Once upon a time, in the silly world of Chelm, a salesman was passing through. “I am selling one of the most remarkable vehicles of all time!” he announced. “This car travels without mules, horses, and even without gasoline. It works only…
What is paradise like? Would people live happily in paradise? Atzel dreams to live in paradise and becomes ill. To the grief of his parents, he is willing to die. Why does Alzel want to go to paradise so much?…
One Pope, in the Dark Ages, decreed that all Jews had to leave Rome. The Jews did not want to leave, and so the Pope challenged them to a disputation to prove that they could remain. No one, however, wanted…
Of all the Jews in the world, perhaps the least advanced were the Yemenites, isolated from the mainstream of civilization until their mass emigration to Israel under Operation Magic Carpet over 60 years ago. In one remote section of Yemen…
The town of Chełm decided to build a new synagogue. So, some strong, able-bodied men were sent to a mountaintop to gather heavy stones for the foundation. The men put the stones on their shoulders and trudged down the mountain…
‘Which is more important, the sun or the moon?’ a citizen of Chelm asked the rabbi. ‘What a silly question!’ snapped the cleric. ‘The moon, of course! It shines at night when we really need it. But who needs the…
The melamed (Jewish religious teacher) of Chelm was speaking with his wife. ‘If I were Rothschild, I’d be richer than he.’ ‘How can that be?’ asked the wife. ‘You would both have the same amount of money.’ ‘True,’ he agreed,…
There are many shlemiels in the world, but the very first one came from the city of Chelm. He had a wife, Mrs. Shlemiel, and a child, small Shlemiel, but he could not provide for them. His wife used to…
Near the city of Chelm there was a village called East Chelm, where there lived a tenant farmer called Shmelka and his wife Shmelkicha. They had four daughters, all of whom slept in the same broad bed. Their names were…
Chelm was a village of fools, fools young and old. One night someone spied the moon reflected in a barrel of water. The people of Chelm imagined it had fallen in. They sealed the barrel so that the moon would…