The Adventures of Menachem-Mendl by Sholom Aleichem
"The Adventures of Menachem-Mendl" by Sholom Aleichem is an epistolary novel, first published as a collection in 1895, that takes the form of letters exchanged between Menachem-Mendl, a Jewish currency speculator in Odessa, and his wife, Sheineh-Sheindl, who lives in the small shtetl of Kasrilevke. Menachem-Mendl's letters are filled with exaggerations about his business successes, which are met with skepticism by his wife, who continually seeks more information about his ventures. This dynamic highlights his struggle for independence from traditional life while also revealing his inability to fully adapt to modernity. The humor in the text often arises from misunderstandings, particularly Sheineh-Sheindl’s confusion about modern concepts, such as currency trading, which she mistakenly interprets in tangible terms. As Menachem-Mendl's speculative pursuits lead to repeated failures, he grapples with feelings of despair, yet continues to seek new opportunities, even contemplating immigration to the United States. The letters reflect a deep sense of dissatisfaction and the complexities of modern life, contrasting the conventional forms of correspondence with the underlying struggles both characters face. Notably, religion is absent from their exchanges, emphasizing Menachem-Mendl's shift from traditional values to a new focus on commerce and success, even as that pursuit leads him into a metaphorical bondage. Ultimately, the narrative captures the challenges of navigating change in a rapidly modernizing world while maintaining connections to one's roots.
The Adventures of Menachem-Mendl by Sholom Aleichem
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published:Menakhem-Mendl, 1895 (English translation, 1969)
Type of work: Short stories
The Work
Originally published as independent pieces, the Menachem-Mendl letters were gathered into a collection published in 1895, at which point Sholom Aleichem revised and expanded the stories to form a coherent whole. In this final form they constitute an epistolary novel of sorts—a novel in which all of the narration is done through letters.
In his first letter, Menachem-Mendl writes from the city of Odessa to tell his wife, Sheineh-Sheindl, who lives in the small town of Kasrilevke, how well he is doing as a currency speculator. He exaggerates so much that the reader is immediately skeptical, as is his wife, who wants him to provide more details. Throughout these letters Sheineh-Sheindl will continually ask for more details of her husband’s business ventures, while Menachem-Mendl will continually say he has no time to write.
Menachem-Mendl’s reluctance to say more is perhaps part of his struggle for independence from the shtetl life in Kasrilevke. In the opinion of literary critic Dan Miron, Menachem-Mendl is trying to break free of traditional life. He has escaped to the city and is never going home, despite his wife’s desire that he return. At the same time, he does keep writing her, suggesting that he cannot fully free himself; he wishes to maintain some contact with the traditional life he has left behind, even while seeking to throw himself into a more modern existence.
Part of the comedy, which is also tragic, derives from Menachem-Mendl’s inability to fully understand the modern life in which he is trying to participate. Sheineh-Sheindl understands it even less, and there is humor in her misunderstanding his references to coffee shops (she thinks they are the names of women) and her confusion over what her husband is doing. She keeps wanting to know the size and weight of the currency and stocks he is investing in, as if they were solid objects.
Part of Aleichem’s point is that these are not solid objects, but mere air, as Sheineh-Sheindl says at one point, and without anything solid beneath him, Menachem-Mendl perpetually falls. Thus, he eventually loses everything in his currency speculations and has to start again with nothing. He does, however, persist in starting over and over again, trying one business venture after another, moving from currency speculation to being a commodity broker, to discounting, to investing in real estate, forests, sugar mills, and mines, and to trying his luck as a writer, a marriage broker, and an insurance agent. Unfortunately, he has no luck at all, and though he is resolutely upbeat in the earlier letters, by the end he sometimes gives way to despair before deciding he should immigrate to the United States.
Another source of humor is the repeated contradiction between the flowery, conventional way both Menachem-Mendl and Sheineh-Sheindel begin their letters and the actual content that follows. Presumably they have learned the “proper” way to start a letter, which for Sheineh-Sheindl always involves thanking God that everyone is in good health. This is usually followed, however, by her writing that she or the children are ill. She also invariably signs off as Menachem-Mendl’s devoted wife, but this usually comes after a tirade against his foolishness and a demand that he end his speculations, stop ignoring his family, and come back to her. On the surface there is an attempt to maintain the forms of propriety and well-being, but underneath there is trouble and dissatisfaction.
Religion is notably absent from these letters. It is an absence brought to readers’ attention early on, when Menachem-Mendl notes that trading goes on in Odessa until the time when evening prayers are said in Kasrilevke. Menachem-Mendl seems too busy with business to attend to prayers and religion; business, in fact, seems to be his new religion, as well as a way to break free from his traditions. Also notable is the fact that Menachem-Mendl’s lodgings remind him of a jail. He is seeking freedom from the shtetl, but he seems to have found not freedom but a new sort of bondage, which includes perpetually avoiding the police, who might arrest him at any moment for living illegally in a city where Jews are forbidden to reside.
After his currency business fails, Menachem-Mendl moves to a new city, Yehupetz, a fictionalized version of Kiev. Sheineh-Sheindl becomes increasingly impatient, having expected him to return home after his first failure, and she begins to talk of her troubles at home. The author Hillel Halkin has suggested that Sheineh-Sheindl’s inclusion of more news from home may indicate that she subconsciously realizes that the only communication and intimacy possible with her husband will be through these letters. Also, since the news from home is usually negative, involving illness, death, broken engagements, fires, and bankruptcies, the total effect is of failure everywhere: Menachem-Mendl is a failure in the big city, and in the small town nothing goes right.
Bibliography
Butwin, Joseph, and Frances Butwin. Sholom Aleichem. Boston: Twayne, 1977.
Denman, Hugh. “Shalom Aleichem.” Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2d ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, in association with Keter, 2007.
Frieden, Ken. Classic Yiddish Fiction: Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem, and Peretz. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Gittleman, Sol. Sholom Aleichem: A Non-Critical Introduction. The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton, 1974.
Halkin, Hillel. “Introduction.” In The Letters of Menakhem-Mendl and Sheyne-Sheyndl and Motl, the Cantor’s Son, by Sholem Aleichem. Translated by Hillel Halkin. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002.
Halkin, Hillel. “Introduction.” In Tevye the Dairyman and The Railroad Stories, by Sholom Aleichem. Translated by Hillel Halkin. New York: Schocken Books, 1987.
Miron, Dan. The Image of the Shtetl, and Other Studies of Modern Jewish Imagination. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2000.