SOURCE: Eppich, Linda Nielson. “Isaac Bashevis Singer's ‘Short Friday’: Semantic Parallels of Happily-Ever-Aftering.” Studies in Short Fiction 27, no. 3 (summer 1990): 357-63.

“Lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.”

We are far too skeptical a readership to consider the fairy tale of a prince and princess who live happily-ever-after in this world. Yet Isaac Bashevis Singer expects us to accept not only this fanciful tale but one even more extravagant. The modern prose of “Short Friday” uses the poetic parallelisms of the ancient Hebrew prophets to convince us that a less-than-perfect tailor and dough-kneader miraculously appear happily-ever-aftering in Paradise. Singer does not ask if we believe in Paradise. He assumes that we do so and spends his time examining a marital relationship that survives mortality.

Where did Singer get the idea of a marriage that extends to Paradise? The mysticism of the Kabbalah suggests that Adam and Eve were at one time androgynous—two souls in one body in the Garden of Eden. This union dissolved when Eve was removed from Adam's side but can again be created in Paradise. R. K. Harrison contends that the Hebrew word [original Hebrew characters deleted], traditionally translated as “rib,” actually carries a number of meanings. One of these alternate meanings includes “an aspect of personality.” He believes that the word indicates an organic and spiritual unity of the subdivided species: neither the man nor the woman is whole without the other. He points to the play found in the words of “man” ([original Hebrew characters deleted]) and “woman” ([original Hebrew characters deleted]). According to this interpretation, the personality of any one individual reaches the full measure of its creation only when “complemented in proper and compatible marital unity by that of another individual of the opposite sex.” Thus, the spiritual equation “Man = male + female” is derived (Harrison 555-56). “Short Friday” is the particularization of a male and a female uniting physically and spiritually on the Sabbath.

Indeed, the prose plot of “Short Friday” is a simple folk-tale tracing a hierarchy of Sabbaths. Singer first describes the typical Sabbath in the home of Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe; he narrows focus to the Sabbaths of wintertime; and, finally, he pinpoints the Sabbath falling on the shortest day of winter—the Friday cut even shorter by asphyxiating fumes from the baking challah bread. Within this line of narration, “Short Friday” employs a sophisticated chiasmus of metaphors and events which depicts an ordinary couple residing in an unimportant village, an ordinary couple performing reverent preparations which lead them to fulfilled Sabbath worship, and an ordinary couple awakening, not in the unimportant village, but in Paradise. Singer juxtaposes a narrative hierarchy of Sabbaths against a chiasmus whose stressed pivot is the worship of the year's shortest Sabbath.

In 1753, Bishop Robert Lowth of the Anglican Church rediscovered the most common pattern in Hebrew poetry: parallelism (Ludlow 31). Although the understanding of grammatical parallelism requires reading in the language of origin, semantical parallelism is based on patterns of ideas and is, therefore, comparable to “theme rhyme” (32). “Short Friday” advances its theme of marital unity by tying its plot to a particular type of parallelism known as chiasmus. This type of parallelism is a rhetorical device which inverts or reverses the second of two parallel ideas. The Hebrew poets expanded the use of the chiastic pattern from phrases to include whole verses and chapters. Parallel ideas are ordered in a pattern, such as A B C D, which leads to a critical idea E. The ideas are then repeated in reverse order, D' C' B' A'. The main theme of a passage is located in the center line of the pattern—the pivot line—and thus receives natural stress from its position (Ludlow 36-37). The structure of “Short Friday” presents a couple living in Lapschitz, leads to their Sabbath worship, and portrays a couple awakening in Paradise:

A Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe live in Lapschitz.
  B Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe share a great love.
     C The Sabbath meal is a “taste of Paradise.”
       D Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe are grateful.
          E The Spirit of the Sabbath emanates from every corner.
            F Shmul-Leibele praises God in the synagogue.

2

            F' Shmul-Leibele praises God in the synagogue.
          E' Their home is like Paradise.
       D' Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe are grateful.
     C' Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe partake of the Sabbath meal.
  B' Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe lie together.
A' Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe live in the “true world”—Paradise.

The outer frames A and A' of this introverted parallelism tell us that Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe lived together on Earth and now live together in Paradise. The miracle of achieving this happily-ever-aftering state is buried deep with the internal structure of the story. The focal point of worship in the synagogue is flanked by parallelisms purporting that Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe live in Paradise even while in mortal existence. The tailor praises God in the synagogue, and the dough-kneader makes home a Paradise-on-Earth. Gratitude for each other spiritually and physically unites them in the joy of the Sabbath. The chiastic pattern of “Short Friday” emphasizes that the tailor and the dough-kneader live in Lapschitz in the “true world”—Paradise—through Sabbath worship.

Singer frames each of the six parallelisms of the chiasmus within “Short Friday” with its own set of developing parallelisms. This converts each into a focal point of attention. The tale could hardly begin more simply: “In the village of Lapschitz lived a tailor name Shmul-Leibele with his wife, Shoshe” (229). This idea—A Shmul-Leibele and his wife Shoshe live in Lapschitz—initiates the chiasmus and will be reiterated at the conclusion of the pattern. Two sets of composite parallels (229-32) develop characterization:

     Shmul-Leibele is a tailor.
     Shmul-Leibele is a bungler.
     Shmul-Leibele is an honorable man.
     Shoshe is competent.
     Shoshe is a dough-kneader.
     Shoshe is an honorable wife.
B     Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe share a great love.
     Shmul-Leibele is small and clumsy.
     Shmul-Leibele is warm-hearted.
     Shmul-Leibele performs good works.
     Shoshe is tall and beautiful.
     Shoshe heeds the law.
     Shoshe is God-fearing.

Although education and wealth are noticeably absent traits and opposition is apparent, Singer positions Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe as tongue-and-groove. Competition is deliberately replaced with connection, and Singer prohibits Shoshe's intellect at Shmul-Leibele's expense and Shmul-Leibele's heart at Shoshe's expense. Rather, one set of traits combines with another: opposition complements, balances, and strengthens. The pivotal point of the chiastic pattern emphasizes that this fit creates not just a typical love, but a great love. A third introverted parallelism (232-33) surrounds the Sabbath meal. The husband and wife revere the Sabbath by preparing for it on Thursday night and early Friday morning:

     Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe revere the Sabbath.
       Sabbath preparations by Shmul-Leibele.
       Sabbath preparations by Shoshe.
C       The Sabbath meal is a “taste of paradise.”
       Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe read the Law.
       Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe heed the Law.
     Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe await the Messiah.

The tailor and dough-kneader not only study the Law but live the Law and await the Messiah. The couple's reverence and love of the Sabbath frame the composite inner parallels of preparation, study, and daily practice in the mundane world. Singer hints in the focal point that Paradise has already arrived: the Sabbath meal, the life bread, is a “taste of paradise.” Parallelism D (233-34) shows Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe especially enjoying their Sabbath preparations in wintertime:

     Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe prepare for the Sabbaths of winter.
       Shoshe kneads the dough for the Sabbath loaf.
D       Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe are grateful.
       Shmul-Leibele eats the Sabbath loaf.
     Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe rest from Sabbath preparations.

The husband and wife's physical love for each other reflects in their play: Shmul-Leibele pretends to gobble his wife as he eats the letters of her name spelled on the challah bread. Clearly, Singer is letting us know that their love is sexual as well as spiritual. He is using emblematic parallelism not only between the bread and God, but between eating and sexual pleasure (Lyons 66-67).

The couple's final earthly Sabbath, which falls on the shortest Friday of winter, is organized around the joy within the cottage which emulates the joy of synagogue worship. Chiasmus E pivots on a hut which transcends into its own reflected counterpart in the heavens (Singer 234-36):

     The hut is blanketed with snow.
       Shmul-Leibele offers morning prayers and the ritual bath.
          Shmul-Leibele sets candles in the study room.
            Shmul-Leibele wears his Sabbath clothes.
E       The Spirit of the Sabbath emanates from every corner.
            Shoshe wears her Sabbath clothes.
          Shoshe lights the candles in the hut.
       Shoshe offers benediction over the candles.
     A “duplicate of this room [is reflected] outside.”

We experience now more than just the “taste” of Paradise: “and the spirit of the Sabbath emanated from every corner of the room” (235). Shoshe's individual preparation creates paradisiacal corners in the hut even as Shmul-Leibele's individual preparation and synagogue attendance achieves prayers which “seemed to fall from his lips with a life of their own …, soared to the eastern wall …, and ascended to the Throne of Glory” (236). The Sabbath worship of Shmul-Liebele forms the stressed theme and central pivot of “Short Friday,” and Singer accordingly marks it with the sectional “2” as the chiasmus reverses direction:

     Shmul-Leibele prays in the synagogue.
F     Shmul-Leibele sings praises in the synagogue.

2

F'     Shmul-Leibele sings praises in the synagogue.
     Shmul-Leibele prays in the synagogue.

This break extends the plot from Sabbath preparation to Sabbath fulfillment. Praising God is the purpose of the Sabbath. It is that which makes Friday evening separate from all other evenings. And it is what Shmul-Leibele does well. Singer's next chiasmus (236-37) tells how the hut, previously described in chiasmus E as an extension of the heavens, has “blended with the sky,” joining Earth with Paradise. The glow of the Sabbath candles mingles with the glow of the night stars. The pattern's focal point is a worshipful husband and wife eager to be together again:

     Shmul-Leibele wishes the worthy a “Good Sabbath.”
       Shmul-Leibele wishes the unworthy a “Good Sabbath.”
          The stars glow in the Sabbath night sky.
            Lapschitz has “blended with the sky.”
E       Shmul-Leibele's hut is suspended “on nothingness.”
               (Shmul-Leibele hurries home to Shoshe.)
               (Shoshe awaits the return of Shmul-Leibele.)
E'       Their home is like Paradise.
            The aromas from the oven “blended with scents of the Sabbath
          supper.”
          The candles cast a Sabbath glow.
       Shmul-Leibele wish each other a happy Sabbath.
     Shmul-Leibele says farewell to accompanying angels.

Preparation is complete, and the couple experience gratitude and joy. Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe reveal their innermost feelings (237):

D'  Shmul-Leibele is grateful for Shoshe—a worthy woman.
     Shoshe is grateful for Shmul-Leibele—a devoted husband.

Each wonders at the blessings brought to himself and asks in gratitude the question, Can I be worthy of this mate? The husband and wife partake of the Sabbath meal and praise their God (238):

     Shmul-Leibele offers the benediction.
       Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe wash.
          Shmul-Leibele cuts the Sabbath loaf.
            Shmul-Leibele praises the Sabbath loaf.
C'       Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe partake of the Sabbath
               meal reciting table chants.
            Shmul-Leibele sings hymns of the Sabbath.
          Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe eat of the Sabbath meat and
               dessert.
       Shmul-Leibele washes.
     Shmul-Leibele offers the benediction.

The prayers structure a perfect chiasmus: both the stressed pivot and the outer frame are prayers. The shortest Sabbath concludes (238-420):

     Shmul-Leibele thanks God he can provide food for the Sabbath.
       Shmul-Leibele prays and reads the Law.
       Shoshe prepares the bed.
          Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe sleep.
B       Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe lie together.
          Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe die.
       Shmul-Leibele dreams of his burial.
       Shoshe dreams of her burial.
     Shmul-Leibele says, “We have no further need of food.”

This parallelism focuses on the physical union of Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe. The spiritual joy they experience in the Sabbath matches the physical joy they experience with each other. They discover they have no further need of food, neither the bread of the Sabbath nor the food of life. The flame of the Sabbath oven has blended with the flame of the Sabbath candles and led them to Paradise. They arrive in Paradise as one, because they were in life as one. Yet Singer, in his concluding paragraphs, emphasizes their separate identities. With dry wit, Shoshe asks Shmul-Leibele if he will be able to recite the “passage attributed to [his] name before the Angel Dumah” (242). He replies in the affirmative, but Shoshe mutters that it is still “good we are lying side by side.” Shmul-Leibele recalls a verse: “Lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.” Structurally, Singer's closing paragraphs are the semantic parallel to the first line of the tale, “In the village of Lapschitz lived a tailor named Shmul-Leibele with his wife, Shoshe” (229):

A'  Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe reach the “true world” side by side.

The story commences with Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe living in Lapschitz, leads to an earthly paradise on the shortest Sabbath of the year, and concludes with Shmul-Leibele and Shoshe awakening in the “true world.” The heart of the chiastic pattern stresses Sabbath reverence even as the narrative describes three Sabbaths at the home of the tailor and dough-kneader. “Short Friday” appears to point out the method by which Paradise-on-Earth becomes Paradise-in-Heaven.

Happily-ever-aftering. Are we to take this as a pleasant fairy tale or as a hopeful typology? Perhaps Singer himself is expressing nothing but his own wishful thinking. But then again, perhaps he is not.

Works Cited

Harrison, R. K. Introduction to the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1969. 555-56.

Ludlow, Victor L. Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1982. 31-39.

Lyons, Bonnie. “Sexual Love in I. B. Singer's Work.” Studies in American Jewish Literature 1 (1981): 61-74.

Singer, Isaac Bashevis. “Short Friday.” Short Friday. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1964. 229-43.