Cilibi Moise

Born into the Jewish community in Focşani, Moise lived much of his life in Bucharest, where his family moved when he was a child.[2] In time, he became one of the boccegii (peddlers who carried their merchandise in bundles).[3] His moniker Cilibi originated with the Ottoman Turkish word çelebi, meaning "courteous".[4]

Moise traveled throughout the Danubian Principalities, and his experience in assessing people's characters, as well as his interest in memorizing catchphrases, contributed to his literary career.[2] Part of his musings originated in the Talmud.[4] Unable to spell in anything but the Hebrew alphabet, he dictated his sayings to literate Romanians and handed them down to be printed.[2] In all, 13 or 14 brochures were published in this way.[2]

Moise was a member of the Jewish congregation in Bucharest, and was close to its Hakham, Moses Gaster – Gaster was to recall their meetings in his writings.[4] Moise died of typhus at the age of 58, and was buried at the Filantropia Cemetery (in the Jewish section).[2]

The Saint George Church in Bucharest (1837 print)

Some of his most remembered one-line jokes include:

At all times, Cilibi Moise has two houses near Saint George Church and two houses near Saint Demetrius Church; in one of each he lives, and in the others he would like to move, but has no means to pay the rent.[5]

Cilibi Moise suffered a great shame – his house was visited by robbers who found nothing to steal.[5]

For a few years now, Cilibi Moise has been begging Poverty to leave his house, at the very least for as long as it takes him to get dressed.[5]

Moise was regarded by many as an important contributor to both Romanian and Jewish-Romanian literature. Influential dramatist and short story author Ion Luca Caragiale admired his work, and especially the cohesion of his ideas.[2][6] Caragiale confessed that he grew up reading Moise, and, during the 1890s, promoted his works in the journal Epoca (of which he was coeditor).[6]

Literary historians George Călinescu[2][5] and Tudor Vianu[7] both cited Moise as a parallel to the Ottoman-born Wallachian writer Anton Pann. Călinescu referred to his style as "good old healthy humor",[5] while Vianu likened him to Diogenes.[7]

Moise's sayings were first collected and studied by Moses Schwarzfeld in 1883: Schwartzfeld's book was printed in Craiova as Practica şi apropourile lui Cilibi Moise Vestitul din Ţara Românească ("The Practice and Themes of Wallachia's Cilibi Moise the Famous").[8] Samples of Moise's work formed the first part of a 1996 anthology, which listed Romanian-language Jewish literature from him to Paul Celan; the work, published by Editura Hasefer, was edited by Ţicu Goldstein (De la Cilibi Moise la Paul Celan. Antologie din operele scriitorilor evrei de limba română).