Shabbat

Friday morning the town already recognized that the sabbath eve was coming and then the holy sabbath.  There was the clamor of the fishers in the market and the women with their baskets in hand who bought whatever they could for the sabbath.  The live fish were thrashed around in washtubs of water and enticed from a distance.  Efroym Neyzshu went among all four rows of the market and in all the Jewish lanes and held forth in a loud voice “In b-o-o-o-o-d a-ray-en!” [To the bath!].  In the evening, the shul-clapper went around over the town with his wooden hammer and rapped on the doors and windows of all the Jewish homes and shops and announced the coming shabes.