†The afternoon and evening services are customarily recited one after the other in the late afternoon.
*A mezuzah (Hebrew, “doorpost”) is a piece of parchment contained in a case, inscribed with the Hebrew verses Deuteronomy 6:4–9 and 11:13–21, and affixed to the doorpost of Jewish homes.
*In memory of the dead, it is customary to study chapters from the Mishnah, a third-century collection of rabbinic debates on the Torah. The Mishnah consists of six orders, each containing seven to twelve tractates. There may be many chapters of Mishnah in any given tractate. In the presence of a prayer quorum of ten adult men, a special Kaddish is recited upon the completion of this study.
*This wall of the synagogue, which faces east toward Jerusalem, is where the Ark housing the scrolls of the Torah is located and where seats are reserved for the rabbi and other dignitaries.
*In the Jewish tradition, helping people to help themselves with an interest-free loan is regarded as the highest form of charity.
*It is customary to snack on fruit during the Sabbath since it requires no cooking.
*The rabbi’s wife tries to appear sophisticated by using not merely Polish Yiddish, but a dialect specific to Warsaw. Its affected sing-song intonation can sound pretentious and vulgar. For Bergelson’s characters, as for Bergelson himself, high culture was associated with Russia and Germany, not with Poland.
*Because taxes gathered on the sale of liquor were a key element of government finance in tsarist Russia, the liquor trade was strictly regulated by government decrees. Purveying liquor as innkeepers and publicans became one of the traditional occupations of Jews in the Pale of Settlement.
†In tsarist Russia, external students were permitted to attend lectures, but were not officially enrolled in the university and were therefore not entitled to graduate. Often these were students who had not passed the matriculation examination at a gymnasium, which required proficiency in both Latin and Greek. In the later years of Romanov rule, to become external students was the only way many Jews, restricted by the discriminatory quota system, could attend university courses.
*The ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av (corresponding to July/August in the secular Western calendar) is Tisha B’Av, an annual fast day commemorating the two Destructions of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE and 70 CE, respectively. The days leading up to Tisha B’Av are known as “The Nine Days,” during which the strictly observant refrain from eating meat and from pleasurable activities such as listening to music.
*Boric (also called boracic or orthoboric) acid, often used as an antiseptic, exists in the form of colorless crystals or white powder and dissolves in water.
*The Eighteen Benedictions are recited in silence while standing and facing Jerusalem three times each day, at the morning, afternoon, and evening services, respectively. Rocking back and forth while reciting this prayer is regarded as a mark of piety.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by the Fund for the Translation of Jewish Literature and the National Yiddish Book Center
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The End of Everything (New Yiddish Library Series) Page 35
