My Grandfather R. Nissan and My Grandmother Tsirli

1 The Cholera Epidemic in Lyady (5627/1866)

AZR opens with a description of the epidemic that struck Lyady: "In the year 5627 cholera broke out in our townlet and wrought terrible devastation." The town organized watches, folk remedies, and even a "cemetery wedding" (a folk custom for driving out the plague), in which Grandmother Tsirli played a prominent part.

2 The Death of R. Nissan: A Precise Dating

"On Simchat Torah 5627 a man fell ill, my grandfather R. Nissan, with the cholera… and on Isru Chag in the morning my grandfather died." AZR, "My Grandfather R. Nissan," "Chapters of Memoirs"; Project Ben-Yehuda.

3 The Character of R. Nissan

AZR describes his grandfather as one of the town's notables and a constant scholar: "He was one of the important men of the town. Once every three years he would complete the entire Talmud." The community chose him as a "good intercessor," and at his burial they placed in his hand a petition note to the "True Judge" to lift the plague. And before his death he blessed his grandson AZR with a simple, powerful humanistic blessing:

"Be a mensch, and then it will go well with you." Ibid., R. Nissan's deathbed blessing to his grandson.

This blessing, "be a mensch" ("heyeh adam"), echoes throughout AZR's moral work (see "Morality" and "Vegetarianism").

4 Grandmother Tsirli and the Father

Grandmother Tsirli emerges as an active public figure: "She collected the money for the wedding expenses, and she was the first to go out dancing beside the fresh graves" (at the cemetery wedding against the plague), consistent with her description elsewhere as a midwife and charity matron. AZR's father is also mentioned: that year he served in the burial society (chevra kadisha) and worked devotedly during the epidemic, "he did his work faithfully, he neither rested nor was still."