PURIM A late-winter feast day that commemorates the saving of Persian Jewry from destruction as described in the Scroll of Esther.
RABBIS, THE The postbiblical sages who produced the midrash and the Talmud.
REB A title of respect for a man; the equivalent of “Mister” or “Master.”
REBBE A hasidic rabbi.
REBBETZIN The wife of a rabbi.
ROSH HASHANAH The New Year festival, the first two days of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, which falls in early autumn.
SABBATH QUEEN (shabbat hamalkah) A symbolic personification of the spirit of the Sabbath.
SCROLL OF ESTHER A short biblical book recited on the holiday of Purim which recounts a threat to the Jews of Persia and its happy reversal.
SELIHOT Penitential poems and prayers recited early in the morning on the days preceding and following the New Year.
SHAMMASH A functionary of the community or synagogue who performs tasks such as awakening the congregants for morning prayer and caring for ceremonial objects.
SHAVUOT A festival in the late spring (forty-nine days after Passover) that celebrates the giving of the Torah on Sinai and the offering of the first fruits. One of the three pilgrimage festivals.
SHEKHINAH In rabbinic lore, the immanent aspect of the divine represented as a feminine figure; the Shekhinah dwelt in the sanctuary while the Temple stood and went into exile with Israel following the destruction.
SHEMA The central, statutory prayer affirming God’s unity recited by a Jew several times a day.
SHEMONEH ESREH See Amidah.
SHOFAR A ram’s horn that is blown on Rosh Hashanah as a call to repentance.
SHOHET A learned and pious Jew who is trained in the proper slaughtering of animals according to Jewish law.
SHTETL The small Jewish market towns of Eastern Europe.
SHULHAN ARUKH A medieval codification of practical Jewish law that was regarded as authoritative by most Jewish communities.
SIMHAT TORAH The second day of Shemini Atzeret and the last day of the Sukkot holidays; on it the Torah is both concluded and begun again by reading the end of Deuteronomy and then immediately the beginning of Genesis. The Torah scrolls are paraded around the pulpit seven times.
SUKKOT One of the three pilgrimage festivals, which falls in early autumn and is celebrated by dwelling in huts or booths (sukkah; pl. sukkot) and making blessings over the etrog and palm fronds.
TALLIT (pl. tallitot) A shawl with ritually knotted fringes (tsitsit) worn by males during worship.
TALMUD The Mishnah and Gemara together; often an inclusive term for the study of rabbinic law.
TEFILLIN (sing. tefillah) A set of black leather boxes with thongs, worn on the arm and the head by men at morning prayers; the boxes contain scriptural passages written by a scribe (sofer) on parchment.
Glossary
TEN DAYS OF PENITENCE A period of reflection and contrition between the New Year and the Day of Atonement.
TISHA B’AV The ninth day of the month of Av, observed as a day of mourning to commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.
TORAH The Five Books of Moses (the Pentateuch) written by a scribe in the form of a parchment scroll; the first five books of the Jewish Bible; in a broader sense, the way of Jewish life and practice as ordained in the Bible and rabbinic sources.
TSITSIT The knotted fringes of the tallit.
Tzaddik In Hasidism, a sage and a charismatic spiritual leader endowed with special powers of intercession.
YAHRZEIT The anniversary of the death of a close relative, marked by special prayers and the lighting of a memorial candle or lamp.
YOM KIPPUR The Day of Atonement; the solemn fast day that falls in the early autumn ten days after Rosh Hashanah.
Bibliographic Note
There have been a number of previous translations of Agnon into English. The novella form, in which Agnon excelled, is represented in English by Two Tales: “Betrothed ” and “Ido and Enam” (New York: Schocken Books, 1966) and In the Heart of the Seas (New York: Schocken Books, 1948). “In the Prime of Her Life” appeared in 1983 in the collection Eight Great Hebrew Novellas, edited by Alan Lelchuk and Gershon Shaked (reissued The Toby Press, 2005). Among the novels, there are a number of English translations, beginning with The Bridal Canopy (New York: Schocken Books, 1967), a translation in need of updating since it is based on a Hebrew version of the novel that Agnon subsequently revised. The major novel Oreah Nata Lalun was published in English as A Guest for the Night, in a 1968 translation by Misha Louvish (New York: Schocken Books). A Simple Story, Hillel Halkin’s translation of Sippur Pashut, appeared in a Schocken edition in 1985. This novel of eastern Europe focuses on a young man whose difficulties in adjusting to his life are symptomatic of larger-scale conflicts of direction in Jewish life of the time. Shira, translated by Zeva Shapiro and published in Schocken Books in 1989, presents its middle-aged protagonist, Manfred Herbst, and his infatuation with the nurse Shira, against the background of the academic community of Jerusalem in the 1940s.
Bibliographic Note
For critical work on Agnon in English, readers might begin with Arnold Band’s study of the life and work, Nostalgia and Nightmare: A Study of the Fiction of S.Y. Agnon, published in 1968 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press). Early studies also include Baruch Hochman’s The Fiction of S.Y. Agnon, published by Cornell University Press in 1970. Robert Alter has produced insightful essays over the years. More recently, Gershon Shaked has provided an analytic overview of genres and themes in Shmuel Yosef Agnon: A Revolutionary Traditionalist (New York: New York University Press, 1989). Anne Golomb Hoffman’s critical study, Between Exile and Return: S.Y. Agnon and the Drama of Writing (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), examines themes of writing and text for insight into Agnon’s unique position as a Jewish modernist who transformed traditional themes and sources. Over the last ten years, Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History has published many articles on Agnon, including a special issue in 1987 celebrating the centenary of his birth with critical studies by Nitza Ben-Dov, Yael Feldman, Alan Mintz, Dan Miron, and others.
For readers who want to locate the originals of the stories contained in this anthology, we offer the following information on the publication of Agnon’s works in Hebrew. Eilu Ve’eilu, volume 2 in The Collected Works, is the source for the following stories: “Agunot,” “The Tale of the Scribe,” “Two Pairs,” “The Kerchief,” “On One Stone,” “A Sense of Smell,” “Tears,” “Fable of the Goat,” “Paths of Righteousness, or The Vinegar Maker.” From Al Kapot Haman‘ul, volume 3 in The Collected Works, we have taken “Hill of Sand” and “The Doctor’s Divorce.” Samukh Venir’eh, volume 6 in The Collected Works, supplied the following stories: “Between Two Towns,” “The Lady and the Peddler,” “Knots upon Knots,” “From Lodging to Lodging,” “On the Road,” “To the Doctor,” and “A Whole Loaf.” “At the Outset of the Day” is taken from Ad Hena, volume 7 in The Collected Works. “That Tzaddik’s Etrog” comes from Ha’esh Veha’etsim, volume 8 in The Collected Works. The posthumously published Ir Umeloah (Tel Aviv: Schocken Publishing House Ltd., 1973) is the source for the following stories: “Buczacz,” “The Tale of the Menorah,” “Pisces,” “The Sign,” and “A Book That Was Lost.”