Motke Chabad
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Motke was born in Oshmine,
in Vilna province in Poland-Lithuania at the start of
the nineties in the eighteenth century to very poor
parents. His father was a night watchman. His mother was
a house servant. As far as learning goes, Motke
according to Kuper, had no great appetite. He was not
interested in the laws and the difficult Gemara. He
preferred enjoying life, sticking his nose into other
people’s business, and making people jolly. He drove his
teachers in the Talmud Torah crazy. He played all kinds
of whimsical tricks, such as pouring milk onto the
rabbi’s beard while he was napping. He would bring a
male goat into the classroom and other such pranks.
Understandably there was little hesitation to toss him
out of school. His father sent him away to Vilna as a
result. He hoped that his son would learn a trade. Work
did not appeal to M., so he made up a fitting job for
himself. He became a helper to waiters at weddings. That
was the kind of life that appealed to him. Always happy,
lively, serving delicious food, he was happy to be
snacking on leftovers. The klezmorim (musicians)
accompanied all of his activities with joyous music and
joke telling. He especially loved the jesters (badchens)
who made up rhymes for the bride and groom, bearing good
pronouncements on the couple and watching the girls and
women dancing. Pretty soon Motke was able to show off
what he could do. His jokes were better than the best
jesters. He touched everyone to the quick, brought them
up to the seventh heaven, especially the rich and
important Jews. He was nicknamed Chabad, the initials of
which are three Hebrew words Chochma (wisdom), Bina
(understanding) and Da’as (knowledge). But since
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he loved hard liquor too much, he
lost his position as a jester’s aide. Instead he took to living
from his talents as a humorist and joke teller. Motke started to
frequent the home of a wealthy man in Vilna, Optoff. He would
joke with him constantly, and at the same time he was supported
by him.
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G. Kupper published a few of Motke’s jokes in the
"Forward" (9 February 1930). Zalmen Reisen wrote: In
Vilna older people still remember the old popular folk
jokes told by Motke Chabad. The old Vilna chapel foreman
Mr. Marcus Stupel, who is now in the Polish army, told
me that Motke was most probably born at the start of the
19th century. He lived in Mayerke’s court (Toybe
Zavulek St. no. 3). He earned his money by appearing at
large weddings, where he told jokes and performed
several comic acts, for example—pretending to be a
Russian army officer. He was clean shaven with trimmed
hair. He spoke Russian and Polish very well, l but when
it came to knowledge of Judaism (yiddishkayt),
apparently, he was ignorant. The Hebrew-Yiddish author
Zvi-Nisson Golomb also remembered Motke Chabad. He too
told us that Motke made his living by working at
weddings and other happy occasions. Often he would be in
charge of the cloakroom. At other times he might earn a
coin or two by telling a joke. He died in the last
quarter of the 19th century. He had no
children.
Ab. Cahan tells us in his memoirs: … He lived in
the same courtyard that the author Isaac Mayer Dik, who
lived on Klaynstephen St. (The building belonged to a
Mister Nissenson). On several occasions I saw the famous
jokester Motke Chabad. He was a middle-aged Jew, a bit
taller than average and possessing a good figure. He had
a short beard and big bulging eyes. He always wore a
long, two button, brown jacket. He walked with a thick
walking stick. From Yishaya Baltamantz’s Hebrew school I
heard a story about him. He once made fun of his Rebbe
with an improper joke. So the Rebbe locked him out in
order for him to have to earn his living as a "Chabad".
… in other words, as a joke teller. Once as I was coming
home from the Hebrew school on Klaynstehpen St. I found
myself walking behind him. I chased after him and
screamed out: "Motke Chabad!" He started to chase after
me with his walking stick -- perhaps only in jest. I ran
faster than him and escaped.”
G. Kupper described him in this manner: “The
difference between Motke and the other famous Yiddish
jokester, Hershele Ostropolier, was that Hershel was a
Chasid among Chasidim. That’s why he was not so bitter
about his lot in life. Chasidim don’t hold their noses
up in the air. They love a good joke and are not
uncomfortable meeting a poor person. Motke lived in
Vilna among Litvaks for whom the most important
qualities of a man were his learnedness in Jewish texts
and orderliness. That’s why they didn’t understand him.
In that depressing Litvak atmosphere, Motke could not
find his place. This explains why, at the end of his
life, he suffered much more than Hershele. The end of
Hershele’s life was full of joy and recognition. Yes, he
was poor but not a lonely man among his own Chasidim.
Motke had a terrible old age. He was ill and paralyzed.
He spent his final years in a Vilna Hekdesh (poor house)
among other crippled and bitter poor people.
Sh.E. from
Lazar Ran.
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Z. Reisen --
"Lexicon of YIddish Literature," Vol. II, pp.
294-95.
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G. Cooper [I.J.
Singer] --Yidishe vitsler, kibetser un ltsim un
zayer role in amolign yidishn lebn, "Forward,"
N.Y., 9 Feb. 1930.
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Y. Lifshitz --
Badkhanim un ltsim bay yidn, "Archive," Vilna,
1930, pp. 58-59.
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