Rivkele Di Shabesdike - Rivkele the Sabbath Widow (Without Shabbath)
                                                               Music Pesakh Kaplan(1870-1943) Lyrics  Pesakh Kaplan(1870-1943)  
                                                                                                  Singer Chava Alberstein(Israel)

 
Pesach Kaplan was born in 1870 in the shtetl of Stavisk near Bialystok. His father was a cantor and a
ritual slaughterer, who was forced to travel from town to town to make a living.
Pesach would travel with him. He would be taught in different yeshivas until his family finally arrived in Warsaw. In Warsaw, Kaplan with the help of Talmudic study was introduced to the Haskalah;
He developed his love of the Jewish enlightenment, Hebrew language and literature. Kaplan moved to Bialystok in 1888 and immediately got involved in Jewish community affairs as a teacher, a journalist, a writer and much more. 
 In July 1941 Nazis occupied Bialystok and more than 5000 Jews were exterminated in the first few weeks. Nazis called  this the "Cleansing Action".
 Pesach Kaplan died at the age of 73 in the Bialystok, having witnessed the beginning liquidation of the Ghetto in  February of 1943.  Before his death, in response to the Aktion of July 1941, Pesack wrote his
moving song Rivkele Di Shabesdike, where he expressed both the pain and hope of the wives  and children whose husbands and fathers had been taken away and never to be returned.


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Yiddish
Rivkele di shabbesdicke, arbet in farbriq,
S'breyt a fodem tsu a fodem, Flekhtn oykh der shtrik,
Oy du getto finstere, doyert shoyn zo lang,
In dos harz azoy farklemt, tut mir azoy bang! 

Ir getrayer Hershele iz avek nishto,
Zint fin yenem Shabes on, zint fin yener shoah.
Iz fartroyert Rivkele, yommerts tog un nakht,
Un atsind baym ridele zitse zikh un trakht.

 Vu iz er mayn libinker? Leybter nok vu?
Hefker in a konzentrationlagger, arbet shver on ru?
Oy vi biter iz im dokh! finster iz im dokh!
Zint fin yenem shabbes on, zint fin yener shoah.

Oy vi biter iz im dokh! finster iz im dokh!
Zint fin yenem shabbes on, zint fin yener  shoah.

 Rivkele di  shabbesdicke, arbet in farbriq,
S'breyt a fodem tsu a fodem, Flekhtn oykh der  shtrik,
Oy du getto finstere, doyert shoyn zo lang,
In dos harz azoy farklemt, tut mir azoy bang!

English
Rivkele without Sabbath
Is working in the factory,
Twisting threads together,
Fashioning a length of rope.
 
Alas the somber  ghetto
Lasts too long
And, with a heavy heart,
I feel so sorry for her lot.
 
Her devoted son Herszele
Is gone, is no longer.
Since that Saturday,
Since that hour,
 
Rivkele is in mourning,
Crying day and night.
And now she sits at her spinning wheel
Bemused in deep thought.
 
Where is my beloved son?
Is he  alive somewhere?
Perhaps in a concentration camp,
He works hard without rest.
 
How bleak it must be for him there;
How bitter it is for her here,
Since that Saturday,
Since that hour….