And on Yom Kippur it is sealed.How many shall pass away and how many shall be born,
Who shall live and who shall die,
Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not,Who shall perish by water and who by fire,Who by sword and who by wild beast, …and so forth. Leonard Cohen does it best.Sitting in his seat, the delicatessen owner begins to think and reflect on his pastrami serving contemporaries. Thanks to cultural assimilation, changing dietary habits, food trends, and economics, the entire Jewish delicatessen business has been in decline for much of the past half century. He contemplates his own struggle to keep his small deli alive, the one his father and grandfather ran, the one he told his kids not to go into, and he prays to himself:On the butcher paper it is written,
And at the register it is sealed.
How many delis shall close and how many shall open,
Who shall reach the end of his days (retiring to Florida with his kids running the shop) and who shall not (his deli bankrupted before his very eyes),
Who shall perish by debt and who by fire codes,
Who by rent and who by diet fads,
Who by kosher meat prices and who by health violations,
Who by hurricane and who by lawsuits,
Who by the younger generation moving away and who by a dying clientele,
Who shall have abundant Passover catering and whose oven shall break,
Who shall be at peace and who shall be pursued by the bank,
Who shall be at rest and who shall be tormented by kvetching customers,
Who shall be rated in Zagat’s and who shall be called “tired” by critics,
Who shall become rich and who shall be impoverished.
But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severe decree. Or failing that, maybe my son in law will buy me out.
Then the deli owner rises to say kaddish, the prayer of mourning for all those in the congregation with family members who died that year and in all the years previous. A list of names is read aloud, and the deli owner reflects on all those delis he has seen fall in recent times. And he prays for their souls, saying in Hebrew Alav Hashalom…Rest in Peace.Alav Hashalom Rascal House, Wolf’s, Reuben S’, the Brown Derby, Phil Gluckstern's, Arnold Reuben's, and Lou G. Siegel's. Alav Hashalom Maven’s, Pastrami n’ Things, Bernstein’s-on-Essex, Pastrami King, Stacks, and the Noshery.Alav Hashalom Breakers, Dash’s, Coleman’s, and Ulitsky Delicatessen, Koppel's, Lyon’s, Nate’s, Leavitt's, Wolfie’s, Posin’s, Hofberg’s, and Duke Zeibert’s.Alav Hashalom, Zager’s, Old Tyme Delicatessen, Rosen’s, Segal’s, Halpern’s, Abe’s, Plymouth Avenue Deli, Brochin’s, Solomon’s, Max C’s, Ben’s…and on and on and on for the thousands that were and the hundreds that remain.Alav Hashalom Jewish delicatessens. Rest in salty Peace. David Sax is the author of Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen. He also runs the blog savethedeli.com and works as a freelance journalist in New York.