In this short excerpt from Mendele Moykher Sforim’s Di Klyatshe (The Mare), the protagonist, Yisroylik, who has been suffering from hallucinations, wakes up to find himself being fussed over by his mother and a number of local healers, among them Brayndl, the local zogerin. A title meaning “reciter” “speaker” or “preacheress”, zogerins were women who led prayer in the synagogue and/or in the cemetery, where they would call on the ancestors to help the living in times of need. As this short text demonstrates, asking for ancestral help played an important role in traditional healthcare.  

In the middle of all this entered Brayndl the zogerin, who my mother had sent to the holy place to wail over graves and measure the cemetery. Coming in, Brayndl kissed the mezuze three times and, running up to my mother, cried and sobbed these words: 

“I entreated by your grandmother Yente, your aunt Zelde — may they have a bright paradise, they were kosher Jewesses — your father, your grandfather Reb Shepsl and the whole family. I also asked the old rebetsin, the pious woman, may her merits help us. I asked them to make all efforts to ensure that the eternal one hears their prayer — he is, after all, a father, a God of mercy, a righteous God. Yisrolik will, God-willing, be well.

We should roll eggs over him again, and pour wax. This is a fright that has come over him. A year ago the same thing happened to the son of the schoolteacher in Brod. Kroyne immediately rolled eggs over him, and it was as if she had simply removed the fright with her hand … “

Source: Mendele Moykher Sforim (Sholem Abramovitsh), Di klyatshe [the Mare], translated by Annabel Gottfried Cohen.

The Yiddish original is available here. The full book is available in English translation under the title “The Nag”.

A soul candle I’m currently burning for a friend in need