds of news items that reach the writers of the Hebrew periodicals of the from the village (and if you want, even then a mother city in Israel), and its name was Lida, and they reflect traditional lives, which were conducted for hundreds of years in frameworks that were determined by the commandments of the Torah, when the concepts of permitted and forbidden were clear to all, and there was no need to ponder over them. It seems that there is no room here for those disturbing news items that fill the pages of the newspapers of the nations of the world. Nevertheless, there are from those same yellowed pages, from those same innocent times, of restful waters, a news item (and sometimes, a simple announcement) suddenly stands out before your eyes that shows that under the apparently quiet ground, there was also hidden mental turmoil, rebellion against agreed-upon relationships, criticism towards aggressors and the like, from the things that deviated from the regular and set order of life.
Here, in a news item that comes in “HaMelitz” from July 4,1882, it is told about a woman who took her own life (her name is not mentioned) without any clear reason, since “she was happy in her home,” and in a letter that she left she requested of her husband that “he should be both mother and father to their two children.” Suicide in Lida? Has such a thing been heard of in Lida before this? Indeed, the article adds, “the voice is heard that a few members of her family had committed suicide.” Yet, who knows the true reason?
It becomes clear that also in those years (which today seem to us to be so distant!) that life in them appears to us today in a light of idyllic serenity, even then there was already under ground heartbreaking mental turmoil, and we will no longer smile in the reading of the old articles that are before us. Not every woman whose fate was bitter decided to willfully depart from the war of life. There are those who chose – the struggle. Here is a news item – (the informant – Moshe Reines, may his memory be for a blessing, the son of Rabbi Reines, who [the son] died while he was still young) about a tailor, and his name… who went out to America, and from there, he sent a get[71] to his wife, who remained with their four children in Lida. The woman refused to accept the get, and the item in “HaMelitz” came to warn the rabbis that from across the sea
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(to know, to inform and to be known) that Ploni son of Ploni[72] the tailor from Lida is a woman's husband!
Indeed, it seems that the new age broke out in storm also in quiet Lida, and together with the golden fruits that the enlightenment brought to the new generation, it lifted its wings also for a portion of wormwood and hemlock,[73] and especially for the Hebrew woman (“Hebrew woman, who will know your life!”)[74]
Within this forlorn trip on the paths of the past, suddenly - an additional surprise, this time tragicomic (in the essence of the matter, more comic than tragic…) and you rub your eyes: is it indeed Lida, the year 5622 [1862]?! (107 years ago!) The signer - Yisrael Iliyotovitz (it's difficult to determine his identity, because this name was relatively widespread in Lida). Because of the sensational content of this story, and also from the aspect of its style, which is so characteristic of the period under discussion, and also from several other aspects, it is appropriate for us to transmit it here as a report (and as an article) and according to its language (except for the parentheses around a word or letters that seem to us to be extraneous), a slip of the pen:
“HaCarmel, Second Year, No. 32, 21 Adar 1, 5622
Lida – Who is the man who seeks truth and wisdom and trembles for the honor of our people, who will not tremble and be afraid[75] upon hearing that even in a generation as enlightened as this one deception will disguise itself in a cloak of wisdom to mislead men, and to ensnare the innocent of heart in a heap in order to commit a crime – hear and be astonished!! The event that occurred in the city of Lida – Vilna gubernia. On Wednesday, 5 Adar 1, a righteous man of majestic appearance came here, and from the fat of his flesh, and his penetrating gaze, and his long white beard descending to its full length, they gave their witnesses and they found this righteous man in the right. The heart of the crowd that was judging only what appeared before its eyes was led astray to believe that the visiting man of tall stature wrapped in a cloak of righteousness and wearing a holy turban, was righteous and loved righteousness, and his arm is stretched out to show wonders like one of the righteous that are in the land, and what else after they heard from his mouth, that he is a grandson of the Rabbi the Righteous the Gaon etc., our Teacher the Rabbi Rebbe Levi Yitzchak, may the memory of the righteous be for the life of the world to come, continued to believe in him and respect him, also the notables of the city came to seek him out in his hotel. For according to the spirit of experience that he acquired in his travels, he turned aside to the hotel of the aged rabbi Reb Yitzchak Eizik Lande that was here, and there he desired a dwelling place for himself all the days of his dwelling in this city, to be the owner of this hotel, (he) an esteemed old man in the eyes of all the residents of the city. Nor did he come here by himself – indeed four of them came here, also a gabbai, also a shammash who served them, and a Christian coachman who had two galloping horses that came up with him. They made his name great in the eyes of the people, and they praised the wonders that frightened those who heard them, and they put the fear of him on the masses, and hordes and hordes of men and women streamed to him to seek solutions to their problems, and salvation, each and every one according to the need that they lacked. These poured out money for the redemption of their souls from their pockets and ransom for their souls for the success of their deeds, some for healing in a miraculous way from the illness that clung to them, which had exhausted the power of the doctors to lift off the stain in a natural way, some that were counted among the seed of men, and some… and he did not turn one of them away, and gave each one his faithful promise about the request that he made of him. This man gathered a lot of money, redemption money, ransom money. On Shabbat evening he prayed before the ark in the prayer house of the local Lechovitcher chassidim, where he acquired a name, and they marveled and wondered at the way of his soul and his enthusiasm, and he was sanctified among them, and on the Shabbat day in the morning he went down before the ark in the prayer house of the local Lubavitcher chassidim, where he acquired a name of glory and honor appropriate for a tzaddik and a holy one of God. However a few of them still hopped between the two branches,[76] but they were afraid to remove the mask[77] from upon the holy face, and planned to seek the face of this tzaddik at his hotel on the day of Shabbat, and to aim for the truth of his heart with a penetrating and deeply probing eye. However there too his way was hidden from them, and they hid the thoughts of their hearts within them. And at the departure of Shabbat the people brought much money, each one his redemption, and he brought out from his heart new wisdom of healing that even the previous tzaddikim had not amassed, and he promised each one who asked that his healing would soon blossom. However as it happened to all the sanctified and purified ones, so too did it happen to him, for God had removed the face of the veil, and on one Sunday evening this disguised and repudiated one was caught by the trap of the love for a woman, married to a man for many years, who was in his hotel, and in the fullness of the peak of his love he wanted to violate and conquer her in her house. How surprised were the members of the household at hearing the sound of this scream and fear. Suddenly the sheepskin fell off the back of the disguised wolf, and the cloak of righteousness was suddenly torn to pieces, and the deception of his heart was revealed to the eyes of all, for the gabbai that he had, after a few men frightened him into revealing the truth in honest words that came from the heart, admitted that all of them were worthless friends. And it is about nine months that they were travelling to deceive people and mislead them, in order to gather money, and to the shame of the men that were near him, consumed the money that he gathered, for they conspired with him without hesitation, for a long time. And they received from him one tenth for tzedakah, silver rubles of redemption money, and the expenditures in the amount of twelve silver rubles that he had in his possession. And they sent him out before the light of day, to hide their shame in the darkness. The morning came, and all the city wondered, and they wanted to pursue him and catch him, in order to rescue the money from his hand and take true revenge, but his path was hidden and no trace of him could be found. Therefore I came today to call out on the top of Mount Carmel the matter of the event, and to warn those who live in other cities, lest this worthless man should come with his companions to lead the residents of this city astray, they should hurry to seize him and take true revenge, and fulfill the words of scripture “you should sweep out the evil from your midst.”[78] And these are them:
The Tzaddik: … From Gorod Astra, Volinsk Guberniya
The Gabbai: … From the city of Turevo, Minsk Guberniya
The Shammash: … From the city of Stephenia, Uzed Ravna, Volin Guberniya
The Wagoneer: … A Christian, his name is … Volinski Gubernia
We will note now that we did not bring the story of the event in full for the piquancy that is in it, but rather that there is in it something to teach us about the atmosphere of that multi-faceted period in the lives of the Jews of Lida (and in the lives of Lithuanian Jewry, and not only Lithuanian), the heaviness of the lives of the masses, who innocently fix their gazes on miracle makers, who will bring them redemption from their troubles (the days – the beginning of the staking of the tent peg of the chassidic movement in Lida). Second, the sober sense, a little doubting, of the people of Lida, who nevertheless came to examine the character of “the tzaddik” with the imposing appearance, without offending his honor, God forbid, so long as they did not find any severe flaw. And finally, the chapter of the comic drama, which suddenly for some reason brings up in our memory a motif from “The Wanderer on the Paths of Life” by Peretz Smolenskin*[79] which appears as if taken from the event described in this article, (of course, with changes in the parties and the details, according to the needs of the writer). The resemblance is in the essence of this subject, which is: the miracle maker who fails, in his many transgressions, in addition to his other misdeeds, also in the halakhot of women.
Praises for the “enlightened” and “honored” community leaders and functionaries, who individually and whole-heartedly criticized the attackers, and engaged with the events of the community as if with their own. And here is an example – an article about the inexpensive transmission of the meat tax to a “lessee,” apparently, for the benefit of the appointed:
“From the day that it was taken from our leader, the Rabbi the Gaon Reb Mordechai Meltzer, may his memory be for a blessing, the administrators of the community began to control the funds of the meat tax and to do with it as a man does with his own. Until now he administered well here. When the time came for the leasing of the meat tax, the residents of our city gathered
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for a great assembly in the community room, and whoever could give more for the arrangement gave it to him in a lease for two years, and the money was placed in the hand of the Rabbi to distribute for tzedakah purposes and for the many needs of the community, for the hospital, for the Talmud Torah, and for the school that was founded to teach the children of the city the language of the state and necessary information. In the past two years the lessee paid 4000 silver rubles a year for the meat tax. But in this year the communal administrators collected from one house for their acquaintances and gave the meat tax in lease to one who appeared to be a chassid, a great zealot with long peyot,[80] up to 3000 silver rubles, and for the discount that they made him he made them a great feast, like the feast of Solomon in his time, and according to the words of many he imposed burdens on them in the amount of 1500 silver rubles. When the matter became known in the city there arose a noise and commotion and many streamed to the house of the Rabbi the Gaon Y.Y Reines to complain about this evil thing, and they decreed with the agreement of the Rabbi to compel the managers to return the wealth that they had swallowed. But until today they did not vomit up what they had swallowed, and they still object.
The date – August 12, 1885, and the signatory – a friend to a friend.
It is not known to us if the article achieved its purpose, to aid in the repair of the injustice that was done to the community. In any case, we learn from it about the democratic wind that was already then blowing in the camp of Israel in Lida, without coming to terms with the governance of attackers of these kinds.
“The Great Fire” in Lida, in the year 1891, occupied, as far as it can be assumed, a large space on the pages of the Hebrew periodicals. The Lida correspondents fulfilled their journalistic role faithfully and capably, and while the embers were still hissing in the remains of the burned houses, rushed sensational articles to their editorial staff, and in them were complete details, and so brought to the awareness of our brethren the children of Israel in each and every place the matter of the disaster that destroyed a community in Israel. Over the course of a long time, lists of the donors that contributed for the benefit of the unfortunate burned ones were published in issues of “HaMelitz,” lists that reflected the degree of the mutual aid between the communities of Israel.*[81] Displays were revealed of “All Israel is responsible for each other”[82] from communities and individuals as one, and also, the good neighborly relationships, even friendly, with the Christian population, such as the Pravoslavic Church Father, Kailovitz, and the Catholic Deacon, Senkvitz, and the army officers encamped in the place, and including the property holders in the area. Even the Turkish bakery in Vilna will be found in the list of those sending food to the burned.
And here is the language of the first information about the great conflagration, in the October 11, 1891, edition of “HaMelitz:”
Lida, the 3rd day of Chol HaMoed Sukkot “The time of our rejoicing has become for us a time of mourning, for the wrath of God poured out on our city at the end of the first day of this festival, with the emergence of fire from one of the houses, which in a raging fury consumed to the right and to the left, so that in a few hours four parts of the city had been reduced to a mound of ash, the houses, the stores together with all the property!! Elders with youth, children and women, also the sick and dying will be scattered now in the fields and lakes, and the faithful wormwood leaves will hug the trash heaps, and the cold is very strong, also the days of winter grow nearer and nearer! And what will these unfortunates do?? Please, our brethren the children of Israel, merciful among merciful!! Have compassion! Save us at the time of our distress and hurry to open a hand as generous as God's blessing upon you !! (and each and every man who had a redeeming and informed relative here, please don't ignore his kin!!), and the good God will protect you so that you will not know trouble and distress, all grief and sorrow, and will remove from them all disaster and hurt, as the petitioner who requests mercy for his community.”
The signatory – Eza”l (Ezra Altschuler?)
Not much time had passed from the time of the destruction of the houses of the Jews of Lida, and the faithful correspondent informs us of the awakening of activity of the restoration of the ruins, with help from various sources, and in the main – with self-help and self-work:
“Many people who in all the days of the winter wrung their empty hands, now are full of work! This one will do his work with cement, this one will send his hand with mortar and this one with bricks, a conductor over the work, and this one will raise a voice of command and authority. But the poor who will become impoverished will hope for the salvation of their brothers from afar, and we will hope to God that with the passage of time our city will be built and established on its mound.”
Many and varied are the topics with which the Lida writers deal in their correspondence to the Hebrew periodicals, to inform the wide world about what was being done and taking place in their city, such as the celebration of “the national holiday” in the year 1884, the birthday of Sir Moses Montefiore, in which Rabbi Reines expounded on some of the issues of the day, and the Chazzan Noach Zelodkovski prayed “Mi Shebeirach”[83] etc.; the establishment of a soup kitchen for the Jewish army soldiers who were encamped in the city, the establishment of a “Tiferet Bachurim” society for the regulation of young craftsmen, who would come after a day of toil to quench their thirst with a chapter of Mishnah or with an aggadah from “Ein Yaakov,”[84] and including the worry of our acquaintance Zalman Yudelevitz about the decline in the fund of the language of Ever in our city from the time that the young writer Moshe Reines, the blessed-with-talent son of the local rabbi, went to his eternity. And here the same writer transmits to us the opinion of the families that returned from America on the issue of emigration that stood on the agenda of the day (“HaMelitz” 1891 - before the fire).
“Three families from the children of Israel returned to us from America in these days. All the day they brought out evil gossip about the land, they answered and said that land is a land that consumes its inhabitants,[85] and even if the power of the stones was the power of the stranger who comes there and his flesh is steadfast, even then too he will fall and collapse under the suffering of his labor, and even if the toil of a man in our country is hard work, when in America he will also find bread to eat and clothing to wear. Nevertheless there is no end to the masses of the nation that go out each day to America.”
And in warm words the writer Sh”K (maybe Shmuel Kamenetzky?) describes the important event of the aliyah of a wealthy family from Lida to the holy land in the summer of 1892 (“HaMelitz” July 3, 1892):
“Today the honored wealthy man Aharon Papirmeister went out from our city, he and all the members of his household, on their journey to Palestine, to his estate which is in “Rishon L'Tzion,” to settle there. This man was respected and desirable in the eyes of the members of our city, and from then on the idea was awakened for the settlement of the land of Israel among our brethren, he was one of the unique ones who became devoted with all his soul and might, his wealth and his fortune, to this holy idea. Indeed he suffered many evil adversities in these years, and many watercourses passed and went over his head until he created a regime and proper order on his estate by means of his son and his brother the engineer the Honorable Baruch Papirmeister, who dwell there for about these seven years, and he always made an effort and will make an effort with the arm of his strength without failing. Not for one moment did he hop between two branches to wonder if he would succeed in his endeavors. He did not even stint on giving his money and his wealth to this estate of his, to plow its valleys. He also planted grapevines that to this day give abundant and praised fruit, and in this work of his, his aim was not to amass and pile up wealth, but to feed the members of his family their daily bread by the sweat of his brow, with a generous hand. All his relatives and acquaintances accompanied him to the railway station.” And etc.
I am travelling on these ancient paths, among the old pages. Pictures from old Lida rise before me, Lida that is pondering the war of life, which stumbles and falls, rises and is strengthened, the hopeful and the aspiring, and from within the headlines of their remarkable writings there stand before my eyes the endearing characters of the army of correspondents from the city of Lida. These are the soldiers of the Hebrew language in our city, who remain in their anonymity, yet bequeathed to us the love of the language, the people, and the land.
Translator's Footnotes:
Composed by Ezra Altshuler from Lida, Petrikov, 5670. Return
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