"The lemela" Clara & Ben Schulman, 1906. See Notes.

The little boy is my father, Ben. Clara is about 3 and dad is about 6 in this picture. The year would have been 1906. The story behind this picture relates to the long-haired goat with them.

"My Bubbah, Brina, had had several pregnancies that ended in miscarriages and Zayda was anxious to have a family. There was a devout Jewish scholar in a nearby town who people consulted when they had life questions and problems. He was known as "der Soderer ger." The word "der" means "the" and the word "ger" means "person," I assume "Soderer" refers to the location or is the name of the town where he lived.

Anyway, Zayda went to consult with him about Bubbah's difficulty carrying a baby to term. He listened to Zayda, blessed him, and sent him back home with the following instructions:

Your wife will become pregnant again, it will be a boy and she will carry this baby to term. As soon as your son is born, go to the farmers around your village and find a baby goat or lamb that was born on the same day as your son. Buy that goat or lamb, take it home and raise it together with your son. When you shear the goat or lamb each year, give the wool to the poor people in your village, do not use it yourself. When your son becomes 13 and is ready for Bar Mitzvah, have the goat or lamb slaughtered and distribute all the meat to the poor people in your village.