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Anyone familiar with our Russian Poland knows what Jews mean by a small shtetl, a little town.
A small shtetl has a few small cabins, and a fair every other Sunday. The Jews deal in liquor, grain…
Contributor:
Israel Aksenfeld
Places:
Odessa, Russian Empire (Odesa, Ukraine)
Date:
1861
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Indeed, what is necessary is precisely to “cast away the mind,” because it is necessary to cast aside all rational processes and serve God simply. This is because a person’s deeds should outweigh his…
Contributor:
Nachman of Bratslav
Places:
Bratslav, Russian Empire (Bratslav, Ukraine)
Date:
1809
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Never have I been content with my narrow, dark, gloomy world, and always am I aware of the contrast between the great, beautiful world and my tiny, ugly world. And always I say, “The place is too…
Contributor:
Yitsḥak Twersky
Places:
Shpikov, Russian Empire (Shpykiv, Ukraine)
Date:
1910
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When Rabbi Zusya went to suffer the exile in Germany, he came to a city of Reform Jews. When they saw his ways, they mocked him and thought he was crazy. When he came into the synagogue, some of them…
Contributor:
Elimelech of Lizhensk, Zusya of Annopol (Hanipoli)
Places:
Hannopil’, Russian Empire (Hannopil', Ukraine)
Date:
1902
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When I was still young, nineteen years of age, it entered my mind to fool the world (as was the practice of the “holy ones” in those days), and this was the scheme I adopted: I used to travel on…
Contributor:
Isaac Ber Levinzon
Places:
Kremenets, Russian Empire (Kremenets, Ukraine)
Date:
1833
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Upon you, great ones, the rebbes of the Hasidim, who follow the path of the Ba‘al Shem Tov, and of whose glorious name they boast and by…
Contributor:
Eliezer Zweifel
Places:
Žitómir, Russian Empire (Zhytomyr, Ukraine)
Date:
1873
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Once there was a rabbi who had no children. Finally, he had an only son. He raised him and married him off. The son used to sit in an attic room and study in the manner of rich men and he always…
Contributor:
Nachman of Bratslav
Places:
Bratslav, Russian Empire (Bratslav, Ukraine)
Date:
1815
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Honored Conference:
Three liberating moments in Jewish history created our movement.
I don’t want to be a prophet, and to proclaim that we are now experiencing a new historical moment, that we are…
Contributor:
Y. L. Peretz
Places:
Czernowitz, Austro-Hungarian Empire (Chernivtsi, Ukraine)
Date:
1908
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The Birth of the Ba‘al Shem Tov
One of the greatest phenomena, running like a thread throughout the spiritual history of the Jewish people, is mysticism, a remnant of ancient mythology, which could…
Contributor:
Avraham Kahana
Places:
Zhitomir, Russian Empire (Zhytomyr, Ukraine)
Date:
1900
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“Why did God reveal the account of Creation to Israel? Because they said ‘We will do’ before ‘and we will understand’ (Exod. 24:7).”
This may be understood in the light of…
Contributor:
Dov Ber of Mezritsh
Places:
Mezhirichi, Russian Empire (Velyki Mezhyrichi, Ukraine)
Date:
1781