Task: Story Composition
Input (English): Fact1: Rieven is living with aunt and uncle per ruling by Rabbi, Fact2: Menashe remarry to provide proper home for son, Fact3: Rabbi reiterates requirement for two-parent home, Fact4: Eizik wants memorial meal in finer home, Fact5: plot is based on Lustig 's life
Output (English): Menashe Menashe Lustig yi, a recently widowed Hasidic Jewish man, tries to regain custody of his tenyearold son Rieven Ruben Niborski. Rieven is living with his aunt and uncle Eizik, Yoel Weisshaus per a ruling by the Rabbi Meyer Schwartz that Menashe must first remarry to provide a proper home for his son. Menashes first marriage was unhappy, and he is reluctant to wed again. He works as a clerk in a grocery store with a difficult manager, and has a hard time earning enough money for himself. He doesnt wear the traditional black coat and top hat in public, though his son tells him he would look nice in one. Eizik, his successful brotherinlaw, looks down on him. They argue in front of the Rabbi, who lets Rieven stay with Menashe for a week, until the upcoming memorial service for his wife, but reiterates the requirement for a twoparent home. Eizik wants the memorial meal in his finer home, but Menashe insists on having it in his shabby apartment. Getting a bachelorproof recipe for kugel from a neighbor, Menashe puts the pan in the oven before going to the cemetery for the service. He and the participants, including the Rabbi, return to an apartment full of smoke. Eizik criticizes the burnt kugel, but the Rabbi praises it and insists the uncle eat a piece. Menashe begs Eizik to let Rieven live with him, but is told he must first find a wife. Menashe says he will see the matchmaker again. He goes to the ritual bath mikvah, and dons a coat and top hat. The plot is loosely based on Lustigs life. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times he said that unlike Menashe in the film, Im not a schlimazel by nature. Maybe just a schlimazel by situation. Customs and religious practices depicted include: