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about /him and kissed him
through her tears. He laugh
ingly pulled her away and went
to the table telling her to close
and bolt the door. He waited
till the door was closed secure
ly, and then he began to un
wrap the dirty cloth.
The most beautiful chaleh I
have ever seen tumbled on to
the table. It was large and
golden, and its aroma immedi
ately filled the room. The five
of us stood around the table
and stared at it with admira
tion.
“But what took ysu so long,
Sam?” asked my mother after
she had calmed down and
wiped the tears away.
“It took me a little while to
get there and come back,” an
swered my father.
“Not six hours?”
“Well you see when I came
into the room I immediately
saw three chalehs on a table,
but they were very small. I
asked for a chaleh, and he of
fered me one of the three, but
I had come a long way and I
wasn’t going to settle for such
small chalehs for all my trou
ble. There were other people
in the room who were buying,
and so I took him to the side.
I whispered in his ear that I
was very dissatisfied. He said
that those three were all that
he had, but I could tell that he
was hiding something, and I
persuaded him to show it. He
brought out his chaleh wrap
ped in this rag and I bought
it.”
“But Sam, how long does it
take to buy a chaleh?” per
sisted my mother.
“Rochele, I had to bargain
with him.”
The Sabbath following we
also had chaleh. and father got
it the same way, but as the
weeks went by the chalehs did
get smaller. Then one Sabbath
there was no chaleh at all. Even
on the Sabbaths that followed
there was no chaleh. Father
grew very sad for to him Sab
bath was not Sabbath without
a chaleh at the table.
The war continued on for
several years and we lost track
of the days. When the war did
end there was still rationing,
but little bits of chaleh were
once again at our Sabbath
meals. As the weeks went by
these bits grew until they
formed a small loaf. Then one
day father brought home an
enormous golden chaleh for
Sabbath, and I remembered the
one he had brought at the risk
of his life for a Sabbath years
ago. This time he was also
late, and mother began worry
ing about him.
“Do you remember that man
that sold me the chalehs during
the war? Well I found him.”
“But what took you so long,
Sam?”
“We had to bargain over the
price, Rochele.”
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(Continued from page 14)
illness. When, unfortunately, a
poor man began to ail too fre
quently, much ado was not made
over him. He suffered so long that
he either grew better or died.
For ordinary ailments mother
was the doctor, the assistant doc
tor, the apothecary, and the nurse.
As for herself, either at the time
of childbirth, or during any other
illness, she made little fuss. When
a mother was in labor, and this
happened with astonishing fre
quency among our poor villagers,
the little ones were quickly shooed
out of the house, and the midwife
called. An ordinary woman, she
knew nothing whatever of medi
cine and had certainly never
passed an examination in practical
midwifery. This, however, in no
way interfered with her diffi
cult and responsible work. In fact,
during her lifetime she brought
into this world about half the
children of our village. And very
often, if the midwife did not ar
rive in time and the little one de
cided to come into the world of
its own accord, that, too, caused
very little excitement. The mother
herself with the aid of some neigh
bor, tied up the umbilical cord,
cut it with a pair of dull shears,
and soon the lusty cries of the
newcomer resounded through the
house. -
When the labor was very diffi-
The Southern Israelite
cult and unduly long, all sorts of
home remedies were tried. People
would then go to the synagogue to
pray before the Ark of the Coven
ant; some went to the cemetery to
beg the dear departed ones to in
tercede in Heaven in behalf of the
poor mother and to beseech the
Lord to help her. When this did
not help, they made use of a very
strange device; from the mother’s
bed, through the village streets
and into the synagogue where the
Ark of The Covenant stood, a
long string was drawn and tied —
a sort of child’s telegraph to the
Almighty — and there they pray
ed: “O Father, Thou who art all
merciful and cans’t aid us all, be
Thou the helper of Thy daughter
in her hour of need.” Whether or
not this was ever of any avail we
do not know. It is interesting,
however, to note that once I actu
ally witnessed such a thing.
When the baby was born it was
tightly wrapped in swaddling
clothes, its arms and legs bound
tight, because it was feared that
if its limbs were left free it would
become crippled. It may, however,
have been just the continuance of
some old custom.
The child was always bathed
with all its swadling clothes in
a wooden tub or bowl. Such a
bath was none too sanitary and the
infants as a result suffered a great
deal from skin trouble. To cure
A
ATLANTA GAS LIGHT COMPANY
m m DH!)(gGL.@M §@ Ennui
Dynatronics, Inc.
ITS WORK AND FACILITIES
DESCRIPTIVE BROCHURE
ANNUAL REPORT 1961
SPECIAL REPORT
Write, phone, or inquire in person for your copy
or copies.
R. S. DICKSON & COMPANY
INCORPORATED
1634 Rank of Georgia Building
Atlanta 3, Georgia — Telephone 525-4887
7*
17