SHOYEL-GEDALYE (SAUL GEDALIAH) HARKAVY

SHOYEL-GEDALYE (SAUL GEDALIAH) HARKAVY (1858-February 6, 1943)

            He was born in Yeremichi, Byelorussia.  He was the author of a Yiddish-Hebrew religious text, Vehu shaul, barzel ḥad min divre kodesh beshir hashirim = Di gelihene hak, sharfe reyd fun heyligen shir hashirim tsu kritikiren amerikaner idishkayt (The applicable ax, sharp words from the holy Song of Songs to criticize American Judaism) (Boston, 1911), 111 pp., with a Hebrew-Yiddish preface.  In the book, the author cites verse after verse of the Song of Songs and explains them with sharp retorts to the American Jews for their lack of religious observance.  At the end of the book is a poem concerning a clock in Hebrew and in Yiddish: “What do you say to the [clock’s] hand in great anger…”; “The clock stops, the clock that always runs, quiet as a corpse.”  Further biographical details remain unknown.