Sabbath
By: Josef Erlich ; edited and with an introduction by Hana Wirth-Nesher ; foreword by Dov Sadan ; translated from the Yiddish by Schmuel Himelstein.
Contributors: Himelstein, Shmuel.; Wirth-Nesher, Hana, 1948-
Series: Modern Jewish history
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Syracuse, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 182
Subjects: Sabbath -- Fiction.
Genres: Fiction.
Work titles: Shabes̀.
Description: Set in the Polish-Jewish shtetl of Wolbrom in the 1930s, where Josef Erlich spent his youth, his account of how the character Feivel and his family observe the Sabbath has the flavor of a documentary narrative rather than a novel in the strictest sense.

In this book - translated into English for the first time from the Yiddish - the author describes in intricate detail the religious observance and folkways of this holiest of days from the order of communal prayer to the preparation of the meals. It is a rich archive for readers unfamiliar with the Orthodox religious tradition as it was practiced for centuries in Europe and as it continues to be practiced among pious descendants today.