1894:
Scene 1:
Begins with Cheder class: Where Rabbi/instructor is Reb Yaakov Charlap, who has to instruct distracted children in torah, hits the ones who don't pay attention and bemoans that this class of Cheder bokhers is nowhere near as committed as the classes which contained his children.
Scene 2:
Cut to four of Reb Yaakov's children, Shimon, Asher, Naftali, and Z'vulun smoking cigarettes with a copy of a Yiddish newspaper and juvenilely talking about the beginning of the Dreyfus case and how much the adults care.
Scene 3:
A pack of Russian shaget hoodlums advance on them, make fun of their ability to read, tell them these weird letters probably where they learn to turn Russians into mushrooms, when Shimon tries to defend them and talk back, he gets roughed up by the Russians while the other brothers run away "Your brothers are leaving you."
Scene 4:
Reuven and Levi are working for Jewish butcher in a barn. When Gad goes inside, Levi starts experiencing what's clearly a long series of hallucinations, and can't help imagining that the cows and chickens he slaughters are martyrs from Jewish history whom he is killing.
Scene 5:
Reuven goes inside to steal another piece of silverware from butcher, the overweight sickly wife clearly has a liking him, a candlestick falls out of his coat. He claims it was an accident and the wife willfully convinces herself that it's an accident and gives it to him as a present.
Scene 6:
Gad works for Jewish farmer who is dissatisfied with his work and hits him with his farm implement.
Scene 7:
Issachar works for a farming supplier and sees the poverty and starvatio in which the peasants live and gives them his wages for the day.
Scene 8:
Z'vulun goes to see a prostitute to whom he owes money, but charms her into another session which runs up his tab further.
Scene 9:
Judah meets with the girl next door he hopes to marry, she drops the surprise that her family is moving to Israel.
Scene 10:
Dina is pregnant, and is goes to a Jewish 'witch' who gives her a concoction to give her an abortion.
Scene 11:
Yosef goes to a gymnasium to be tutored by a goyisher instructor who practically orders him to leave Bransk and go into the wider world.
Scene 12:
Dan meets with the town Rebbe who is instructing him in advanced Gemara, the Rabbi tries to kiss him, it's clear that it's not the first time, Dan finally manages the nerve to confront him, the Rebbe breaks down crying about his 'weakness.'
Scene 13:
Asher ambushes one of the goyisher hoodlums who beat up his brother and beats him to a point the kid might be dead. Asher has to run away.
Naftali practices and drinks with klezmorim who talk about their rebellious pasts.
Longer Scene 15: Eleven of the twelve children gather because Reb Yaakov's final son, Benyamin, needs a bris. They do a l'chaim and do the bris, and for this bris, nobody is invited but the immediate family because soon they'll need a lot of money to get through all the weddings. Reb Yaakov tells the story of how this family came to be and his covenant with Hashem which allowed him twelve sons. Reb Yaakov explains that an angel appeared to him in a dream, and that so long as he named his children after the twelve tribes of Israel, Hashem would bless his house. Reb Yaakov has a rich twin brother in Warsaw who sends them money but notes in his speech that he wishes his brother was here for this day but they haven't seen each other in ten years because his wife doesn't like Reb Yaakov, who also limits the amount of money that their family gets to a pittance of what the sum should be. He tells them that after Shabbos, the shatkhan will be coming with matches for all of you. Very soon you will all be married and have kinder of your own, this is going to be a year of Simcheh. The brothers drink with Reb Yaakov. Reb Yaakov starts talking about the Dreyfus affair, but one reminds them that a Warsaw doctor brought by Yaakov's brother warned that he would endanger the health of the mother if they ever had another child. Just when the dancing is about to start comes into the room, Dinah enters to tell them that the mother just died, and it causes a bitter fight among the children with their father who said that Reb Yaakov endangered their mother. It becomes clear that Reb Yaakov concealed from them is that their mother has been sick all week. As they're yelling at each other, a letter arrives from Yaakov's sister-in-law that the brother in Warsaw died, their business is being repossessed and the payments must stop immediately. The family knows they must break apart.
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Scene 3:
Gad works for a Jewish farmer who beats him
Reuven works as servant for a butcher, steals the silverware, and lies about it.
Yosef goes to goyisher teacher to learn other subjects. Is ostracized by his brothers.
Dina is getting an abortion performed
Levi is schizophrenic who sees demons and angels,
Dan is an illui who must dodge advances from his Rabbi.
Judah longs for a beautiful teenaged girl, but her family is moving to Israel.
Zebulun is seeing a prostitute
Issachar works for farm supplier, is accused of cheating goyisher client.
Naftali practices and drinks with Klezmorim
Shimon is bullied by goyim
Asher fights back from goyim
Some kids learning about science and literature and history on the sly.
Overwhelming poverty around the family. Everyone is cold in the winter.
Some visiting prostitutes, some lusting after teenage yeshiva girls.
Background animal noises, noises of hooves and wagon wheels, rustling of wind and leaves.
An enormous, and extremely argumentative family - two thousand years of tension should be manifest in this family portrait.
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