Only Yesterday (48 page)
comprehensible, but really aren’t. In spite of yourself, you cannot maintain the formulation as it is and you have to correct it.
Hemdat took Schimmelmann’s hands and said to him, Dear Doctor, you may have heard the name of Hirsh Mendel Pineles. All his days that sage sat diligently over the books of our first sages. Once, on the Sabbath, after the meal, he sat and read as was his wont,
The Guide to the Perplexed
, and his father-in-law sat and read a book by some preacher. Said his father-in-law, Come and see how sweet are the words of this preacher. Hirsh Mendel looked at the preacher’s book and immediately removed his eyes from it. Said his father-in-law, What do you say? Said he, Today is the Sabbath and we shouldn’t speak frivolous words. When the Sabbath was over, after the Havdalah blessings, his father-in-law said to him, And now, what do you reply to me? Pineles took a piece of chalk and opened that preacher’s book. That Sabbath was the Sabbath of the Torah portion that begins, Then Judah came near unto him. The preachers raised a few questions about that portion. One question why is it written
came near
and not “neared,” and they said in the Talmud, A teacher should always teach his pupil succinctly. Pineles wrote, “neared” on the slate. A second question, since they said that a teacher should al-ways teach the short way, why is it written
unto him
and not ‘to him.’ Pineles wrote on the slate, ‘to him.’ Third question, since the Torah prefers the long way, why did it change here and write Judah, and not ‘Judah the
lion’s whelp
,’ as Jacob called his son in the Torah portion that begins, And it came to pass after these things. Pineles wrote on the slate, ‘Judah the lion’s whelp.’ Fourth question, Why is it written ‘he said’ and not ‘he had spoken,’ as we find later on in
Let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word,
for he spoke harsh things to him. Pineles wrote on his slate, ‘speak.’ Fifth question, Why did Judah choose to soothe Joseph with ‘Pray my lord,’ for didn’t we find Our Teacher Moses, who said
O my Lord, I am not eloquent
, which means that ‘pray’ is used by someone who is not used to speaking, and here we see that he speaks at length. And the Ramban of blessed memory was already amazed in his commentary at the length of Judah’s speech. So, he should have written ‘please,’ which is a synonym of ‘pray’; indeed, the Onkelos translation says in both cases, ‘if you
please.’ And if you conclude that it was nice here to write ‘will you please,’ for they said in the Talmud
that the last expression alone is regarded
. After Pineles wrote the whole verse as the preacher explained it, he read, Neared to him Judah the lion’s whelp and spoke please,
etc.
Said Hirsh Mendel to his father-in-law, Dear father-in- law, what’s nicer, the language of Our Teacher Moses or the language of the preacher. Doctor Schimmelmann took his hand out of Hem-dat’s and said, I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Said Hemdat, Whose language does Your Honor not understand, the language of the preacher or the language of Our Teacher Moses?
Said Sonya, Will Doctor Schimmelmann have an ice cream with us? Said Doctor Schimmelmann, I really came to drink something hot, but if the lady wants, I am willing to eat ice cream. So, you’re not Mr. Rabinovitch and you’re not Mr. Mittelman? Then, who are you? I’m Yarkoni. Schimmelmann rubbed his hands and said, Ah, ah, ah, obviously, obviously, of course you’re Yarkoni. When did you come back, Mr. Yarkoni? Said Yarkoni, I came yesterday, Doctor, and already I am sitting in your presence. Said Sonya, You taught your tongue to speak politely. Said Schimmelmann, I assume Mr. Yarkoni’s words come from the heart. So, let us have some ice cream. Oh dear, these mosquitoes. If a person wants to sit quietly, a mosquito jumps on him and stings him. Said Sonya, I heard that Jacob Rachnitz found some seaweed that keeps off the mosquitoes. Said Schimmelmann, That still needs to be clarified. Here’s Tamara. What happened to little Tamara that she’s so sad? Where is Yael? Yael Hayyot was about to leave, when Shammai got up to accompany her.
Hemdat and Shammai went to accompany Yael and Isaac and Yarkoni accompanied Sonya. After Isaac parted from Yarkoni, he said to himself, Apparently I finished all my business with Sonya. Yet Isaac’s joy was only short-lived, for if he had settled his account with Sonya, with Rabinovitch he hadn’t settled. A hundred times he said to himself, Rabinovitch has already taken his mind off her, and he doesn’t care about anything. But Isaac wasn’t satisfied. He started trembling and he started sweating like someone in the grip of malaria. But this wasn’t malaria, but the sweat of shame covered him and remorse racked his body.
Delays Isaac in Jaffa
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I
When Isaac opened his eyes he said to himself, Well, here I am in Jaffa, in this inn where I stayed the day I ascended to the Land of Is-rael, though its owners have changed, and I too have changed a lit-tle, and yet here I am again in this very same inn where I stayed the day I ascended to the Land. This matter, that he had come upon the same inn and so forth, seemed to warrant examination. But since he didn’t know what the matter was, he repeated the words, perhaps this way he might comprehend it.
His sleep didn’t open his bones, and he still was as tired as when he lay down to sleep, for he had sat eight hours crowded in a cart and all night long he hadn’t tasted sleep, and when he got to Jaffa, he had trouble finding an inn, and when he did find an inn he ran around until the day passed and went to Sonya’s place and sat with her until after midnight, something he wasn’t used to doing in Jerusalem, for if he went to bed late, he caught up with his sleep the next night.
He stayed in bed and started thinking about the events that had happened to him the night before. Everything went well, Isaac said aloud. But his voice wasn’t nice. He stretched his hands in front of him and asked, Why did I come down to Jaffa? Isaac knew very well why he had come down to Jaffa, to get things straight with Sonya, so he would be a free man and ready for Shifra. And in that he had succeeded very easily. And even though he should have been glad that he separated from Sonya without any difficulty, his mood was spoiled, for she regarded him as so unimportant, that she separated from him without a murmur.
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He lay and examined her words in detail, the ones she said last night in her room and the ones she said afterward as they walked with Yarkoni and the ones she said in the coffeehouse. Like that skein that drops out of your hands and all the threads scatter and you have to wear yourself out to get them back into a skein, so Isaac wore himself out over the words until he came back to the beginning of the matter. And none of the words soothed the offended soul. He threw the blanket off and jumped out of bed. He put on his few clothes and thrust his feet into his sandals, picked up a towel and went to the sea.
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Isaac went down to Jaffa to talk with Sonya, and now that he had talked with her, he could go back to Jerusalem. But people like Isaac, if they make such a long trip from Jerusalem to Jaffa, are not wont to return immediately, and even if they intend to return immediately, they find excuses and they tarry. That year was a drought year and Jerusalem, which drinks cistern water, drinks water with measure, and needless to say, doesn’t bathe very much. And now that he had come to Jaffa, he wanted to bathe in the sea.
Isaac remained at the inn. Since his relations with Sonya were over, why did he need a private room? The owner of that hotel didn’t rent it as a hotel, but used it for himself and his family, and since there were extra rooms there, he rented out two or three rooms. And since he didn’t get his livelihood from them, he didn’t charge much for his rooms and a person like Isaac, whose funds were limited, could live there. And there was another advantage there, that the hotel owner, who hadn’t come to the Land of Israel because of Zionism, saw himself as a foreigner and all the people of the Land of Israel as natives, and therefore he made a special effort for every guest. There was another advantage there, that the house was close to the sea, and if you wanted you could bathe right after getting up and eat right after bathing and sleep right after eating.
Even though Isaac was idle, he wasn’t bored. If you bathe in the sea and don’t need to work, your days pass and you don’t feel them passing, for bathing in the sea brings fatigue, and fatigue needs rest. All the days that Isaac was in the Land of Israel, he had never
Delays Isaac in Jaffa
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seen better days than those days he spent in Jaffa. The roar of the waves of the sea sweetened his sleep at night, and during the day his limbs dozed off by themselves. When he has slept his fill and eaten his fill, he goes off to Sweet Foot. He sits with him for an hour or two, looks at what he has done and hears tales of his deeds. One story evolves into another story and the next story into another story, and every story gives birth to other stories. There are people who could live as long as Methuselah, and nothing would happen in their lives. When Sweet Foot surveys himself, his whole life is a chain of events. Sweet Foot doesn’t make up things, but his stories are chron—
icles of his eyes, that is, he sees and tells what he sees. Just as he tells about human beings, so he tells about his dogs. About the dog he had and about the dog he has and about the dog who wandered by between the two of them. The one he had was a gadabout. Once he went out and didn’t come back. Later, he came back, wounded and bleeding. He gave him bread with milk and healed his wounds. After he recovered, he told him, A gadabout you are, go and get yourself other masters. And the one he has is a thief, but he recognizes his transgression and accepts his punishment and doesn’t get angry. And the one between them, what about him? Once a man passed by, the dog recognized him as his first master, and ran after him. A few days later, the man encountered Sweet Foot, and said to him, Your dog came to me. Said Sweet Foot, If he came to you, let him stay with you. But the man said, I don’t want him. Said Sweet Foot, I don’t want him either. Why? Because if he left me and went to you, it means he doesn’t find satisfaction in my house, and a dog who leaves his masters and goes off, you mustn’t bring him back. Now that he is living with you, he misses me, afterward, when he stays with me, he’ll miss you. So the man said to him, If so, who’s guarding your house? Said Sweet Foot, If there’s no one to call out bow-wow here, the bur-glars don’t notice my hut and don’t come to burgle.
Sweet Foot speaks Yiddish with his dogs, not Russian and not Hebrew. Not Russian so that the dog won’t understand the language of the intellectual girls who sometimes take a walk by his hut. Not Hebrew because of the students of the Hebrew Gymnasium. So the dog won’t get too friendly with them, for Sweet Foot is angry with the
kids of the Hebrew schools, who go out with a big fuss on the fifteenth day of the month of Shevat and plant saplings and don’t take care of them afterward, don’t water them, and don’t hoe around them and abandon them and they wither. And why isn’t he angry with the teachers? The teachers are supposed to deliver speeches and speeches they do deliver.
Sweet Foot welcomed Isaac as if he had parted from him just an hour ago and didn’t ask him where he had been all those days. Just as he doesn’t get angry if you come to him, so he doesn’t get angry if you don’t come to him. As he spoke, he told that he was in Jerusalem, too, that he went to visit his father and ask him for his tools. But his father didn’t give them to him so that he wouldn’t do profane work with them. After Father worked in the great synagogue in Jerusalem, he has guarded his tools from all profane work. But a person doesn’t live forever, and after a hundred and twenty years, they’ll get his tools. But Father says, in the winter, pilgrims come from Russia and when they go to Jordan and to the Dead Sea, he’ll go with them and bring his tools to the Dead Sea. Two months Sweet Foot spent in Jerusalem and there wasn’t a place he hadn’t been. He walked mostly in the vaulted markets among the perfume vendors and the goldsmiths, and from there he went to the Western Wall. Once he stayed there until midnight. The Bratslav Hasids came to lament the destruction. They gave him a pamphlet and told him, Here you find what you need for your soul. He put the pamphlet in his pocket. That night in his dream he saw an orchard full of fragrant trees. He wanted to enter the orchard but they didn’t let him. The owner of the orchard peered at him, called him Rabbi, held out his hand to him, and brought him in. The next day, he went to the Western Wall. The Bratslav Hasids asked him, Did you look at our Rebbe’s book? He told them, I didn’t look at it. Said they, Why? Said he, I don’t know. Said they, Your face is shining, what happened to you? He told them, Nothing happened to me. Said they, Something did. He remembered his dream and told them. Said they, Blessed are you who were granted the right to see our Rebbe in a dream. They asked him how our Rebbe was at that time. He told them. Said they, That’s it, that’s it.
Over a Cup of Tea
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One day, Isaac found Hemdat sitting at Sweet Foot’s place. Hemdat doesn’t have anything to do and doesn’t do anything. As long as he was Outside the Land and his heart was in the Land of Israel, he composed poems; now that he lives in the Land of Israel, what shall he do? Would he compose poems about the longings he once had?
But that is not why he was idle, but because if he would write, it seemed to him that this thing he wants to write would be his final work, and he was afraid he would die. As we were scared in our child-hood, when we came to the saying of the Tanna, and repent one day before you die, for we were scared that that day was our last day and we wouldn’t have time to repent.
Hemdat and Isaac are the same age, and should have been conscripted into the army. They slipped away and ascended to the Land of Israel on one and the same day in two different ships. Hem-dat was friendly to Isaac, even though he wasn’t comfortable with the craft Isaac practiced, for there is something misleading in it, since painters are wont to embellish ugly things.
Sweet Foot doesn’t talk to two people at the same time, for talking to two is like talking to many, and talking to many is like orat-ing, and there is no lack of orators in Jaffa. And since Hemdat and Isaac are both here, Sweet Foot withdraws from them and applies himself to his work.
When they were alone, Hemdat asked Isaac, What news do you hear from there? (From there means from Galicia), and his eyes became misty like a person remembering a beloved place. Isaac wasn’t able to tell him a thing. Hemdat took him and said, Let’s take
I
397a walk. They walked in the sand, the sand of Jaffa that makes you stumble. Isaac, who was used to the ground of Jerusalem was amazed that he found his footing in that sand. By the time you’ve extracted one foot, the other foot sinks in the sand. Hemdat, who was used to Jaffa, walked on the sand as if he were walking on a carpet.
Hemdat still lived in Neve Tsedek and intended to invite Isaac to his place for a cup of coffee. Before he could invite him, they came to the inn of Jacob Malkhov. Said Hemdat to Isaac, If you want, let’s go in.
Jacob Malkhov was a ChaBaD Hasid and something of a writer. A day when an article of his was published in
Havatselet
was a good day for him, for a lot of readers read his articles and he was one who contributed something to many. Because his voice was hoarse, he chose to live in Jaffa, not in Hebron and not in Jerusalem, for the sea is good for the throat. Jaffa wasn’t counted as one of the holy cities and its inhabitants don’t receive the Distribution. But a Jew has to support his wife and children, so he made himself an inn. Three rooms he had, a dining room and a living room and a room for himself and his family. And when there are a lot of summer guests, he spreads a mat in the courtyard and shifts his apartment there and rents out his room to the bathers from Jerusalem.His house was fit to be an inn for the members of the Old Yishuv, but it was occupied by our comrades who ran away from the noise of the hotels of Levi Isaac and Zussman where they gather every night and hold assemblies. But it was to Malkhov’s credit that he took pains with his guests and asked nothing in payment except the little bit allowed us by the Torah and he gave them healthy food, for every day is destined for salvation, and when the Holy-One-Blessed-Be-He returns the children of Israel to their home, all the children of Israel will repent, and Malkhov gives them good food so they will have strength to repent. And when Malkhov gets excited about his generation that was blessed to settle here in the Chosen Land and acts here as if it were living in the lands of the Gentiles, he sings a beautiful, sad tune, like a teacher teaching the children, and says, Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Sometimes he says HASHEM, and sometimes he says the Lord. And just as
he gets excited about his generation, so he marvels at the patience of the Holy-One-Blessed-Be-He Who sees their deeds and is silent.
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When Hemdat and Isaac came, there weren’t any guests there, ex-cept for one old man whose old age wasn’t obvious either from his cinnamon-colored beard or from his movements. But his goodheartedness and agility were obvious. A black felt hat was on his head and his clothes were white cloth, not short and not long, like the clothes of many simple pious people in Jaffa, who wear light white cloth clothes on hot days.
That old man was sitting there drinking tea. He drank one cup and paid and said a blessing, and asked for another cup and paid. When he stood up to leave, he saw Hemdat and asked about his well-being. Said Hemdat, In your well-being is my well-being. Said the old man, That is the finest blessing of all blessings, that a Jew makes his well-being depend on the well-being of his fellow Jew. And that Jew, who is he? Said Hemdat, It is my comrade who came to bathe in the sea. Said the old man to Isaac, You do well, my friend, the wa-ters of the sea are healing. Are you worried about your limbs, my friend? Said Jacob Malkhov, He’s worried about his loins. The old man shook his head in grief and said, May HASHEM send you full healing. Said Jacob Malkhov, A pile of Dinars he has loaded on his loins, so he’s worried about his loins. Jacob Malkhov laughed and the old man laughed.
When he left, Malkhov followed him out and said to him, Reb Zerakh, I’ve got a great matter for you. Said Reb Zerakh, My heart is not haughty. He said to him, It is a matter of charity, and our Sages of Blessed Memory said, great is charity that lengthens the days and years of a person and prepares the person for life in the World-To-Come. Said Reb Zerakh, How much do you want? Said Malkhov, Thousands on thousands and ten thousands on ten thousands, I want, but by the time all the coins are counted, a poor person can pass away, God Forbid, and so I am satisfied for the time being with one Bishlik. Reb Zerakh took out his purse and gave him. Malkhov took the coins and wanted to put them in his pocket. Reb Zerakh said
to him, Everyone who receives coins has to count them. Said Malkhov, You can count on Reb Zerakh, who knows how to count coins. Reb Zerakh said to him, Nevertheless. Malkhov counted and found a Bishlik missing a Matlik. Reb Zerakh said to him, One Mat-lik I deducted for the charity of Rachel Leah, my wife. Said Malkhov, And for the charity of Rachel Leah is the pauper deprived? Said Reb Zarakh, So that you won’t be angry at my Rachel Leah, I’ll give you the Matlik.
When Malkhov came back from Reb Zerakh, Hemdat asked him, How is that worrying about loins related to a pile of Dinars, and why did you two laugh so much? Said Malkhov, I referred to when Reb Zerakh bought this land where Neve Shalom was built, he gave the sellers a bill they call a check. They didn’t want to accept it, for in those days there was no bank in Jaffa. So he went up to Valero in Jerusalem and exchanged his bill for coins. He sewed himself a long pocket and put the Dinars in his pocket and fastened it to his loins so the highway robbers wouldn’t notice it. The highway robbers didn’t notice it, but his loins did notice it, until he bathed in the sea and was healed.
Isaac asked Hemdat, Who is that Reb Zerakh? He said to him, He’s Reb Zerakh Barnett, one of the builders of Meah Shearim, the Hundred Gates, in Jerusalem and one of the builders of Petach Tikva, the Opening of Hope, and one of the builders of Jaffa, the Belle of the Sea. When Reb Zerakh ascended to Jaffa, before he went to Petach Tikva, there weren’t a Minyan of Ashenazi Jews here, and after he was forced to leave Petach Tikva, for he saw that he couldn’t make a living from working the soil, he went to Jaffa and bought land and built houses and made a settlement. I’m amazed you’ve never heard of Reb Zerakh. Said Isaac, I heard and didn’t hear.
Even though Isaac had lived a long time in Jaffa, he didn’t know Reb Zerakh, for Reb Zerakh wasn’t distinguished in his out-ward appearance from the other people of Jaffa. And even though Isaac had often worked in the Barnett houses, he hadn’t asked who was this Barnett that a row of houses was named for him, just as he hadn’t asked about the other houses and streets to know who they were named for. And it may be that he hadn’t encountered him at
all, for in those days when Isaac lived in Jaffa, Reb Zerakh was Outside the Land. When Reb Zerakh saw that his money ran out and that he couldn’t make any more in Jaffa, he went back to London to his workshop. And because all his deeds were for the sake of the Land of Israel, his labor was blessed. And when his hands were filled with the grace of God, he returned to the Land of Israel and divided his money into three parts, one third to build houses, one third for He-ders, and one third for himself.
Said Malkhov, Generation of ingrates, who don’t know their builders. If not for Reb Zerakh and his comrades, you wouldn’t even have a place to spend the night here. You know Makheranski and Makherovitch and Makherson who came to the table after it was set, and eat what others have made for them, and take a fee for eating. And here Malkhov glared at Isaac and added,
Ha-Po’el Ha-Tsa’ir
has already shown their true faces, and those things should be said. And I will add this, you criticize the Distribution and say that all Distribution is distributed to the pockets of the offi Aside from the fact that that was exposed as a lie, those offi are raising their children for the Torah and staying in the Land of Israel, and the Land is being built. While those who get the new Distribution who take several times more—what does the Land get from them? They make congresses to travel outside the Land, and they go to theaters and circuses and en-rich the Gentiles with money that Jews saved up from their own mouths, and their children they send to schools Outside the Land and they become complete Gentiles. But let us not deprive sinners of any reward. When they become Goyim, they settle in the lands of the Gentiles and don’t return here and don’t pollute the Land like their fathers.Said Hemdat, I saw that Reb Zerakh drank and paid and drank and paid again. How come he doesn’t pay all at once? Said Malkhov, He thinks he’ll have enough with one glass, and when he isn’t satisfied with it, he drinks and pays again. While the whole world pays half a Matlik, he pays a whole Matlik, to make up for those who drink and don’t pay. And Reb Zerakh has a house full of delicacies, so why does he come to drink in my place, except that he has mercy on his wife not to bother her, for she is busy cooking for the Talmud scholars studying in the study house he built for them.
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As they are talking, a man with a big blond beard and beautiful blue eyes comes in. His movements are casual and his clothes are tattered, and he is timid in the presence of folks. This timidity isn’t because he values folks highly, but because he regards himself as humble. But beyond his timidity, you can detect his wisdom that didn’t overcome his naïveté. When Malkhov saw him, he called his daughter, Yetele, Yetele, hurry and bring a cup of tea for Brenner. Malkhov doesn’t usually use his daughter, but when Brenner came, he didn’t want to miss a single moment with him, so he called his daughter.
Malkhov and Brenner studied Torah from the same rabbi, Rabbi Heshel the scion of Gnessin, father of the writer Uri Nissan Gnessin, and because of that, there was a kind of camaraderie between them, even though they didn’t study at the same time, for Malkhov was older than Brenner. And even though Brenner studied and withdrew, that didn’t change Malkhov’s love for him, because of his learning and his piety which he excelled in when he was young, and because of his good nature and his generosity, and because even after he became a heretic, he didn’t try to attract others to heresy.
Brenner said to Hemdat, I passed by your room last night and saw a lamp lit. He said to him, Why didn’t you come in? Said he, Haven’t you made your room a kind of fetish? How will I come in? Hemdat was silent and pondered, Brenner’s words were right. If I hadn’t made my room into a fetish, would I be sitting here? I would sit in my room with this fellow from my homeland and we would tell each other things about Galicia. Said Hemdat to Brenner, And you’re content with your room? Said Brenner, I’m content. Hemdat said to him, Why, it’s dark. Said Brenner, I moved the table to the window. Said Hemdat, And the noise in the street deprives you of your repose. Said he, Hemdat, Hemdat, you still think repose is something that depends on outside, repose is something inside.
That whole time, Isaac didn’t take his eyes off that great writer, brother of the oppressed, whose clothing and everything else were no different from all the other simple workers. Brenner noticed him and said hello. Isaac returned his greeting and was stunned that he had said hello to Brenner and didn’t notice that he was Brenner.
