THE Polish Jewish folk motif and figure of Simkhe Plakhte deserves closer attention because of its wide popularity and extensive literary reworking among Polish Jews during the twentieth century. The putative folk tale of Simkhe Plakhte projects a character drawn from the shtetl underclass who not only subverts the established social order of the traditional Jewish world, but also earns respect from the non-Jewish ruling class of the old Polish Commonwealth. While the tale contains maskilic elements of anti-hasidic satire, it is also a conscious expression of Jewish fantasy and wish-fulfilment, reflecting a specific Polish Jewish milieu in the nineteenth century. These elements go far towards explaining the wide interest this material has sustained.

The basic narrative elements of the Simkhe Plakhte tale are the following: Simkhe Plakhte (simkhe, joyful time; plakhte, homespun or coarse cloth), a bachelor, is an amiable water-carrier who occupies the lowest rung on the traditional Polish Jewish social ladder. Urged to marry an orphan like himself by the shtetl elite, Simkhe finds domestic bliss and in consequence refuses to remain a watercarrier any longer. Looking for an easier way to earn a better living, he decides that, even though he is illiterate, his best option is to become a rabbi. Dressed in traditional rabbinical garments, Simkhe enters the woods to pray. There he encounters a passing Polish nobleman in search of his favourite horse, which has gone missing, and in response to the nobleman's enquiries Simkhe indicates that the horse can be found on the other side of the forest. The Polish aristocrat gallops off, finds his horse, and in gratitude returns to the shtetl to reward this Jewish miracle-worker. The shtetl knows of no such person, but the Polish lord insists; Simkhe Plakhte is finally brought forward, and the nobleman, declaring him to be a vunder rebbe (tsadik, hasidic wonder worker) honours him with riches.

This core tale is elaborated but not reshaped in several literary reworkings. Both the chapbook entitled Simkhe plakhte by Yankev Morgenshtern (1820–90) and the novel of the same name by Y. Y. Trunk (1887–1961) add a second major episode to this core, in which Simkhe Plakhte solves the mysterious theft of the Polish nobleman's treasure chest containing the parchment scroll setting out his family's pedigree, as well as a final episode in which the king of Poland himself comes to recognize Simkhe Plakhte's holy genius.