Teaching Team
A Vanished World
When my sons were younger, every Friday night at the Sabbath table I would read them a Chassidic story. They loved the tales of the wonder working rabbis and miraculous reversals that populated the vanished world of pre-war Eastern Europe. With rapt attention, they followed the adventures and struggles of simple peasants faced with hardships, persecutions and challenges quite foreign to our modern American world. My kids could not tell you much of anything about Harry Potter or Shrek, but they could tell you about the amazing Baal Shel Tov, his disciple the Maggid of Mezritch, or the mysterious Seer of Lublin.
As my sons and daughter grew older, we made a rule in our house that they could not read secular books on Sabbath. We did not feel that the Hardy Boys contributed to the kedushah (holiness) of the Shabbat. I was pleased to see my sons turn to the tales of the Chasidim for Sabbath reading material, and I often find them reading Chassidic tales on weekdays as well.
When I read these stories, I cannot help but feel a deep sense of nostalgia for that lost world of the shtetls—a time and place where Torah study was at the center of life and the fear and love of God was all pervading. My brother sent me a link to a photo collection that allows us a glimpse back through time into that vanished world. Enjoy the journey:
D. Thomas Lancaster
Tammuz 12, 5767
Discussions
Search in Blogs...
Browse through Blogs
Feeds
Use this RSS feed to track our blogs in your favorite reader.
The FFOZ Blogs RSS Feed
Blogs by Category
- Back Office
- Events and Administration
- Founder’s Blog
- Guest Authors
- Lessons from the Land
- Levertoff Documentary
- Mishlei Musings
- Publications
- Road Trip 09
- Shalom Tour
- Teaching Team
- The Siddur Project
- Torah Club
- Video Blogs
- Site Info Blog
Blogs by Author
- Aaron Eby
- Boaz Michael
- D. Thomas Lancaster
- FFOZ Staff
- Guest Authors
- Media Staff
- Jacob Fronczak
- Jordan Levy
- Yisrael Levitt
- Seth Dralle
- Toby Janicki
More Recent Posts
- Respecting the Mechitzah
- Pew Sitters
- That’s a Clown Question, Bro!
- Turning Aside, Impacting Lives
- Wrong Ways to Read the Bible #2: The Love Letter Method
- When, Where and How?
- Three Kinds of Churches pt.1
- Borked
- Five Bad Arguments Against Religious Claims
- The Fast of Asarah BeTevet
Archived Comments
Having read and reread "Tales of the Hasidim" and "The Light and Fire of the Bal Shem Tov" I found the photos from Poland to be a real treat.
Sadly, the photos also make me wonder how many, if any, of those pictured survived the Holocaust. What a loss.
MJ
MJ Belko | June 29, 2007 12:45 PM
Having the types of books you describe sounds wonderful! May the L-ord direct your vision and grant the time to write! In the meanwhile, can you tell us where we can find the books you read to your children? I looked at some children's books recently but a number of them seemed full of mysticism and I didn't want to take the risk.
REPLY dtl: Thanks. It's all God-willing and with God's help. As for books I read to my children, I wasn't choosey because I'm not really worried about mystical elements. Probably too reckless, but I wasn't looking for theological purity; I was looking for fun stories. We enjoyed things like ArtScroll's children's anthologies.
Mary Ellen | June 28, 2007 10:09 PM
I agree with Justin! This needs to be a priority for our kids and grandkids.
Toby Janicki | June 28, 2007 9:42 PM
I know, I know! I am still collecting the stories from various sources. I have plenty. The problem is I never have time to write.
It’s too late for my children already, but perhaps my collections of “Tales of the Talmidim”, “Tales of the Shlichim”, “Tales of the Notzrim” and “Tales of the Christianos” will be ready and published by the time my grandchildren are sitting at their Sabbath tables. It’s a difficult task because the Church legends are so fanciful and so far removed from reality, but outside of those, we have almost nothing on the end of the Apostolic period. A great deal of it will have to be reconstructions based upon sparse facts and historical notices. I am excited about the prospect, and still hopeful that one day I will be able to produce these collections with FFOZ.
D. Thomas Lancaster | June 28, 2007 6:48 PM
Now if only someone would publish Tales of the Talmidim and Tales of the Shlichim. ;-)
Justin Johnson | June 28, 2007 5:44 PM