The/In the Heart of the Seas/A Guest for the Night Bridal Canopy (Masterplots II: World Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Shmuel Yosef Czaczkes
- First Published: 1931
- Type of Work: Folk epic
- Time of Work: The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
- Setting: Eastern Galicia and Palestine
- Principal Characters: Reb Yudel Nathanson, Nuta, Reb Hanania, Nilbavim, The Narrator, Rachel Zummer, Yerucham Freeman
- Genres: Long fiction, Folklore, Epic
- Subjects: Traveling or travelers, Tradition, Nineteenth century, Poverty or poor people, Jews or Jewish life, Storytelling, Israel or Israelis, Middle East, Begging or beggars
- Locales: Palestine, Galicia
The Novels
The Bridal Canopy is set in the Jewish world of eastern Galicia in the early 1800’s, in a culture still coherent and traditional, not yet fragmented by the impact of Haskalah (the Enlightenment) and emancipation. Most Jews lived either in a shtetl (small village) or in a larger town, such as Brody, the home of Reb Yudel. In dire poverty, without bed, table, or chair, Yudel spends his life “fashion[ing] a seat for the Divine Presence.” A Hasid, he sees beneficent Providence in every occurrence and joyfully fulfills each of the 613 commandments of...
[The entire page is 2663 words long]
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