Gitele
and Yankl live in the town of Chelm, where the people are so foolish
that they think they are the wisest people in the world.
Shavuot is approaching, but Gitele and Yankl have no money to buy
ingredients for blintzes. So they come up with a plan. Every day,
they'll each put a coin into the empty trunk. By Shavuot, they'll have
enough coins to buy the ingredients. But will they be able to stick to
their plan and provide their family with delicious blintzes for
Shavuot?
Selected for the PJ Library Foundation Program 2017: https://pjlibrary.org/books/kopecks-for-blintzes/IF00670
KIRKUS REVIEW
A poor teacher and his wife worry that
they won’t be able to afford to celebrate the Shavuot holiday with traditional
blintzes and hatch a savings plan with good intentions but ridiculous results.
Gitele and Yankl are residents of
Chelm, populated by the wisest fools. They take an old, dirty, wheeled trunk,
cut a hole in the top, and vow to each throw in a coin every day, thus
collecting enough to shop for and make blintzes. But left alone, each spouse
relies on the other to do the saving, so when the trunk is opened at the end of
two weeks, only the original two coins are inside. An argument ensues, and in
the scuffle, the couple ends up in the trunk, which then closes and begins to roll
down the hill. As it approaches the synagogue, Gitele and Yankl’s screams from
within cause the townsfolk, comically depicted with wide necks and long noses,
to fear that a dybbuk, or demon, is inside. The trunk is opened and the
disoriented couple’s story prompts the rabbi to forbid a teacher living on a
hill with a trunk on wheels from making blintzes. While no explanation of either
the holiday or the reason for its customary meal is given, the absurdity of the
story and its nonsensical conclusion will be appreciated by those familiar with
these Eastern European noodlehead tales.
It’s hard to go wrong with a story
about Chelm. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-6)
