At the center of Sholem Aleichem’s short story One Should Not Be Too Kind lies the history of a Jewish family. The main character, beginning his tale with reflections on kindness, insists that excessive kindness inevitably leads to misfortune. Through the example of his own life, he demonstrates how, after adopting an orphan and raising her as his own child, he ultimately finds himself deceived and deeply hurt.

The narrative emphasizes the tension between the traditional family and the moral transformations of a new era: on the one hand, concern for preserving family honor and kinship ties; on the other, the right of the younger generation to freedom of choice and love. The narrator’s story is imbued with irony, bitterness, and self-justification. Sholem Aleichem masterfully employs vivid, colloquial speech and stylistic nuances of everyday language to reveal the character’s inner contradictions and his inability to reconcile himself with changing realities.

This story is not only a chronicle of a family drama but also a subtle social novella, uncovering the moral norms characteristic of communal life as well as the intricate interplay of pride and kinship obligations. Ultimately, Sholem Aleichem shows that excessive “kindness” may turn not into a virtue, but into a personal tragedy.