Feathers In The Wind: A Musical About Chelm - Softcover

Rush, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1943416028 ISBN 13: 9781943416028

Publisher: Blue Moon Plays, 2015

Synopsis

FEATHERS IN THE WIND is based on Jewish folktales about the foolish people of Chelm. Rabbi Itzik searches the globe to find his scattered people and prove that "God loves the people of Chelm." Repeated orally and printed frequently in book form, stories of Chelm became a significant popular phenomenon in East European Jewish folklore. A number of Yiddish writers, among them Y. L. Peretz, Leyb Kvitko, and Isaac Bashevis Singer, either used the folkloric themes of the wise men of Chelm as a source for humorous or satiric stories or published their own versions of them. Others, such as Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh and Sholem Aleichem, were influenced by the stories to construct their own fictional towns that included inhabitants with similar characteristics to those of Chelm—Kabtsansk (Poorville) and Glubsk (Idiotville) by the former and Kasrilevke by the latter. Examples of Chelm stories are: “Which is more important, the sun or the moon?” a citizen of Chelm asked the rabbi. “What a silly question!” snapped the cleric. “The moon, of course! It shines at night when we really need it. But who needs the sun to shine when it is already broad daylight?” The melamed of Chelm was speaking with his wife. “If I were Rothschild, I’d be richer than he.” “How can that be?” asked the wife. “You would both have the same amount of money.” “True,” he agreed, “but I’d do a little teaching on the side.”

About this edition

• Publisher: Blue Moon Plays
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1943416028
• ISBN 13: 9781943416028
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80