The Wise Men of Chelm (Yiddish: Khelemer khakhomim) are dumb Jewish residents of the Polish city of Chełm, a butt of Jewish jokes, similar to other towns of fools: the English Wise Men of Gotham, German Schildbürger, Greek residents of Abdera, or Finnish residents of the fictional town of Hymylä. Since at least 14th century Chełm had a considerable population of Jews. [1]
Many of the Chelmer jokes are about silly solutions to problems. Some of these solutions display "foolish wisdom" (reaching the correct answer by the wrong train of reasoning), while others are simply wrong.[2] Some Chełm stories emulate the interpretive process of Midrash and the Talmudic style of argumentation,[3] and continue the dialogue between rabbinic texts and their manifestation in the daily arena.[4][5] The seemingly tangential questioning that is typical of the Chełm Jewish Council can be interpreted as a comedic hint at the vastness of Talmudic literature. The combination of paralleled argumentation and linguistic commonality allows the Jewish textual tradition, namely Talmudic, to shine through Chełm folklore.[6]
One Jewish Chelmer bought a fish on Friday in order to cook it for Sabbath. He put the live fish underneath his coat and the fish slapped his face with its tail. He went to the Chełm court with a complaint against the fish and the court sentenced the fish to death by drowning.
^Edward Portnoy, Wise Men of Chelm, The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
^Itzik Nakhmen Gottesman (2003). Defining the Yiddish nation: the Jewish folklorists of Poland. Wayne State University Press. pp. 13, 49, 64–65. ISBN 978-0-8143-2669-5. Retrieved 29 September 2011.
^Rogovin, Or (2009). "Chelm as Shtetl: Y. Y. Trunk's Khelemer Khakhomim". Prooftexts. 29 (2): 242–272. doi:10.2979/pft.2009.29.2.242. JSTOR 10.2979/pft.2009.29.2.242. S2CID 163047588.
^Krakowski, Stefan; Kalish, Aryeh-Leib (2007). "Chelm". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 4 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. pp. 588–589. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4 – via Gale Virtual Reference Library.
^Herr, Moshe David (2007). "Midrash". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 14 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. pp. 182–185. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4 – via Gale Virtual Reference Library.
^Harshav, Benjamin. The Meaning of Yiddish United States of America: University of California Press, 1990. 112. Print.
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