ABSTRACT
Short Friday is a tragicomic story about a pious provincial Rabbi who, because he succumbs to the temptations of good food, drink, and bonhomie, overstays his visit at a circumcision party and as a result is forced to violate the Sabbath. As a budding poet, Hayyim Nahman Bialik composed several light verses mocking the naive adulation of Hasidic holy men by their followers. In contrast, Short Friday has been characterized as a post-Haskalab story, devoid of any polemical intent. Short Friday is the common term used by observant Jews to designate the shortest Friday of the year—that is, the Friday that falls on or nearest to the winter solstice. The Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday evening at sunset and concludes on Saturday night. Short Friday presents a rich portrait of Jewish life in a Volhynian town and its array of types: the country Rabbi, the tax farmer, the butcher, the innkeeper, and the gentile peasants employed by them.
