The song "Oyfn pripetchik" was written in the end of 19th century. It was included in the film "Schindler's List", during the short episode with the little girl in a red coat. If you've seen the film, you can understand why, for instance, it makes me feel my hair going white.

And the thing is, from this day on, I start learning Hebrew, so I will know the komets alef and the pasekh alef and stuff, and be able to cry my heart out one more time. Because, well, I can't.


When Tina was having a hard time, she remembered the song her mother had sung to her when she was little. It was always the same song, and she remembered the words pretty bad, but it would always make her cuddle up and cry a lot and then stand up, feeling reborn, with soft sadness in her heart.

Now she was really having a hard time. What seemed right to her was an outrage in her superiors' opinion, and all the consequences fell upon her head. She could do nothing, except for cuddling up with cocoa, songs or tears, whichever she felt like.

"Oyfn pripetchik brent a fayerl, un in shtub is heys..."

She had no idea what it meant but it made her suffer in a very sweet way.

"Un der rebbe lernt kleyne kinderlekh dem alefbeyz."

Or did she know something?

She hadn't been taught the language, so she couldn't know the meaning of every beautiful weird word of her lullaby, but she remembered something her mother had told her.

"The room is warm, and a teacher tells little children about the alphabet. It is, you know, our alphabet, not English. And he says, remember, this letter is komets alef (that is, an alef with a little sign under it, I'll show you), and it means: o. And he says, you will grow up and your lives can be difficult, but these letters can make you stronger, so remember them, remember: komets alef – o."

At this point, Tina's sobs were usually at their loudest. Then, she felt silent little by little and just cuddled, with a warm feeling of being supported and not alone dawning on her.

She had grown up, and her life could be difficult, but something was always there for her to make her strong again. And it wasn't necessary to know what a pripetchik was to remember that komets alef was o.


And now, a kind of funny detail: the text was actually reborn, too, because Word suddenly decided to delete all the text, gave me time to say goodbye to it, and then changed its mind and allowed me to have it back. Ffffuuu.