For an insiders view of the chassidish and litvishe world - this novel is highly recommended. Despite being written as fiction it provides a very accurate and sophisticated understanding. It has been out of print for many years and has just been reprinted. Just before it was reprinted a used copy went for $500! The following is the advertisement from the publisher.
Yiddish volume I downloadable as free pdf
Vol II Spielberg digitalization
volume II
Yiddish volume I downloadable as free pdf
Vol II Spielberg digitalization
volume II
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"שבע יפול צדיק וקם" – פתח הרבי ופירש מיד כל מילה ומילה – שבע פעמים נופל הצדיק וחוזר וקם מנפילתו...כל עלייה של נשמה יש בה ממילא אפשרות של נפילה, אלא שכל נפילה ונפילה היא בשורה מאוימת לעלייה העתידה לבוא. שכן נפילה וקימה – זהו התוך והמהות של העבודה האמיתית, התנועה רצוא-ושוב של הנשמה, המתעלה מעלה-מעלה.
"שבע יפול צדיק וקם" – פתח הרבי ופירש מיד כל מילה ומילה – שבע פעמים נופל הצדיק וחוזר וקם מנפילתו...כל עלייה של נשמה יש בה ממילא אפשרות של נפילה, אלא שכל נפילה ונפילה היא בשורה מאוימת לעלייה העתידה לבוא. שכן נפילה וקימה – זהו התוך והמהות של העבודה האמיתית, התנועה רצוא-ושוב של הנשמה, המתעלה מעלה-מעלה.
חיים גראביצר הוא חסיד חב"ד שנועד לגדולות. עם זאת הוא מסרב בכל תוקף לרבנות ודבק במלאכת המלמד, בזכותה הוא רואה עצמו כמשה רבנו המביא נשמות רכות למעמד הר סיני. אין דומה לו, לגראביצר, בקולו הרועם, במזגו הסוער וביושר לבו, שאינו מתכופף בפני איש.
אולם אסון נורא שומט את הקרקע מתחת רגליו, וגראביצר נקרע מחייו, מעולמו ומאמונותיו, כגרם שמים שניתק ממסלולו ונותר משוטט בחלל. הוא "נופל" ומתגלגל במסע מלא תעוזה ומתח בין עולמות רוחניים תרבותיים וחברתיים שונים: מחסידות חב"ד לחסידות פולין, משם לישיבת וולוז'ין ולעולמם של המתנגדים ולתנועת ההשכלה ועד לגורלם הטראגי של הקנטוניסטים.
חיים גראביצר – סיפורו של נופל הוא ספר ייחודי ומרתק שנכתב ביידיש בשנות העשרים של המאה העשרים וראה אור לראשונה בעברית בשנת 1939, בתרגומו הנפלא ומלא החיים של הסופר והמשורר אברהם שלונסקי. הספר מקים לתחייה את העולם היהודי של העיירות בפולין במאה התשע-עשרה, ומתאר נאמנה את חיי היהודים באירופה שלפני מלחמות העולם.
פרופ' יהושע פישל שניאורסון (1958-1888) נולד למשפחת רבנים ואדמו"רי חסידות חב"ד, למד בישיבות והוסמך לרבנות, ולאחר מכן למד רפואה ופסיכיאטריה בברלין. בשנת 1936 עלה לארץ ישראל והקים בתל אביב מרכז אבחון וטיפול פסיכולוגי. לצד לימודיו ועבודתו הקלינית, חיבר שניאורסון סיפורת ייחודית מודרנית, אשר נתנה ביטוי מרתק לאישיותו ולשאלות שהתחבט בהן בחייו. הספר חיים גראביצר הוא גולת הכותרת של יצירתו הספרותית.
הוצאת ידיעות ספרים גאה להשיב אל קוראי העברית אוצר תרבותי וספרותי שכמעט ונשכח בארון הספרים היהודי. הספר רואה אור כעת במהדורה מחודשת, מעודכנת ומוערת.
Is it available in English?
ReplyDeleteNo - but it certainly would be worthwhile to have it translated into English
DeleteThis is a formal request. Given your vast English translating experiences, would you consider doing the same for this volume too?? I don't believe there any copyright issues should exist..
DeleteWith all due respect to the mara d'asra, translating a novel is completely different than translating a t'shuva or a short article.
DeleteMichoel
BTW,
DeleteI do know a translator who is a mumche gadol, translating between Yiddish, Hebrew and English in all directions very well. He is strongest in translating into English. He is a professional writer, aside from the translating. If anyone would like to sponsor a translation, he could use the parnassa.
Michoel
yitz - you arrange the financing and i am sure that you'll have no problem finding a translator :)
DeleteIt sounds like this book can be a major "to'eles harabim" and a potentially good seller too.
DeleteAlthough I've never been involved in a "book financing" project before and am unsure of the proper particulars, I would like to see someone capable willing to undertake this task.
I realize there's a difference between translating a relatively short piece as compared to a considerably longer book/novel where setting the contexts in the translated vernacular is a necessary added skill of supreme importance.
But can we atleast get a draft going.. I imagine the various publishing companies are staffed with editors that have a superb command of yiddish/hebrew too?
I also have an excellent translator. Native English speaker living here many years. Just finishing translating a long autobiography of a Jew from a simple family abroad whose amazing journey led him to contact with many gedolim and to becoming a major Talmid Chachom today in Yerushalayim.
DeleteThe link provided is to volume 1. Volume 2 is available @
ReplyDeletehttp://www.archive.org/download/hayimgravits02shne/hayimgravits02shne_bw.pdf
Can you give a short synopsis of the story?
ReplyDeleteis this book an israeli (fictionalized) "making of a gadol"?
ReplyDeletealso available free online http://archive.org/details/nybc211245
ReplyDeleteCan someone here explain the "to'eles" in publishing a book written by someone who was not a yerei Shomayim, to say the least? This book will bring a person to more emunah, or less? If less, then isn't it ossur to read it, never mind promote it?
ReplyDeleteAccording to talmidei chachom who have read it - it is a sophisticated and nuanced insiders view of chassidus and the litvshe world. If you are only concerned with what "should be" and not what "was" or "is" - then you shouldn't read it.
Deletethis may have come up before, but if not, rav schwab's piece (the full essay is better) is critical.
DeleteRabbi Shimon Schwab & Historic Truth
What ethical purpose is served by preserving a realistic historic picture? Nothing but the satisfaction of curiosity. We should tell ourselves and our children the good memories of the good people, their unshakable faith, their staunch defense of tradition, their life of truth, their impeccable honesty, their boundless charity and their great reverence for Torah and Torah sages. What is gained by pointing out their inadequacies and their contradictions? We want to be inspired by their example and learn from their experience... Rather than write the history of our forebears, every generation has to put a veil over the human failings of its elders and glorify all the rest which is great and beautiful. That means we have to do without a real history book. We can do without. We do not need realism, we need inspiration from our forefathers in order to pass it onto posterity.
Selected Writings (Lakewood, 1988)
Rav Hutner wrote - (translation by Rav Nosson Kaminetsky)
Delete"Our trouble is that when we are engrossed in the facets of wholesomeness of our greats, we deal with the completed form of their qualities and skip over the inner struggle that transpired in their spirit. The impression left by our talks about the great leaders makes it seem as if they issued from the Hand of the Creator in their full stature and stance. Everyone speaks of, and is moved by, the example of the purity of the tongue (in avoidance of leshon hara') of the author of Chofetz Chaim but who knows
- say, one in a thousand - about all the wars, the struggles, the failures, the falls and the regressions the Chafetz-Chaim encountered in his path of warring with his Evil Inclination
Introduction of the biography of the Chofetz Chaim's rebbe wrote(translation by Rav Nosson Kaminetsky)by Rav Yisroel Dovid Miller:
Delete"Many fine people protest against me in the recesses of their hearts that in writing the biogra-
phy of the tzaddiq, holy to G-d, glory of our generation, R' Nahum, and in describing his conduct toward G-d and man, I have presented before the honorable readers the iniquity of the ways of his youth, without concealing the 'unripe fruit' of his childhood. But if our path is directed toward Truth
and our goal is set toward Justice, it is to the glory of the man who is great among giants to tell the truth about him as it is. For if a tree with fruit pleasant to see and good to eat and with medicinal leaves were found in a wasteland, we would be wonderstruck and astonished. So it is in the
narrative of the life story of this man. The majority of our geonim, the giants of our generations whose ways and stories are told far and wide, had one of the following two blessings: either a father from whose mouth the
child was educated from the dew of his youth until he reached adolescence, or a great teacher whose student flourished on the waters of Torah, and who guided his student in holiness. It is because of this that they later became the geonim of the generation in whom Israel takes pride. But this
superior individual whose story we tell now was different. His father wasempty of wisdom, an arid plant which could not anoint him with the 'oils of Torah', nor did he have teachers wise in Torah in the dawn of his youth. It is because of this that his life story is so wonderful that we can
call him 'an enchanted tree'. Thus, we can tell what we know from rabba him tzaddiqim, great in Israel, who honored me with their letters and testimonies; they all as one testified that the beginning of his life's path was not hedged by roses, and his youthful conduct was not becoming of a
person of great deeds and a tzaddiq who was the very foundation of the world. Nevertheless he sprouted into a righteous plant whose branches spread till they peaked the cedars of Lebanon. Let the stories of this, our
tzaddiq, serve as a convincing admonishment and solid proof to the children of Israel that if they hold onto the limbs of the Tree of Life they will live forever. Even if at the beginning of their childhood they went on somewhat crooked ways and blundered, let them not despair of hope, for if
they return to G-d, the sons will return to their boundaries/and their end will be very fecund. It is also the way of our holy Torah to relate without
partiality and with pure and honest criticism even of our holy Fathers, the founders of our Congregation, who were like the Seraphim Above and like the Angels of Heaven. Take, for example, the great Tanna'im, guardians of
the world, Rabbi Eli'ezer the Great and his disciple Rabbi 'Aqiva, the great giants of early generations. Our Sages of blessed memory said of them that in their youth their greatness and wisdom were not manifest, and the beginning of their blossoming was not characterized by wondrous appearances and holy images. It was only later that they grew and succeeded, and lit up the face of the earth with their wisdom and righteousness. In their light we walk until this day."
I read Rav Schwab's quote in his book which you cited. I would like to also see your next 2 quotes from R. Hutner and Rav Yisroel Dovid Miller inside the sefer they were originally published in. Can you please provide the actual citation??
DeleteThank you.
I don't see how the question was answered. Wasn't this guy a kofer b'ikar, Rachmanah litzlan? So how does this book promote fear of Hashem?
ReplyDeleteYour question was answered. Some people require constant positive information to be inspired and develop fear of Hashem. Other people need to know what is going on to develop fear of Hashem.
DeleteIf you require constant postive information from only frum people to be inspired - don't read the book. If you want a deeper understanding from an insider of the varieties of avodas hashem and you find knowledge of reality inspiring - then you should read the book.
I have another solution, learn how to read yiddish
ReplyDeleteSo I was just contacted by someone working on an English translation. Now to send a contract that can be forwarded to the representative of the estate. Still very very premature, but there's a possibility that this could be published in English by Ben Yehuda Press in 2018.
ReplyDelete