ANGEL OF DEATH (Yid.: Malekh ha-moves)
The Jewish Angel of Death is traditionally depicted as being covered with thousands of eyes. The Angel stands at the head of the dying person with a drawn sword on the end of which clings a drop of bile. When the dying person sees the Angel, they are seized with convulsions and open their mouths at which point the bile drops, causing death.
In Shneour’s version the Angel’s blade is a khalef, a ritual slaughtering knife.
ARBA-KANFES
A ritual garment, worn under the shirts of observant male Jews, consisting of a rectangular fabric with a hole for the head and with tassels at each of the four corners.
ELEL
See Jewish calendar.
GOT FUN AVROM
The opening lines of a prayer recited by women and girls at the conclusion of Shabbes; one of the few traditional prayers composed in Yiddish rather than Hebrew.
HAVDOLE (Heb.: Havdalah)
Ceremony marking the end of Shabbes where blessings are made over wine.
JEWISH CALENDAR
The narrator’s diary follows the Jewish calendar and its entries span from the 20th of Elel (Heb. Elul) to the 23rd of Tishre (Heb. Tishrei)—approximately equivalent to the Gregorian Late August/September/Early October—a timeframe beginning toward the end of Elel, the month of introspection and repentance, and including the holidays of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), Yom Kippur, and Sukkes.
KAPORE (Lit.: atonement)
A ritual on the eve of Yom Kippur that involves swinging a live chicken around one’s head while reciting specific biblical passages. The chicken is then slaughtered and its meat usually donated to charity to be eaten as a pre–Yom Kippur meal.
KHEYDER (often spelled “Cheder”)
Traditional Jewish religious school for boys from around age five up to bar mitzvah. Study centers on learning Hebrew and the first five books of the Torah.
LITHUANIA (Yid.: Lite)
Here, an area much larger than the modern state of Lithuania. Homeland of the Litvaks, a group whose regional identity is considerably older and more stable than the borders of Eastern Europe, living in the area roughly equivalent to modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, and parts of northeast Poland. The Litvaks differed from the Poylish (Polish) Jews and Galitsyaner (Galician/Ukrainian) Jews in dialect, cuisine, and temperament.
MAKHZER
Prayer book for the Jewish holidays.
MAYREV (Heb.: Maariv)
Evening prayer service.
MINYAN
A quorum of ten adult Jewish men, required for various religious obligations. Here the term refers to a gathering for prayers.
MISHNA
The oldest part of the Talmud, containing the oral laws and traditions believed to have been passed down from Moses as a companion to the written Torah.
MITZVAH (Yid.: Mitsve)
Good deed or commandment. While Gentiles are expected to follow the Ten Commandments, the Torah contains 613 commandments that an observant Jew must endeavor to follow.
REB
Yiddish honorific, equivalent to “Mister.” Used with full name, or first name only.
SEGOL
Symbol used to indicate pronunciation of the vowel e in Hebrew, consisting of three dots arranged in a triangle. Shloyme compares it to the skulls he draws, the three dots representing the eye sockets and nasal cavity.
SHABBES
The Jewish Sabbath, beginning at sundown on Friday evening and ending with Havdole on Saturday evening at dusk. Traditionally observant Jews are forbidden from all forms of work on Shabbes, including handling money, writing, traveling, or making fire.
SHAMMES (Shames)
The caretaker of a synagogue. Often translated as “beadle” or “sexton.”
SHEL ROSH
Tefillin worn on the forehead.
SHLIMAZL
A chronically unlucky person; a ne’er-do-well.
SHLOYME—SHLOYMKE—SALOMON
Shloyme, the Yiddish equivalent of Solomon, is the narrator’s given name. Most of Shloyme’s interactions in the city, even with his fellow Yiddish speakers, take place in Russian, the language those of his generation associated with secular learning and social prestige, and so to his acquaintances he is known as Salomon. While at home with his father the familiar diminutive form, Shloymke, is used (pronounced Shleymke in his native Litvak accent).
SUKKES
Also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. An eight-day festival, beginning and ending with holy days. The festival is traditionally celebrated by building an outdoor hut, known as a Sukkah, the walls and roof of which are covered in skhakh (palm leaves or nearest available equivalent) where families eat their meals and sometimes sleep. The period in the middle of the festival, where work is permitted as normal, is known as khalemoyd (Heb.: Chol Hamoed).
TEFILLIN (Yid.: tfiln)
Tefillin, often called phylacteries, are small leather boxes containing tiny scrolls of parchment, worn during morning prayer, on the forehead and arm, secured by leather straps.
TISHRE
See Jewish calendar.
TKHINES
Devotional texts and liturgy for women, usually in Yiddish, commonly printed in booklets.
TREYF
Unkosher, impure, and forbidden according to Jewish dietary laws. The scene where Shloyme encounters hordes of unobservant Jews gleefully gorging themselves on treyf in Christian restaurants makes sense if we remember that on Yom Kippur—the holiest day of the year, when all observant Jews are busy fasting and praying—an apostate would be safe to break the rules without being seen (and if they were seen it would only be by others similarly profaning the holiday).
YESHIVA (yeshive)
School focused on the study of religious texts, particularly the Talmud and Torah. Yeshive bokherim were adolescent boys who had shown enough intellectual promise to warrant further studies. Yeshivas were usually boarding schools, with students often having to leave home and travel some distance to study there. Meals for poorer students were often provided on a charitable basis by nearby families.
YOM KIPPUR
The Day of Atonement, holiest day in the Jewish Year. Marked by a day of fasting, intensive prayer, and synagogue attendance.
Daniel Kennedy is a translator based in France. His forthcoming translations from the Yiddish include Warsaw Stories by Hersh Dovid Nomberg and Tsilke the Wild by Zusman Segalovitsh. He is the translation editor of In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies.