The Wise Man of Kovno

Yakob, the Chokham (Wise Man) of Kovno, had been illiterate as a child and was considered stupid by his teacher and peers, but he learned to read and write, and eventually formed Koloolos, a small quasi-Chasidic sect.

Yakob’s great grandson Tevyeh Kavner, the unorthodox Koloolos Rebbe, needs a wife for his son, the overgrown Shlomo. It’s a big ask, given that Shlomo is a schlob and a shlemiel. But with a bit of subterfuge, and after years of hard work, he finds a true ‘woman of worth’, of whom his son is nowhere near worthy.

This is their story.