„From Przytyk to Rymanów”: The Body and the Contemporary World in the Tales by Polish Jews

Abstract

Ateret Menahem, first published in 1910, is a Hebrew book written by a Polish Jew, Abraham Michelson of Zgierz. It is a collection of stories in praise of a Hasidic Jewish holy man from Poland, Menahem Mendl of Rymanüw. This article begins and concludes with a disturbing image from Ateret Menahem, which encapsulates the tension around modernity and the body expressed by this and other collections of Hasidic tales. The article first argues that Ateret Menahem should be seen as a Polish book, though it is not written in the Polish language, and as a work of literature worthy of attentive reading. Then, looking at the themes of Hasidic tales more generally, the author draws a connection between modernity and the body, which was not spelled out in the author's 2009 monograph on this topic, Imagining Holiness. Finally, several selections from Ateret Menahem, expressing tension around the body and modernity in a Polish Hasidic context, are presented, and close readings of these passages are offered.