The Congregation Loves Jam
One Sabbath before the reading of the Torah, Motke Khabad went up to the reader’s table, brought his hand down on it with a bang, and announced, “Congregation! Those of you who love jam are invited to my house after the service. Come at three o’clock.”
When the service was over, Motke went home. He ate his tsholnt, then lay down for his nap. When he woke at three, a considerable crowd had gathered in his courtyard. Motke went up to the people and asked, “Are you all here?”
“Yes,” came the reply, “we’re all here.”
“In that case, you can all turn around and go home. Now I know how many of you love jam.”
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Glossary
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Annotations
TELLER/COLLECTOR: Khaim Sheskin, Grodne (Grodno), Poland, (no date recorded) To this day Sheskin continues collecting Yiddish folklore and mailing his collections to YIVO. Sheskin, who now lives in New York, has possibly the longest continuous history of dedicated folklore collecting for YIVO.SOURCE: Cahan (1938), no. 13, p. 199.
