No doubt everyone has worries—a Jew does not need to go looking for trouble. - Sholem Aleichem

The heart itself, and particularly the Jewish heart, is a violin: you pluck the strings, teasing out various, generally sad and gloomy songs

The sun gave light, but no warmth. Like a stepmother, as they say in Kasrilevke.

He would grab his fiddle and with one pass of his bow, just one mind you, the fiddle would begin to speak. What do I mean by “speak”? I mean literally, with words, with a tongue like, excuse the comparison, a living human being. Talking, arguing, singing mournfully in the Jewish fashion with such a wild cry from deep inside, from the very soul.