;.l1,6,60,66,1,0,10,75,192,4,15,20,25,127,10,0,
;.l2,15,75,192,2,20,25,127,15,0,
;.l3,20,75,192,2,25,127,20,0,
;.l4,25,75,192,2,127,25,0,
.h2, =amp20002  --   Translation (CB) pp200-202 Amdur Mi Pueblo
AMDURER PAost [Amdurer Post ]
POSTAL SERVICE IN AMDUR:  [pp200-202]

	Many years went by { Yid: A sog yaren zaygen forbay } untilAmdur attained for itself a {Yid: "PAot*ShtAoVVAoIAo stANTzIA"[Potshtov-voio Stantzia , postal station ] post office and becamejust like other townlets {Yid: ShtEteLeKh}.  Before {Yid: PRYER,Prior to } that the letters for all of Amdur were sent to thevillage of PRAQAPAWItS,  to the "VVAoLAost" ["volost" ] 
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{Glossary:  "Volost" -- Russian term.  Don't know. }
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in it -- 	once a week and from there the entire correspondencewould be sent to Amdur.  In those times, the people in Amdur woulduse the official mail service very little.  First off, to whomwould you write?   All commercial ties Amdur did have were with{YId: GRAoDNE [Grodne, Grodno] Grodno or {Yid: LeTztnes, latterly?-- not trans.} {Yid: BIAoLIstAoQ [Bialistak] Bialistok.  To send anote to the city or "PERShTAot" ["pershtaot"]
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{Glossary: "PERShTAot" ["pershtaot"] -- Don't know.  I thinkthe TR says "suburb"] 
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to make a {Yid: "PAQUPQE" } "pakupke" 
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{Glossary: {Yid: "PAQUPQE" } "pakupke".  Don't know. Probably not a walrus. (sa, HaOn, 8 May }
l1

in this or that business deal {Yid: GEShEFt} -- all that would beaccomplished through the wagon drivers {B'ELI-EoGeLOt, Ba'aliOgalot} 
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{ I hate to say this, but:  how did the Ogallalah SiouxIndians get that name?   The were Indians of the GreatPlains, and might well have used wagons in moving tipis etc.from one summer campsite to another -sa}
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{end ms. p1} {start ms. p2}
.p
	But what about a private {Yid: FAMILIARN} letter?  Well,{Yid: Nu} you would write on the envelope, "may he ascend, comeand read, so and so {Yid: LIDI}" 
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[TR: the first words of a spcial additional prayer forHolidays "Ya'ale ve'yavo-to" -- Tr]
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{Please give specific reference in Siddur. -sa{ 

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At {end text p200} 
{start text p201}
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the very height {Yid: DEM AIn DEM: AIN DER HIYCh ShRIYCht} [?forthe loftiest writings?]  
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[for the most intimate(?) of communications - Tr] 
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you would address the envelope "under the ban of Rabbeinu Gershom"
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[TR: who indicated the prohibition against marrying two wives--  apparently [to say this was understood to] signal awarning  ] that could be be freely translated as:  this is apersonal matter  between members of opposite sex and don'tyou dare open it and snoop around? -- Tr.] 

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and would give it to MAIR  GUZShIQN [Meir Guzshikn]   or toHERSHEL SHULIAQ(N) and -- finished ...{eo}  Often such a letterthat a young man {Yid: BoChOR}  would write to his betrothed {Yid:KaLaH} -- a "love letter" {Yid: "LIBEs BRIVVL"} would go from handto hand, despite of {Yid: nach, after} all that {Yid: B-CheDRG'N -- appeals to the above-quoted ban} one had  written on theenvelope.  An Amdur bridegroom writes to his girl {Yid: MIYDL} in{Yid: QRINIQ} Krinik 
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[Translator notes the the following quote, the sort abridegroom [or: financee? -- the Hebrew/Yiddish terms areidentical, I think] would write, is in Hebrew [of almostbiblical vocabulary and cadence], not Yiddish, as if theyoung man were trying to give his love the most spiritualpossible expression. ]
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"My heart is in Krimik and I am in Amdur; in Krimik I saw you, inAmdur, I longed for you and in the forest I kissed you."  
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{I must note that the author has a surprisingly good earfor the varieties of speech, and lets the voice of hisnarrative vary as appropriate.  As Chava Berg has triedto point out to me, this is by no means a stodgy norflowery narrative; there is a detailed realism here thatdoes invite comparison with recognized Yiddish writers - whom, Mrs. Berg has pointed out, were at bestambivalent in their appreciation of the religious sideof Judaism. -sa}
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{The author then gives a Yiddish translation of the preceedingHebrew passage.} 
l2
{That is noteworthy, since it means that the Jewish communityfor which he wrote, that of Argentina ca. 1950, were fluentin Yiddish but not in Hebrew. }
l1

Such were the postal affairs(???)
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["Postal affairs" is a charming pun, but I don't know if thetext supports it.  Please clarify & cite Hebrew.  -sa ]
l1

 during those years in Amdur.  When Jewish immigration to Americabecame big and the youth {Yid: YUNGELIYS} of Amdur left {YdKFARLAZeN} its birthplace {GEBOIRN-ShtAt} in droves {Yid:MAsNVVIYN} , correspondence became many times bigger and a regular{Yid: LAQALE, legal} post office became a necessity.
{start ms. p3}

	After a lot of "KADAtIY-steVVA" 
l2
{Glossary: "KADAtIY-steVVA" .  Don't know.  "Regulationnonsense?" }
l1
 
 the Post [ mail service] came, luckily,  to Amdur. Correspondence would be sent from Grodno twice weekly.  Thoseevenings when the "BRItShQE"
l3
{GLOSSARY: "BRitShQE", Britske.  Don't know.  A mailcarriage, thought to be a newfangled British device?} 
l1
with the bell would arrive bringing the mail, everybody wouldgather at DoViD QANtARtShIQ's home [Kantort-shik's]  where thepost office was located ... {eo}
Girls {Yid: MIYDLEKh} and boys {Yid: BoCHURIM} would use theopportunity to meet in the dark {YId: FINTztER} and talk about"AHavaH RaBaH" [Heb: "great love" -- begnning words of the "ShmaIsrael" prayers]
Religious Jews {Yid: FRUME YIDeN} would start to grumble {Yid:MURMeLEN, murmur] :  how is that possible!  {Yid: stIYtsh!} Boyswalk around with girls {Yid: MIYDN} for half of the night?!
And SHMUEL MERQE's, a  Jew who would always mind everybody else'sbusiness and a ?hope?less fool
l2
{Yid: AIYZNQREMER, [ayznkremer], Ain GanTz NIShQShHaDIQ[nishkeshahadik??] MeShUGE  -- Not sure of the literaltranslation: "?jackass, a totally unawakened madman? }
l1
would cry out in the Beis Medresh 
l2
[Tr: the House of Learning, as popular a hang-out for theJewish population as the tavern was for the non-Jewishpopulation]
l1
"The post office has to be closed up!"...{eo}  To which AVRAHAMSHLoMeH TzINE's would counter in a serious voice :"[ Then] it willget worse yet, {Yid: Es WEt* NAKh Zei*N ERGER [os vos vet nachsein]  they guys {Yid: CheVReH} will walk on Shabbes to {but Yid:QIYN, kein} PRAoQAoPAoVVItASh [Prokopovitash]  and the girls will"carry" {Yid: "trAoGeN" [trogen]} outside the {Yid: ERUV} Shabbosboundaries ... {eo}
l2
{Glossary: Yid: ERUV, boundary [symbolically, a city wall]delimiting the area in which one is permitted to carryanything on Shabbat.  In general, would run just outside allthe residences in the community. 
	Unless there's a joke here that I've missed, which seemslikely, the implication seems to be that young women wereaccustomed to carrying personal effects on Shabbat, and thatyoung men were not. -sa}
l1
{end ms. p3}{start ms. p4}

	Who would transport the letters, before there was a postoffice in Amdur or after that?         
	Here I would like to leave a memorial for {Yid: TzUk LAZeN AZaKoR FON } for the {end text p201}
{start text p202}
Jewish {Yid: "RAoZeNAostShIK" [rozenostshik] } (Yid: brivtreger)postman of Amdur.  His name was MAotQE-ChIYQL VVOIQs [Motke-HeikelWoiks ]
l2
[TR: takes "Voiks" as a mispronounciation of Volk, a wolfe{Yid: VVAoLK, Volk = Wolf} .
Note the name 'Heikel', which might indicate descent from R.Hayim-Heikel of Amdur. --sa]
l1


-- a phenomenal cripple:  the right hand was grown to [attachedto] the chin and the elbow to the knee, and for a bonus {Yid:TzUGAV -- a big hump on the forehead.  And this pitiful strange{Yid: BRIeH - blessed?} creature {Yid: MiShUNeCH - TR: Monster}used to walk in the old times, before there was a post-office inAmdur, by foot to and from PRAKAPAVVItASh, to bring and take theletters and after that to bring them to the addresses.  Whoeverhad G-d in their heart would give him {Yid: FLEGt} a kopek for aletter; most people would just come out with a thanks, and somenot even that.  Even when mail service became official in Amdur,he never got any salary from the government, because as a Jew hewas not allowed to hold a government position and appeared
l3
{I DON'T QUITE UNDERSTAND -- appeared in governmentrecords?}
l1
under a non-Jewish name, "RIAR", after the non-Jewish wood-chopper{Yid: DEM HALTzHeQERs A SheGeTz }
	Such was the regime of the Tsars.  How did the said crippleexecute his work?  How did he manage to walk around with
{end ms. page 4} {start ms. page 5}
his grown-together hands and legs and service the town almost forfree?  Inconceivable, words and riddles {Yid (Bib. Heb): NIsIM VNiFLAOt: miracles and wonders } !  On top of that he was veryreligious,{Yid: GANTz FRUM; entirely [strictly] observant]}  andwhile crawling around through town he would not fail to pray  }with a minyan  {Yid: DAVVeN B-TziBUR}and would take pleasure tojump {Yid: ShPRINGEN} [at] "KaDOSh"
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[Tr: The Kdusha in the repetition of the Amidah;  the part ofthe prayer when News imitate the heavenly host in theadoration of G-d, standing with feet close togther andslightly lifting themselves on their toes, like an angelflying, at the words 'Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh']

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Poor Jewish cripple!  From where shall we take a poet to sing thepraises of your industriousness, honesty and self-sacrifice.   Maymy  poor words serve as a memorial {Yid: ZaKoR} for your name.
{end ms. page 5; end section, on p202.}
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[N.B.:  The term ZaKoR recurs in this book.  It is rather atheme of this "Remberance Book", the more needed and poignantsince many of those of whom the author writes were, in thescourge of the Shoah, deprived of fitting and propermemorial. ]

