The Podolian Nights

A new translation of the classic tales based on Eastern European folk tradition and rabbinical wisdom, which continue to offer inspiration, advice and enjoyment

This collection of classic rabbinical tales, first composed in the early 19th century in what is now Ukraine, have offered spiritual guidance and wise advice to readers of all faiths for over 200 years.

Drawing equally on Yiddish folk stories and their author’s profound Talmudic scholarship, tales such as “The Lost Princess”, “The Fly and the Spider” and “The Clever Man and the Simple Man” still entrance readers with their originality, profundity, and verve. These 13 tales were composed as a way for their author, a rabbi, to communicate spiritual truths in an accessible way to his flock. They earned him an eminent reputation throughout the Eastern European Jewish community of his time, but their insights have touched readers beyond the boundaries of faith, time and place since they were first written down.

Some stories are as pithy and simple as a fable. Others, like “The Seven Beggars”, unspool layers of ingenious complexity, nesting stories within stories and teachings within teachings, drawing the reader on in a quest for spiritual understanding – and a desire to know how things turn out. Now appearing in a new translation, these stories remain deep sources of psychological wisdom, spiritual comfort, and narrative delight.