The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth CenturyWiener, Leo
History
The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century
Wiener, Leo
Yiddish literature -- History and criticism
Another kind of popular poetry is that which deals with some important
event, such as 'The Cholera in the Year 1866,' or noteworthy occurrence,
as 'The Leipsic Fair,' which, however, like the previously mentioned
poems, serves only as a background for reflections. There are also,
oddly enough, a few verses of a purely lyrical nature in which praises
are sung to love and the beloved object. These would be entirely out of
place in a Jewish songbook of the middle of this century had they been
meant solely as lyrical utterances; but they are used by Ehrenkranz only
as precedents for his 'Zuspiele,' in which he makes a Khassid contrast
the un-Jewish love of the reformed Jew with his own blind adoration of
his miracle-working Rabbi. These latter, and the large number of Khassid
songs scattered through the five volumes, form a class for themselves.
The lightheartedness, ignorance, superstitions, and intemperance of
these fanatics form the butt of ridicule of all who have written in
Judeo-German in the last fifty years, but no one has so masterfully
handled the subject as Ehrenkranz, for he has treated it so deftly by
putting the songs in the mouth of a Khassid that half the time one is
not quite sure but that he is in earnest and the poems are meant as
glorifications of Khassidic blissfulness. It is only when one reads the
fine humor displayed in 'The Rabbi on the Ocean' that one is inclined to
believe that the extravagant miracles performed by the Rabbi were
ascribed to him in jest only. Owing to this quality of light raillery,
the songs have delighted not only the scoffers, but it is not at all
unusual to hear them recited by Khassidim themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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