Yettele's Feathers

Yettele Babbeloski lived in a tiny room over the baker's shop in Ostrow, a town so small she could see the whole thing from her window. She had no children and her husband Mendel had died. She was a very nosy sort of person, always talking. When she got tired of addressing her walls and chairs, she went and talked to others. Now Tillie Schnitzele the dressmaker couldn't make a living, what with Yettele telling everyone she purposely made dresses too small. And no one would eat Goldie Pishkin's chicken soup any more, because Yettele had said she added sawdust to her matzah balls. Then she saw Yussel Farfel take an apple from the fruit stand and before long the story had spread that he stole a whole bag of apples. He nearly lost his job at the butcher's shop.Soon no one would talk to Yettele any more, so she was forced to see the rabbi with an especially interesting tidbit about Moishe Mushnik's shoe. "Some people might be hurt by your stories," he said."What harm can come from a word?" she asked. "Certainly no more harm than from a feather."Offering help, the rabbi advised his errant congregant to take a feather pillow, cut off its top, and bring it to him. But when she got outside with the pillow, the wind arose and grabbed the feathers, casting them about. She finally got hold of the near-empty pillow and arrived at the rabbi's door, covered in down."Go out and find all the feathers," he advised her next.The rabbi used the feathers, of course, to teach Yettele a lesson. You'll have to buy the book to find out exactly what that was. Based on a story told by Rabbi Dennis Math, this tale amuses children. Parents should be happy with it too. Alyssa A. Lappen