The Mendele
Review: Yiddish Literature and Language
(A Companion to MENDELE)
---------------------------------------------------------
Contents of Vol.
11.009 [Sequential No. 186]
Date:
1) This issue of TMR (ed).
2) Corrigenda re Forverts article of
previous issue of TMR (ed.)
3) To My Wise and Understanding
Son: Avrom-Nokhem Shtensl’s Letters
from
4) A Note on Stencl in
5) Three poems by Avrom-Nokhem
Shtentsl [Abraham Nahum Stencl]
Click here to enter: http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/tmr/tmr11/tmr11009.htm
1)----------------------------------------------------------
Date:
From: ed.
Subject: This issue of TMR.
In this issue
of TMR*** I hasten to correct an error in Rachel Rojanski's
essay on the Forverts in the previous issue of
TMR for which I alone am responsible. This mistake does not appear in
the Hebrew HaAretz edition of the article.*** Two very carefully researched essays by Avraham Greenbaum deepen our
knowledge of the life of the insufficiently known Yiddish poet Avrom-Nokhem Shentsl. This entire
issue of TMR is centered on this quite extraordinary figure.***Three of Shtentl's poems are
given in Yiddish original. These three poems illustrate three of the many
voices employed by the poet. Here we have the pathetic-sentimental, the
philosophic-whimsical and the biblical-comical.
2)
----------------------------------------------------------
Date:
From: ed.
Subject: Corrigenda
I thank Arieh Lebowitz for pointing out
that the Russian edition of the Forverts,
initiated in 1995 ceased to appear in 2004. It is somewhat confusing that there
is both a hard-copy issue of the Yiddish Forverts
(which is "cybernetic" in the sense that though edited in
3)
----------------------------------------------------------
Date:
From: ed.
Subject: To My Wise and Understanding
Son: Avrom-Nokhem Shtensl’s Letters from
Avraham Greenbaum
To My
Wise and Understanding Son: Avrom-Nokhem Shtensl’s Letters from
The Abraham Nahum Stencl Archive
has preserved numbers of postcards and
letters, largely in Hebrew, written by the poet's father to him in the period
from 1922 to the older StencI's death in 1934. The Hebrew, in the rabbinic style of the day,
is grammatically not always correct and the syntax is influenced by Yiddish(1). Usually a brief Yiddish greeting from the
mother, Freidl Genedl, is
added; on occasion there are additions by one of Stencl's
two sisters, or other relatives who felt like writing. There are many more postcards than letters,
probably a sign of frugality on the father's part; Chayim
Dov, or Berish as he called
himself in Yiddish, was a master at crowding materiaI
on to a card, and the Hebrew language readily lends itself to such
concentration. These missives, besides
shedding light on Stencl's relationship with his
parents and on his life in
Only a fraction of the correspondence is properly dated by
the Hebrew (never the general) calendar.
Most of the cards and letters bear only the day of the week and the name
of the weekly Torah portion (sidra) with the
year considered unnecessary. In some
cases I was able to reconstruct the year from the events alluded to or from
postal cancellations.
The son's side of the correspondence has, to the best of our
knowledge, not been preserved and may have been destroyed in the
Holocaust. We can also surmise that not
all of his parents' postcards and letters to him were kept by Stencl, since the father's self-imposed obligation to write
every week, even though not rigorously observed, would make for many more
items than the one hundred and twenty or so which have reached us: It is also
evident that there is a gap in the preserved correspondence around the year
1930. We do know, from constant complaints
by father and mother that Stencl himself wrote
irregularly, and when he did write would sometimes make do with brief greetings
or picture postcards. Some of what he
wrote -- and he evidently wrote mainly in Yiddish, sometimes in German, but not
in Hebrew – can be
reconstructed from the father's quotations and references. Before discussing
the correspondence, a brief history of the family is in order. Chayim Dov Stencl was born around 1855
in
him to stop working. He had two sons, Shlomo
(b. 1884 and named after Chayim Dov's
father) and Abraham Nahum; and two daughters, Esther and Tsime. Shlomo was an ilui ('Talmudic prodigy') and became the rabbi of his
birthplace, Czeladz, and later of nearby
To this information we should add the picture drawn of the
family by Stencl himself in an autobiographical
fragment preserved in typescript form in the Stencl
Archive at SOAS. The father is said to
have had rabbinical qualifications, but the rabbi of Bendin,
Stencl's great-grandfather, stated in his will that
none of his descendants should occupy a rabbinical post for two
generations. Stencl
describes his brother Shlomo as a wild youth who
fortunately turned to Talmudic studies, and even became too pious for their
father's taste. Shlomo
at one point wanted to become a cobbler, but a rabbinical court decision
obtained by his father-in-law prevented his entering this despised occupation.
Of course it is hard to say whether all this is true
.Chayim Dov constantly held
up the deceased rabbi, strict even in observing minor customs, as a role model
for the wayward brother. The father was
deeply concerned about the material and spiritual welfare of the one son he had
left. How modern, or hayntveltik )'of this world') he was, is hard to
say. He obviously knew some Polish and a
little German(4). Sometimes he wants to show himself to his
writer son as modern, as when he says that he will go hear the visiting Hebrew
poet Chayim Nachman Bialik, or when he quotes literature of the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment). But these are very occasional touches. His quotations, and they are numerous to
the point of becoming tiresome, are normally from the Bible(5), the Talmudic Sages, moralistic literature,
and Hasidic homilies. In these areas his
erudition was considerable, and he expects similar traditional knowledge from
the addressee, since many of his quotes are abbreviated to save time and
space. Many of his postcards to his son
consist of a stylized long greeting, a shorter stylized close, and in between
what can only be described as a sermon to one in danger of losing "this
world and the world to come." The
older Stencl also feared his only surviving son might
not recite the "Kaddish" prayer after his
death, even making provision in his will for this possibility, one which
subsequently proved groundless(6(. The sermons become
particularly insistent before Passover, when the father assumes
that Abraham Nahum, like many non-observant Jews, somehow wished to keep some
of the holiday observances. He urges upon him the seriousness of violating the ban on
eating leavened food (bread, etc.) and implores that during the Passover week
he eat in the company of the pious, who can be found in Germany as
elsewhere. In comparison with the
emphasis on Passover, the expected admonitions to repent,
sent before Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) and Yom
Kippur (Day of Atonement), are mild. At
one time the father writes: "I do not know your level (madrega) in matters of religion and faith, because you
have never written to me about such matters."
The father's worries about his son's religious behaviour merge into concerns about his life style in
general. Stencl
moved about a great deal in
Though uncovering signs of despondency in Stencl's letters and, perhaps even in his literary work, Chayim Dov urged his son never to
despair, never to lose faith in God, who does everything for the best. Such faith will bring joy no matter what
happens. Twice he quotes the Chasidic
saying "az men vil vi es iz, iz
es vi men vil"(9). Chayim Dov was of course aware that all his preaching might become
counter-productive, and sometimes apologized for striking too harsh a
note. Here, too, he had a rabbinic
saying at hand: "Just as one is commanded
to say what will find acceptance, he is commanded not to say what will not find
acceptance"(10). The father claimed to know that the son was
interested in Chasidic stories and interpretations, and sends along new ones,
as well as quotations, from Rabbi Nachman of Braslav, whom even the "philosophers"
appreciate.
The father's attitude to Stencl's writing
is striking in its ambiguity. On the one
hand Chayim Dov begs -- there in no
other word -- for anything written by or about the increasingly famous
author. On the other hand, his reactions
generally range from expressions of inability to understand the poetry to
distaste for niblpe (Y. < H. nibul pe 'obscenity')(11). This leads to
preaching on the theme "Sages, be careful with your words"(12); if with speech, all the more so with the
ineradicable printed word. In these
instances Chayim Dov, instead of berating his
son for useless dikhteray ('poetizing'),
elevated him to the category of the Jewish sages who are the spiritual leaders
of the generations. However, the father
liked and understood the cycle Fisherdorf(13). For poems he did not understand he demanded
"interpretations," which the poet doubtless had little interest or
time to provide.
It often seems that the father and mother forgot that their
only son was no longer a child. In his
frequent admonitions not to waste time or money, the father made an exception
for winter clothes, since even Heaven is not all-powerful in protection from cold(l4). Stencl had a
history of illnesses connected with his nose, and in one case even lost the
sense of smell. The father immediately
ran to a rebe who strongly advised to stop
eating forbidden foods!
It is no wonder that the paternal letters, with their
incessant demands for more frequent and more detailed communications and their
constant admonitions, drove the son to distraction(15). Stencl obviously did not see himself bound by his father's
demand to write once a week, even though the latter resorted to emotional
blackmail: the absence of letters was
making his mother and sisters ill, bringing about a situation of pikuakh nefesh ('danger to
life'). The father took the weekly
postcard or letter so seriously that he wrote on chol
ha-mo'ed ('the intermediate days of the holiday)(16), a practice
discouraged by Jewish custom. Even in
his will he directed Abraham Nahum to write to his mother and sisters once a
month after his death.
The emotional interdependence of father and son was
complicated by a material element in the relationship. It seems that Stencl
was not above asking for money or hinting broadly that he needed it. The father often sent small sums, apologizing that his
circumstances did not allow him to send more. Sometimes the letters announcing
the money sent (always by intermediaries, never by post) contained advice to
set up a business partnership or learn a trade, even though the father knew
that the son was determined to continue on his increasingly successful, if unremunerative, writer's career. An amusing facet of the father's concern for Stencl's material welfare is seen in his repeated advice to
his son to seek compensation for the ripsn rekl ('rep
coat') he forgot in the home of a relative in Czeladz
when he left Poland in a hurry.
Two themes frequently emerge in the correspondence: attempts
to arrange a meeting, and Stencl's problems with his
status in
As for attempts to meet, they were of course complicated by Stencl's problematic status in both
Another common theme in the correspondence is the
possibility of emigration. The father's
1925 letters constantly complained about the heavy tax burden, and mentioned
that some local residents hade emigrated to "our
Stencl's relationship with his
mother emerges less clearly from the correspondence. Her brief codicils on the postcards are
insipid, usually something like "we are well, thank God, hope you are
also, write more often." Her longer letters deal with family news and
emphasize how important the son's letters are to her and how much she misses him. She writes, as uneducated people do, with
complete disregard for Yiddish spelling rules, and in a Yiddish strongly
influenced by German (the German border was very close(.
Freydl Genedl's
relationships with other members of her family were not smooth. At one point the father asked Stencl to intervene in a dispute between her and one of her
daughters. In the thirties she seems to
have suffered from a recurring illness (a nervous disorder?) which made her
relationship with her husband a difficult one.
As usual, the father poured out his heart to his son, whose letters were
"the only pleasure he has left in life." Stencl, who was
sometimes asked to write his mother humorous notes, was now told to write his
mother a reprimand but not to try to separate his parents.
Finally, we should take note of the son's attitude to his
parents from sources other than the letters from
Stencl's poetry shows both
nostalgia and the abyss. Thus, in one of
his early poems, he asks his mother to send him, without his father's
knowledge, her tear-stained copy of Psalms. His father is asked to send his
edition of the cabalistic Zohar where,
"in vays hirsh-parment
gebundn vel ikh zayn hadres-ponem
zen" ('in the white
binding of deer parchment I shall see his distinguished face'(23). In another cycle of
poems, however, he strikes a different note.
In what he calls "a letter to father not sent," we find "Ikh veys, az
on dayn Got lebn kenstu nit! Ikh ober muz dir fartroyen
mayn sod: ikh hob im tseshmetert in plaster fun shtot" ('I know that you cannot live without your God, but I must confide to you
my secret: I have smashed Him to pieces on the city cement')(24). But
decades later, in describing his childhood in Czeladz
for a memorial volume, he wrote of his father: "suddenly I realized that
his strength would support me all my years"(25).
Endnotes:
1. example
of al shabat (cf
Y. oys shabes
instead of le-shabat).
2. Some
of the information here is taken from the 1973 edition of his son's book (see
following note(. It
seems, however, that calling Chayim Dov himself a "dayan"
is based on the descendants' misinterpretation of his ambiguous signature We guess
his age from a picture postcard dated 1919 which was sent to ANS.
3. Shloyme
Shtentsil, Koheles-Shloyme
(Piotrkow, 1932
reprinted
Israel, 1973), with a biographical preface by the author's father, Chayim
Dov On Shloyme Shtentsil and his legendary piety see also the memorial
volume Sefer Sosnovits
Zaglembier umgegent, ed
M Sh Geshuri, vol 1, Tel-Aviv, 1973, pp 471-472 [Hebrew title: Sefer sosnovits
veha-seviva be-Zaglembia.
4. His knowledge of German is
evident from his ability to read German critiques of his son's work, and from
his own occasional attempts to write in German.
5. Especially Proverbs and Psalms; he recommends that his son
read Proverbs daily.
6. See the biographical material in Dovid
Katz's and Heather Valencia's essays in earlier volumes of TMR
. Chayim Dov Stencl died
7. Khayim
Dov tolerates "Jargon" (ie
Yiddish), but prefers Hebrew and in one instance
writes that Hebrew is more fit for poetry.
In the letters he resorts to Yiddish mainly for quotations and as an
expression of intimacy.
8. 'Gentile',
but in this context 'an unobservant Jew'.
9. "If one accepts things as they are, they will be as one
wishes them to be." The father
attributes the quotation to the author of Tiferes-Shlomo
Solomon Rabinowicz HaCohen
of Radomsk. There is an analogous saying in the classical
literature: "make your will like His."
10. Talmud, Yebamot 65b
11. He may have in mind the
lines in which whores fight for the poet's seed (A-N Shtentsl, Ikh shray tsu dir,
12. Mishna,
Abot, 1:11
13. N. Stencl, Fisherdorf:,
14. "All is in the hands
of Heaven except for cold and heat" Talmud, Ketubot 30a
15. See Heather Valencia's
article in this volume.
16. The
intermediate days of the Passover (Pesakh) and
Tabernacles Sukkot) holidays.
17. The father reports such a
search in the letters.
18. See Der
moment(
19. In reporting illegal and
semi-legal maters, the father always changed to Yiddish, as if that language
gave better concealment from prying eyes It seems the point of departure for
the smuggling attempt would have been the border city of
20. In one instance he sees
in the emigration movement the "Beginning of the
Redemption," but in general he has his doubts about emigration there.
21. He often scolded the son
for misspelling Hebrew words
The preserved correspondence with Clara Van Leer (see "A
Note on Stencl in
22. A-N Shtentsl,
"Mayn heym in Zaglembie," Pinkas Zaglembie ed Y Rapaport (Tel-Aviv 1972), pp 230-241.
23. A-N Shtentsl,
Funderheym (
24. A-N Shtentsl, Fundervaytns (
25. A-N Shtentsl, "Mayn heym" (see n 22), p 241.
[To accompany photocopy of letter which seems to have got
lost.--ed .]
References:
Der
moment
(
Literarishe bleter (
Mishna, Abot,
1:11.
Rabinowicz HaCohen of Radomsk, Shlomo. Tiferes-Shlomo
Shentsl,
A.-N.
Ikh shray tsu dir (
Shtentsl,
A.-N.
Fundervaytns (
Shtentsl,
A.-N.
Funderheym (
Shtentsl,
A.-N.
"Mayn heym in Zaglembie," Pinkas
Zaglembie ed.
Y. Rapaport (Tel-Aviv 1972),
pp. 230-241.
Stencl,
A.-N.
Fisherdorf (
Shtentsl, Shlomo.
Koheles-Shlomo (Piotrkow, 1932; reprinted Israel,
1973), with a biographical preface by the author's father.
Talmud, Ketubot
30a; Yebamot 65b.
Among other admonitions in this long letter the older Stencl asks his son to take a pious wife, to wash his hands
first thing in the morning, and especially not to shave with a razor. On the last point Chayim
Dov quotes his deceased son Shlomo,
who appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to warn Abraham Nachum that whoever shaves with a razor violates five
commandments of the Tora.
4)-----------------------------------------
Date:
From: Avraham Greenbaum
Subject:
A Note on Stencl in
A
Note on Stencl in
by
Avraham Greenbaum
A.N. Stencl spent the first years after his flight from
Stencl's routine as a
farmer in training, and his broader interests for which he had little time, are
reflected in the correspondence preserved from that period. He corresponded then with Clara Van Leer,
a girl from a prominent Dutch Jewish family, whom he had met in
The
relationship between the two does not emerge as clearly as we would like from
the letters, and in any case we do not have the letters which she wrote to
him. There are no terms of endearment or
other indication pointing to romance rather than friendship. We assume that she was his muse, in the sense
of inspiring him to persevere in spite of hardship and drudgery. She served also as an outlet for his need to
express himself in writing and in Yiddish at that. In these letters he tried to teach her
Yiddish, often placing German equivalents after words of Hebrew-Aramaic origin.(4) Her letters to him were probably in German.
The letters
begin in 1919, the year Stencl reached
Stencl is ambivalent about
In spite of
the restraint in the correspondence there seems to be an increasing closeness
in the relationship. She is quoted as
asking him whether a writer is capable of really loving anyone. His farewell letter before her departure,
dated Eve of Sukkot 5681 (
Two themes
emerge from the correspondence: Stencl's hard life
and his growing literary interests. He
complained about milking cows six hours a day for low wages, which allowed him
to see himself as a member of the exploited proletariat at a time when he
inclined toward socialism. Conflicting with his work schedule, and relieving
the boredom, are his literary dreams and what ever
writing he manages to get done. Neither
having time for nor access to libraries, he asks Clara in one postcard to get a
poem by Richard Dehmel, in whose work he found
himself "at home" after reading a critique of it. But if his autobiographical essays are to be
trusted, all his poems but one -- which he knew by heart -- from 1917 to 1922,
i.e. including those written in Holland, were lost.(6)
In August of
1921 Stencl bade farewell to
Endnotes
1. Stencl
tells a complicated story of an offer to be rabbi of a Galician synagogue in
2. I date her departure
from one of Stencl's letters. Clara Van Leer Blum's daughter, Ruth Blum Eshel, kindly informed me that her parents lived in
3. PPMS 44, Box 16. Stencl
Archive.
4. i.e. Nesie
(Reise)
5. Loshn un
lebn 28:1 (January 1967), 18.
6. Ibid., 25:8/9 (August/September
1964), 43.
7. Ibid., 28:1 (January 1967), 18f.
5)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
From: ed.
Subject: Three poems by Avrom-Nokhem Shtensl [Abraham Nahum Stencl)
For romanized version of and commentary on "Eretsisroel-khale-tishtukhl" see TMR vol.2.015.
אַבֿרהם-נחום שטענצל
ארץ-ישראל-חלה-טישטוכל
ס'האט טרויריק
די מערב-וואנט אראפגעקוקט
איבער ביישטידל אונדזערן, איבער שמאלן,
דערפאר שבת אויפן חלה-טישטוכל,
איז גאנץ ארץ-ישראל געווען
געמאלן.
רחל'ס-קבר, די מערת-המכפלה,
די מלאכים, ווען מאמע שרה'ן
זיי בענטשן;
די אדלערס און לייבן פון ביידע זייטן,
ממש אויסגעזען ווי לעבעדיקע מענטשן.
א גאנצע
וואך איז אונדזער נאקעטער טיש
א האלב-באדעקטער בלויז
מיט טישטוך געווען,
זשגאמזשענדיק דעם ביסן
ברויט - - פון טיש אראפ
דעם "על נהרות" מיט ליפן גאר געלעזן.
חרובדיק די מערב-וואנט אראפגעקוקט
איבער ביישטידל אונדזערן
איבער שמאלן,
אבער ווי רחבותדיק ס'גאנצע בית-מקדש
פון חלה-טישטוכל ארץ-ישראלן.
און ווען
שבת-פארנאכט שאטנס טונקעלע
האבן דאס שטיבל אונדזערס געטון איינהילן,
ס'האט דעם "גאט
פון אברהם" מיין פרומע מאמע
גענומען זאגן מיט
א ניגון א שטילן - -
יא, אויף
א פערד א ווייסן, אן ארעמען,
איז טאקע משיח אנגעקומען
צו רייטן,
אבער פון ביידע זייטן פון טישטוכל אראפ,
אדלערס און לייבן געטאן
טון אים באגלייטן.
די דרויסנדיקע
דריי ליכטיקע שטערן
איבער ירושלים זיינען געשטאנען!
פונעם חלה-טישטוכל פון געמאלטן
אויף הימל ארויף זיינען זיי אויפגעגאנגען.
פונקט ווי פרייטאג-צו-נאכט די צוויי מלאכים,
טאטן אין שטוב אריין
האבן געטון באגליייטן,
ווען מאמע צווישן די געצונדענע ליכט,
ס'טישטוכל אויף די חלות געטון פארשפרייטן.
---------
ס'האט טרויריק די מערב-וואנט אראפגעקוקט,
איבער ביישטידל אונדזערן, איבער שמאלן,
דערפאר שבת אויפן חלה-טישטוכל,
איז גאנץ ארץ-ישראל געווען אויסגעמאלן.
-----------------------------
For romanization, translation of and commentary on "Tsvey lukhes", see TMR vol. 01.013.
די צוויי לוחות
די צוויי לוחות האָט גאָט
אַליין אויסגעקריצט,
בשום-אופֿן האָט עס
אַ מענטש געקענט זײַן,
וואַרום ווי אזוי וואָלט דער "לא תרצח"
צווישן די עשרת הדברות ארײַן.
און פאַר וואָס אויף צוויי לוחות זיי אויסגעקריצט,
עס מוז דאָך דערפאַר א טעם געווען זײַן!
אַז אַלע צען געבאָט אויף איינעם
אַרויף,
האָט גאָט נישט געפֿונען אַזאַ
גרויסן שטיין?
אויב די לוחות וועלן ווערן צעבראָכן,
יעדע העלפֿט א מצבה וועט בלײַבן שטיין,
איינע פֿאַר די מענטשהייט
אויסגעקוילעטע,
די צווייטע,
כביכול שוין, פאַר גאָט אליין.
-----------------------------
שלמה המלך
פֿערציק יאָר שלום געווען אין ישראל!
קיין קריג געפֿירט, בית-מקדש אויפֿגעשטעלט
אין די צייַטן
פֿון שלמה המלך.
זײַן חכמה געווען די טויזנט ווײַבער;
פֿון יעדן קעניג
א טאָכטער גענומען,
און גיי פֿיר
מלחמה מיט אַן איידעם.
בלויז מיט טויזנט ווײַבער אויסצוקומען,
נישט נאָר אַ
שיר-השירים אָנשרײַבן --
אַ משלי און קוהלת
מ'מוז אויך קענען.
-----------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------
End of The Mendele Review Vol. 11.009
Editor, Leonard
Prager
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