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OYFN PRIPETSHIK (On the cooking stove) is a song written in Yiddish and composed
by M.M. WARSHAWSKY (1848--1907). Other spellings include Oyfn Pripetchik,
Oyfn Pripetchek,Oyfn Pripetchok, etc.[1]
The song is about a rabbi teaching his young students the alef bet. By the end of the 19th century it had become one of the most popular songs of the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe: as such it is a major musical memory of pre-Holocaust Europe.[2] The song is still used in Jewish kindergartens.
The fourth stanza introduces tragic pathos into the song: "When, children, you will grow older/You will understand/How many tears lie in these letters/And how much crying."[3] The lyrics hint at the traditional Yiddish saying that "the history of the Jews is written in tears".[3]
(WIKIPEDIA)

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