Cilibi Moise facts for kids
Cilibi Moise (born Froim Moise; 1812 – January 31, 1870) was a funny and wise man from Moldavia and Wallachia, which are now parts of Romania. He was a peddler, meaning he traveled around selling goods from a bundle. People remember him for his clever sayings and short, funny stories, called aphorisms and anecdotes. Even though his sayings were written down in Romanian, they are a big part of 19th-century Jewish humor in the area. Moise couldn't write well, so others wrote down his ideas. This made him a famous character in many stories.
Life Story
Cilibi Moise was born into the Jewish community in a town called Focşani. When he was a child, his family moved to Bucharest, where he lived most of his life. He became one of the "boccegii," which was the name for peddlers who carried their goods in bundles. His nickname, Cilibi, came from an old Turkish word, çelebi, which means "courteous" or "polite."
Moise traveled all over the Danubian Principalities, which were the regions that later became Romania. Because he met so many different people, he became very good at understanding them. He also loved to remember interesting phrases and sayings. These experiences helped him create his famous sayings. Some of his ideas even came from the Talmud, a collection of Jewish teachings. Since he could only write in Hebrew, he would tell his sayings to Romanians who could write. They would then print them. About 13 or 14 small books of his sayings were published this way.
Moise was a member of the Jewish community in Bucharest. He was good friends with their religious leader, called a Hakham, whose name was Moses Gaster. Gaster later wrote about their meetings. Cilibi Moise died when he was 58 years old from a sickness called typhus. He was buried in the Jewish section of the Filantropia Cemetery.
His Work and Impact
Cilibi Moise was known for his short, funny jokes. Here are some of his most famous ones:
- Cilibi Moise always says he has two houses near Saint George Church and two houses near Saint Demetrius Church. He lives in one of each. He would like to move into the others, but he cannot pay the rent.
- Cilibi Moise once felt very ashamed. Robbers broke into his house, but they found nothing to steal!
- For some years now, Cilibi Moise has been asking Poverty to leave his house, at least for a little while, just long enough for him to get dressed.
Many people thought Moise was a very important writer for both Romanian and Jewish-Romanian stories. A famous writer named Ion Luca Caragiale really liked his work. Caragiale said he grew up reading Moise's sayings. In the 1890s, Caragiale even helped share Moise's works in a newspaper called Epoca.
Literary historians, who study books and writers, also talked about Moise. George Călinescu and Tudor Vianu compared him to another writer named Anton Pann. Călinescu said Moise's style was "good old healthy humor." Vianu even compared him to Diogenes, an ancient Greek philosopher known for his simple life and sharp wit.
The first time Moise's sayings were collected and studied was in 1883 by Moses Schwarzfeld. His book was called Practica şi apropourile lui Cilibi Moise Vestitul din Ţara Românească. This means "The Practice and Themes of Wallachia's Cilibi Moise the Famous." Some of Moise's work was also included in a book published in 1996. This book featured Romanian-language Jewish literature from Moise all the way to a writer named Paul Celan.
