The Map of the World: And Other Hasidic Tales

Marvelous Hasidic tales: miracles, holy men, family dilemmas, anti-Semites overcome, piety and goodness, poverty and wealth, despair and hope, kings and wicked viceroys, and teachings of joy and optimism! Rabbi Abraham Shtern, Torah scholar, kabbalist, and author, was born in Tishevitz, Lublin district of Poland, to a Hasidic family on July 12, 1878. In 1938, he emigrated to Montreal, where he wrote this collection of Hasidic stories in Yiddish, stories that he had heard first-hand and which had never been written down before.The author and musicologist Israel Rabinovitch wrote, “When you read these miracle stories, you do not have the impression that you are reading ‘literature’ but that you are listening to the recitation of a deeply pious Hasid who believes everything that he received from the Hasidic tradition. His way of telling a story is like that of the very first Hasidic source.” And Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung, the leading rabbinic authority in Montreal in his day, wrote: “He possessed a folk language that has all of the Talmudical grace and inspired a desire to learn Torah… And it was a pleasure to hear his thoughts, evaluations, and opinions, which were always sincere.” Rabbi Abraham Shtern passed away in Montreal on March 2, 1955.