Glikl

Memoirs 1691-1719

Glikl, Sara Friedman

• Publisher: Brandeis University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781684580040, 9781684580057
• eBook ISBN: 9781684580064
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

"My dear children, I write this for you in case your dear children or grandchildren come to you one of these days, knowing nothing of their family. For this reason I have set this down for you here in brief, so that you might know what kind of people you come from."
These words from the memoirs Glikl bas Leib wrote in Yiddish between 1691 and 1719 shed light on the life of a devout and worldly woman. Writing initially to seek solace in the long nights of her widowhood, Glikl continued to record the joys and tribulations of her family and community in an account unique for its impressive literary talents and strong invocation of self. Through intensely personal recollections, Glikl weaves stories and traditional tales that express her thoughts and beliefs. While influenced by popular Yiddish moral literature, Glikl's frequent use of first person and the significance she assigns her own life experience set the work apart. Informed by fidelity to the original Yiddish text, this authoritative new translation is fully annotated to explicate Glikl's life and times, offering readers a rich context for appreciating this classic work.
 

GLIKL

MEMOIRS

1691–1719

BOOK ONE

I begin writing this in the year 5451¹ with God’s help, due to a surfeit of worries, troubles, and heartache, as will be told presently; and may God give us joy as long as our afflictions² and send our Messiah speedily, amen.

Everything that God, blessed be He, created, He created for His own glory,³ and the world shall be built upon lovingkindness.⁴ We know that God, blessed be He, in creating everything, acted only out of kindness and compassion, for He has no need of any of His creatures. But the creation of so many species of creatures is all for God’s glory, blessed be He, and He created everything with kindness and compassion, to be of use to us sinful human beings. For everything that He created is of good use to us human beings, even if we cannot grasp this or understand it, like King David, of blessed memory, who asked what the purpose was of creating fools, wasps, and spiders, for he wondered of what use these three were in the world. But in the end he found that the three were of use to him in saving his own life,⁵ with God’s help, as described in the Book of Kings.⁶ Anyone wishing to know can read in the Twenty-Four.⁷

Now, it is well known how much misery, distress, and aggravation we sinful human beings have in this transitory world. Moreover, we see how many righteous men suffer greatly and live in this world in great misery. On the other hand, we see too that many wicked men enjoy a life of pleasure and wealth; they and their children are successful, while the God-fearing righteous man and his children, poor wretches, suffer exceedingly. We may wonder at this, asking how it can be so. For Almighty God is a righteous judge. But I said to myself this too is futile,⁸ for the deeds of God cannot be grasped or fully understood. Our teacher Moses, of blessed memory, yearned for this, saying “Let me know your ways,”⁹ yet he never attained it. We should therefore not dwell upon it. In any case, one thing is certain: this world was created solely for the world to come. And that is also why God, in His great kindness, created us in this world that is naught and transitory—so that, if we do good deeds and believe in God as we should, He will surely bring us from this burdensome, tedious world to the eternal one that is all serene calm, and all our suffering and pleasure in this world shall last but a short time. A man’s lifespan is fixed at seventy years,¹⁰ fleeting and quickly gone. So many hundreds of thousands never attain even that. But the world to come—is eternal. How abundant is the good that You have in store for those who fear You.¹¹ Happy is the man whom God, blessed be He, rewards in the world to come, which is eternal and lasting, for all man’s sorrows, worries, and misfortune in this world endure but a short time. Once a man has borne all his sorrows, suffering, and misfortune, and his time has come to die, he dies just like all those who live their whole life in great luxury. In fact, the poor man, wretched creature, who has had nothing but troubles and suffering his whole life, will certainly die at peace, for that day I had hoped,¹² since the poor wretch was as good as dead every day,¹³ he put his firm trust in God to give him his reward in the world to come. He believes that he has a large account with God in the world to come, since all his pleasures and comforts in this world are all reserved for him in the world to come, when will I come to appear before God.¹⁴

For this reason I believe, as far as I can understand, that the poor man’s death does not come upon him with so much hardship and suffering. This is not the case with the wicked rich man who enjoys all his wealth and property, experiencing nothing but abundance; he and his children are successful, and nothing stands in their way. But when his time comes to leave this world, he realizes how much enjoyment and pleasure he derived from this world, especially once he submits to soul-searching and, toward the end of his days, ponders over the good which God gave him in this world, though he did not serve God well or discharge his duties adequately. Certainly, once he recalls that he must now leave all his possessions behind and depart from this world in order to go to the other world, the eternal world, where he will have to relinquish his duties and give an account of himself and his deeds in this world—the journey will be harder and more bitter for him than for the wretched, poverty-stricken man. Why should I go on at length?

My dear children, I began writing this, with God’s help, after the death of your pious father, since it afforded me some pleasure when the melancholy thoughts were upon me. I passed many sleepless nights in the throes of severe anxiety for we were like sheep without a shepherd¹⁵—as our faithful shepherd was no more, and I feared I would give way to melancholy thoughts, God forbid. So I would often rise in the night to spend the sleepless hours in this fashion.

My dear children, in writing this I do not intend to compose a book of moral instruction for you—I am not capable of that. Our sages have composed several such works, and we also possess our holy Torah where one can find everything and learn what is good for us and what will bring us from this world to the world to come; we may cling firmly to our beloved Torah. For example, a passenger ship is sailing at sea. One of the passengers goes to the stern and leans far over toward the sea. He falls overboard and is about to drown. Seeing this, the captain throws him a rope, cautioning him to hold on tightly to the rope so as not to drown. So too are we, sinful human beings, likened in this world to swimmers in the sea. We cannot be sure, even for the blink of an eye, that we will not drown. It is true that Almighty God created us with kindness and compassion so that we might be totally without sin, but due to Adam’s sin we are ruled by our baser nature.¹⁶

God, blessed be He, also created hordes of angels who all do His bidding. They have no baser nature. It follows that they do only good, without being commanded to do so. In addition, God created animals, birds, and other creatures who have only a baser nature and know nothing of doing good. Then God created us, human beings, in His image; we have an intellect like the angels do, yet He gave us human beings the choice to do our own will: to do evil, God forbid, or do good. But great, good, all-merciful God has thrown us ropes to cling to—our holy Torah—that cautions us so that we may not drown. Although we have the ability to do as we choose, God has written in His holy Torah everything we need in order to be righteous and do only good, like the angels. He also set out in the Torah the reward or punishment for observing commandments and for transgressions. And I chose life.¹⁷ God forbid that we fail to serve our Maker and be swayed by evil thoughts, like stupid sheep that receive neither reward nor punishment in this world or the world to come. If we acted that way, God forbid, we would be much worse than animals. For an animal falls down and dies and is not obliged to give an account of itself; but wretched man is obliged, as soon as he dies, to give an account of himself before his Maker. It is therefore advisable for us human beings to settle our accounts while we are still alive; that is, we know well that we are sinful, ruled by our baser nature, for there is not one good man on earth who does what is best and does not err.¹⁸ This is how one must behave: the moment one is guilty of the slightest transgression, it is necessary to express remorse and repent, as our sages have written in their books of morals, so that the transgression may be erased from the ledger, to be replaced only by mitzvot.¹⁹ But when the sinner lives like an animal—not only does he do no good, he actually does all manner of bad—dying with his sins still upon him—oy, he will discover in the world to come that his ledger contains nothing but debts—these are his transgressions—while the facing page, where payment should appear—that is, repentance and good deeds—is blank. Thus, sinner, you remain wholly liable, and with what will you repay your Maker who took such care to warn you?

Now, need I elaborate all the troubles and suffering that the sinner undergoes in his lifetime, and the bitter, anguished terror he faces, as well as the length of time it takes him to pay his debts in the world to come? But God, blessed be He, is so merciful that He collects His debts in this world. If we repay them one by one, that is, by prayer, charity,²⁰ and good deeds, a little at a time, in the appropriate manner, then we are able to repay our debts in this world since God does not wish us to bring about our own death through repentance—no, rather, everything in the appropriate manner, as our sages have written, and as is written in our Torah. And when one does in fact keep a balanced ledger in this world, the account will be in good order in the world to come; one is then able to approach one’s Maker joyfully, for great God is compassionate.

For what does God, blessed be He, care if a person is good or, God forbid, wicked? It is due solely to His righteousness and compassion that He has done this for us, as a father has compassion for his children.²¹ We are His children; God, blessed be He, is compassionate to us if we desire it. We pray “As a father has compassion for his children.”²² But God forbid if God had not been even more compassionate with us than a parent with a child. For a parent with a wayward child takes care of him and helps him two or three times. Finally, tiring of this, the parent spurns the wayward child and sends him away to fend for himself, even if he knows it will be the child’s downfall. Although we miserable children are constantly sinning against our Father in heaven, every hour, every minute, yet our great, beneficent Father in heaven, in His infinite compassion, tells us when we are covered in sin. Then, when we call out to Him with all our hearts and repent of our sins, He takes us back much quicker than a father of flesh and blood would take back his wayward child.

And so, my dear children, do not despair, God forbid, of repentance, prayer, and charity, for great God is most compassionate, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger²³ for the wicked as well as the righteous,²⁴ if they abandon their wicked ways and repent in time. Certainly every sinner must be as careful as possible not to sin anymore, for everyone knows what a serious transgression it is to sin against one’s father, and how powerful is the commandment to honor one’s father and mother. We must be all the more careful then not to arouse the anger of our Father in heaven who created us and our forefathers, for great, all-merciful God created us sinful humans naked. He gives us life, food, drink, and clothing; we receive all our needs from His holy, generous hand. We have no ability to judge whether one man’s lot in this world is better than another’s. People often receive their benefits in this world, while others—their benefits are reserved for them in the world to come. You can be assured that nothing escapes great, beneficent God. A righteous man, though perhaps he has not fared well in this world, can be assured that in the world to come his righteousness will bear fruit so that he will be rewarded with wealth, pleasure, everything that he lacked, the poor wretch, in this world, where he was forced to see the many wicked men in this world deriving much pleasure from all the good things in life—while the righteous man often lacks even enough bread to satisfy his hunger. If he accepts this with love, praising and thanking his Maker for everything, until, by dint of righteousness and patience, he is no longer distressed and can approach the Judge on high, that is when he will find out why it is that good men suffer in this world while so many haughty wicked men prosper. In this way he will realize how right he was to adhere to righteousness and devotion, and he will give praise to God above.

When God, blessed be He, causes something to happen to a person, it is all for the best, since we sinful human beings are wayward children whom grea...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• A Note to Readers
• Introduction
• Glikl: Memoirs 1691–1719
• Appendix: Family Trees
• References
• Index