Only Yesterday (11 page)

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What happened to our comrades today happened to them tomorrow. Wherever they went to seek work they didn’t find it. Some rejected them out of pity and some rejected them because of something else. Out of pity, for, they said, how will a Jew exploit his brother Jew. Because of something else, since it was still the widespread opinion that a Jewish laborer is expensive and doesn’t accept authority. But both the former and the latter said, Most of the young laborers had kicked over the traces of Torah and the pious deeds of the religion, and it is

a good deed to keep them away, so that our sons won’t learn from their actions. If a farmer gave work to a Jewish laborer they saw him as a strange man. If a Jewish laborer worked for a Jew they saw him as privileged.

Isaac walked about in the Land of Israel, among the fields and vineyards of the Children of Israel. The fields make wheat and the vineyards make grapes. Both field and vineyard are full of Arabs, and the owner of the field or of the vineyard or his steward moves among them riding on his animal. He scolds them and jokes with them, and they accept his scolding with love and laugh with him at his jokes, and take a break to pray and to eat, and extend the eating and extend the praying. The Arabs know that the land won’t run away from under their feet. Unlike them, Isaac walks about like an idle person and doesn’t eat and doesn’t rejoice, for the money in his pocket has run out and he doesn’t have any work. Things were good for Isaac as long as he was in his hometown. Fields and vineyards he didn’t have there, but he wasn’t hungry. And if Exile is a disgrace there, he found some solace in loathing Exile and in anticipation of the Land. And when the people of his hometown made fun of him, they weren’t making fun out of hatred. And when they said to him, If you’re wasting your time, where will your food come from, he would answer, There in the Holy Land, there in the villages of our brothers, I will take up the plow and I shall know no care. Now that he lives in the Land of Israel and walks about in the village, no one says to him, Come to my vineyard, hoe my citrus grove, work with me in my field. Back in the hotel in Jaffa in his first days, Isaac sensed that everything wasn’t going well, but he made a distinction between city dwellers and village dwellers. Now he is forced to see that there is no difference between them, except that the former like to bring a person close for their benefit and the latter like to keep him at a distance for their benefit. Out of idleness and out of grief and out of lack of food, Isaac’s strength wore out and he got sick. One day, he was in bed with fever and one day he would look for work and not find it. At first, his pockets were full of Francs and Magidis and Bishliks; now he doesn’t even have a Matlik to buy quinine. Before he goes to bor-row a penny, they come to borrow from him.

As he walked about in the village, Isaac saw those inhabitants who had come to the Land emptyhanded and now own fields and vineyards and houses full of good things, not by virtue of observing the Torah and pious deeds, for the
Biluim
were free thinkers and their feet too are on the ground, but because they’re Russians and I’m from Galicia, and even the one small village the Galicians put up fell to rack and ruin. And there are people here who came from Russia and are also shriveling with hunger and idleness, but since he was concerned with his own sorrow, he didn’t pay heed to theirs. And as Isaac walked about in the village and saw fields of thorns, his heart screamed, What difference would it make to their owners to call on me to destroy the thorns. But no one called on Isaac to destroy his thorns. Isaac was dwelling with Rabinovitch and Rabinovitch’s comrades and ate what they ate and went hungry as they went hungry and dreamed with them of going up to the Galilee, for the people of the Galilee are not like the people of Judea. The people of Judea prefer the Arab laborer to the Hebrew laborer, even for tasks the Hebrew laborer does well, because his master can’t treat him as a slave. While the people of the Galilee accept Hebrew laborers and treat them like brothers. At first, the people of Judea did accept Hebrew laborers, especially since pruning and grafting demand talent and knowhow. When the Arabs learned those skills, they fired the Hebrew laborers and hired themselves Arabs, who subjugate their minds to the minds of their masters. And so our comrades dreamed of ascending to the Galilee, but since they didn’t have money for the trip, they stayed where they were and demeaned themselves at the farmers’ doors. At last, Isaac loaded his belongings on his shoulders and went to Jaffa.

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Isaac returned to Jaffa and went looking in all kinds of offices and departments and institutions, and found there a host of suffering and depressed and weary people standing and shivering with malaria, and an ink-stained secretary humming words to them that were hard to understand. And why didn’t Isaac go to the leaders of the Yishuv, after all the dignitaries of Galicia had given him letters of recommenda-tions to their comrades in the Land of Israel, but he knew by now that

they weren’t worth the damage to his shoes. And in fact, once he did go to one of them, a Mr. Makherovitch, whose speeches made the whole Land of Israel quake. He found him standing before a map of the Land of Israel with a delegate of an association of Zionists in Exile, showing him on the map some lands to buy and what can be done with them. Isaac was ashamed to disturb with his trivial business a man who was occupied with the most sublime matter. He stood and looked and was amazed and stunned. That wasn’t an il-lustrated postcard of a colony, but a map of the whole Land of Israel, and the one standing before the map acted as if the whole Land was at his disposal and he could distribute it as he liked to whomever he wanted. Mr. Makherovitch glanced over and saw Isaac. Isaac took out his letters and offered them to him. Makherovitch looked at them and said, Well, hmmm . . . , like a person who says, You’re impressed with them, believe me, there’s no point being impressed. And he didn’t ask Isaac anything and didn’t tell Isaac anything. From now on, Isaac wouldn’t go to any activist. Maybe some of them would give him good advice, but as he was seared by this one, he was wary of the embers of others.

Since he was unemployed and didn’t have anything to do, he went to the port. Ships are going and ships are coming. Porters and stevedores load and unload all kinds of wares whose like we have never seen. The whole port is humming. Merchants and agents, clerks and customs brokers are moving and shaking, and beverage sellers laden with jugs and cups tinkle their instruments and the smell of coffee bubbles up into Isaac’s guts. The Lord of Imagination takes hold of him and paints all kinds of imaginings before him. Isaac lifted his eyes and saw himself as if he had come here on business. By what right did he come here on business? Because a merchant who travels the seas hired him. They were traveling the seven seas to distant islands. A big storm came on the sea and capsized their ship. Isaac leaped into the sea and took his boss with him, and carried him on his back until they reached land. And his master took him home and told him, You saved me from death and I’ll save you from hunger. He immediately ordered his clerks to make a just account of all his property that he had left and divided it equally with him. And

that property that fell to Isaac’s lot was many times greater than the share of all the activists of the Yishuv put together.

Isaac walks about and the Lord of Imagination walks about with him. But miracles don’t happen to every person, especially not to a fellow like Isaac, who isn’t worth it to the Lord to do him a miracle even in a natural way. So Isaac returned from the port much more tired and exhausted than he had been before. He dragged his feet along the paving stones, crooked and broken as they were, and in the endless blazing sand, where your feet are roasted like meat on coals.

The Lord of Imagination left him because he failed to wear himself out with him in difficult places. Isaac saw before him a cave, one of those caves the first immigrants used to sleep in, for Jaffa was a ruin for many years and a person couldn’t find an apartment in Jaffa, and all those who ascended to Jerusalem to carve themselves a grave there would sleep in niches and caves, until they found a camel to ride up to the Holy City. Isaac betook himself to the cave to cool his weary soul from the heat and to sleep off the hunger a bit. But the hunger didn’t let him shut his eyes. So he lay there with his eyes wide open and said, How much can a person’s troubles darken his mind, until he fools himself and sees the imaginings of imagination. And since he wasn’t important to himself at that time, he dismissed his thoughts of himself. And since he dismissed himself from his mind, his heart became the home of thoughts for honest and naive people, like Reb Yudel Hasid his ancestor and his three virgin daughters, who, when they were over their heads in troubles, the Lord summoned up for them a cave and they found a treasure. Isaac raised his head slightly and peeped into the cave and said, But here there is no treasure. And he laughed at himself for expecing to find a purse of coins here or two or three pennies to buy him some bread. Needless to say that he didn’t find anything, but we do need to say that he was sad because he didn’t find anything, for he had no hope or expecta-tion of finding a penny in a natural way to buy him something to save his soul from hunger.

Work

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   May you never know such things, good friends. Isaac would have despaired if the Lord had not taken pity on him and brought relief to him from somewhere else. Once upon a time, he wandered around the city. He came to the German colony and went into the Baron’s garden to relax and he fell asleep. When he awoke, he saw an old man standing over him holding a green pot with a paintbrush in it. The old man told him, Take the tools and finish your work. The old man apparently hired laborers and mistook Isaac for one of them, or perhaps he saw that he had fallen asleep because of hunger. He took pity on him and gave him work so that he would be paid and buy his bread and not starve to death.
   

   Isaac took the tools and followed the old man. He showed him a fence to paint. Thus Isaac started working by chance. That work was easy and didn’t require any previous training. All he had to do was dip the brush in the paint and pass it over the fence pickets. In the evening, his employer paid him his fee of two Bishliks, and told him, When I see that you’re not a slacker, I’ll give you more.
   

   Who can describe Isaac’s joy? How many days and how many weeks had he vacillated about earning something for bread and tea, and suddenly two whole Bishliks fell into his hand all at once as wages for work, and on top of that, he was promised more tomorrow.
   

   Isaac bought himself bread and milk. He dipped his bread in the milk and ate, something he hadn’t done for days on end, when all he had to eat and drink was dry bread and water, and didn’t have an extra penny to buy tea. When he had eaten his fill, he stretched out on his bed to prepare for the morrow.
   

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   The Lord of Thoughts came to him and said, May you not come in vain tomorrow, when your employer finds out that you’re not a painter and fires you. And may this meal of yours not be the last of all your meals. Nevertheless, Isaac didn’t despair. Isaac said to himself, He who made me a miracle today and dropped two Bishliks in my hands all at once will make me a miracle tomorrow and I won’t starve to death. He raised the blanket and covered himself up to his neck. He shut his eyes and fell asleep.
   

   Pleasant was his sleep. From the day he had entered the Land, he hadn’t enjoyed sleep as much as that night. His bed absorbed him and was good to him. Even his regular enemies, the flies and mosquitoes, made peace with him and let him sleep.
   

   Isaac lay there until dawn. When it grew light, he began to fear that he would be late and his work would be given to someone else. He looked at the window and saw that the day was still at its start, and he knew he wouldn’t be late. He began to fear that his employer was one of the missionaries who are good to Jews to trap their soul. And he did right to fear, for it did happen to him in the neighborhood of the Germans, where there are several converts. For exiles from Russia once ascended to the Land of Israel and didn’t find anything to eat and were shriveling with hunger. The missionaries latched onto them to cure the sick and feed the hungry, and when they treated them to food and drink and medicine, they would also give them an ounce of their faith. Within a month or two they changed their religion and left the fold of Israel, for that is the art of the missionaries who cure the body and collect the soul. When Isaac pondered it, he stood up and put on his Tefillin and prayed with great devotion, and strengthened his belief in the God of Israel that He would not abandon him and not cast him away and would make his way straight before him and prepare him a livelihood in ways that are legitimate and not forbidden. After he finished his prayers, he recited the Thirteen Principles and the Chapter of Reverence for God. Then he dipped his hands and ate what was left over from the night before and went to the German neighborhood. And the old man welcomed him warmly and gave him work. And in the evening, he paid him three Bishliks and told him to come the next day. Isaac grasped his
   

   money like an amulet. Never in his life had money been so important to Isaac as those Bishliks he earned in the Land of Israel.
   

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   Even though Isaac hadn’t learned any skill, he was expert at many jobs, like most sons of the poor who fix and paint their furnishings by themselves, and thus teach themselves how to do any work. Especially Isaac, who was the oldest of his brothers and made them toys, like
   dreidls
   for Hanuka and rattles for Purim and bows for Lag B’Omer, and a Sukkah for the holiday of Sukkoth, and whatever had to be done, he did. Even the days when he helped the assistant cook on the ship stood him in good stead, for he learned from him how to hold a brush. Now that he had chanced upon the work of painting, he took care to do it well. The old man saw it and became fond of him. And when he finished his work, he took him to his neighbor, and when he finished his work there, he took him to another neighbor. If he didn’t find work today, he found work tomorrow. From now on, he was rid of the dread of hunger.
   

   Many stories were told about that old man. Some are legend and some are truth. And even the truth is like legend. They said about that old man that his father was a teacher of children in some city in Poland. And he too studied Torah but when his soul was not sated with the bread of Torah he went to seek some secular bread. He left his city for another city and that other city for another city, and wandered around from place to place until he came to the cities of Germany. He came to Germany and didn’t find anything to keep him alive. He was found by an old man from his hometown who had been stranded there in his youth while seeking his fortune. The old man pitied him and hired him to watch over the dead until they were laid to rest, and also to study a chapter of Mishna for the ascent of their soul. On top of that, he hired himself out to fast on public fast days for those who bought themselves out of the obligation. On top of that, he shoveled snow and swept the streets. And still he wasn’t rescued from hunger. He wandered around until he wound up in London, and expected the Jewish leaders to come to his aid. But before he got to the Jewish leaders, he fell into the hands of a vile lord of poverty
   

   who took him to the missionaries. They gave him bread to eat and clothes to wear. And his body became heavy and his soul light. And his body became dearer to him than his soul. He exchanged the light for the heavy and the pleasant for the unpleasant. The missionaries found him an easy job with some general. Later, the general was appointed minister of war in some state in Africa. He took his servant with him and made him his adjutant. Eventually the general died and the king appointed him minister of war in his place. All his life, that convert expected to return to the God of Israel, but one day he was busy with the war against the king’s enemies, and the next day he was busy marrying off his daughters, until he was busy and sunk in his error. Such is the skill of the Evil Instinct, when a man gets himself into a bad deal, he won’t let go of it until it ruins him. Later, he got sick and went to Europe to consult the physicians. The physicians told him, Don’t go back to Africa where it is hard to live, and don’t return to Europe where the chill is harmful, but ascend to the Land of Israel, where the climate is moderate. He came to Jaffa and built himself a big house and planted himself a fine citrus grove and expected to return to the God of Israel, but because of his daughters, whom he had married off to dignitaries of other nations, he delayed returning and didn’t return. If the faith hadn’t grown weak in that generation, he would have returned immediately and sanctified the Name of Heaven, but the Jews he chanced to meet were slack in per-forming pious deeds, and he was light about it. He thought to himself, Since I don’t go to church and I don’t kneel to the Cross, I’m like a Jew. He behaved like a Gentile and saw himself as a Jew. But there was one good thing about him, that he strengthened the Jews and let them earn their living. On that day he saw Isaac’s trouble. He took him and stood him on his feet.
   

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