Page 82 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Idling in Pelcovizna
came from Russia were large, running five or six pounds apiece; some
poor Jews could not afford to spend a ruble for fish and had to go
without.
A food like fish, which is expensive, is what a person wishes to eat
on a holy day. The Jews observed Sabbath strictly, but also celebrated
it for its goodness, by enjoying better food and drink, and by singing,
which gives expression to those feelings. And the Sabbath preserved
the Jews as a race and nation through many centuries of exile; many
other small nations have disappeared in time, because of absorption.
Even nations living on their own soil, with their own language and
customs have disappeared. Yet the Jew, without a land of his own
and adopting different languages wherever he lived, remained a
nationalist of his ancient country. Of course, that tenacity is a creed
of his religion, but his religion was not only a belief, but was woven
into the national and humanistic laws he observed, which gave him
vigor and sustained him through persecution and sufferings until this
day.
One of these laws or customs was the Sabbath, one of the greatest
laws preserving human strength and improving man’s intelligence,
keeping the nation together. In ancient society, where a few
intelligent and wealthy men ruled the state, and the mass of the
people were slaves or beasts of burden, there were no such things as
rest days for the toilers, except for the celebration of a national deity
or the destruction of another nation. Resting one day in the week, to
recuperate the body’s energy and give the mind a chance to observe
other things beside mass drudgery, gave men the opportunity to
develop their mentality, meet their fellow toilers and discuss their
conditions and ways of improving them. We can see an example in
our own day of the great advancement made in the last ten years,
since a second day of rest was added: the youth of this generation are
certainly brighter and have a better conception of the day’s problems.
At that period, my father was out of work, and it would have been
a calamity to my mother if our Sabbath should be without fish, so he
encouraged us boys to go fishing. My father would have liked to go
fishing himself, but it would have been the biggest disgrace to our
family for him to fish like those Gentiles do. My brothers and I used
to go fishing on Thursday about two city blocks from our house,

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