Only Yesterday (66 page)
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The day after that and the one after that, Isaac worked for Richard Wagner. When Wagner hired Isaac for one day he hired him to fin-ish the painting job the others had left. When he saw that Isaac did fine work, he brought him his other items. And so did his wife. Whenever she came to see, she brought him things to paint. Isaac spent two days, three days, four days. He painted the benches and the chairs and the tables in the garden and the garden shed and the boards of the screen and the posts the screen was stretched over to keep out the sun. When Wagner’s wife saw the garden and its things, she said, The Jew will spend another day with us and will repaint the furniture in the house. When Wagner saw that the furniture in the house that Isaac did was more handsome than it had been, he said, Let him spend another two days and repaint the whole house. Isaac spent another day and another day, and didn’t have any free time to look for a room, so he lived in the inn.
Shoel Hirshl returned from the trip across the Jordan. Business he didn’t do. But he didn’t regret the trip. For years he had been stuck in the city without air to breath and had just four cubits to walk from the inn to the study house and from the study house to the inn; and all of a sudden he has a chance to walk around in the Land and to see the Jordan and the Dead Sea and the land of Moab and the other places mentioned in the Torah. The Holy-One-Blessed-Be-He smiled upon the Children of Israel and gave us a delightsome, good, and spacious land, and for our great transgressions it was taken from us. But in His anger, He recalled His mercy, and gave us good Commandments. A son of Israel can go out and wander around in the Land to get wheat for Matzo and Lulavs for the holiday, and see some of the goodness we have had. Shoel Hirshl walks around in his inn like the First Adam after he was expelled from the Garden of Eden
and all kinds of sights he saw on his trip are romping before his eyes. Now he sees himself rising among the palm trees and now he sees himself cruising in a ship on the Dead Sea. And the heavy water is greenish-blue with the reflection of the green palm trees, with a greenish glow of silk hovering over them, evokes yearnings in his heart that he had never known before. He walks around and hums a sad tune, Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy en-dureth forever, and he tells everything he saw on the Jordan and on the Dead Sea and everywhere he went, and groans and says, And for our great transgressions, everything was taken out of our hands. And you, Isaac Effendi, said Shoel Hirshl to Isaac, you were in Jaffa. What’s new in Jaffa? I heard they’re building a city. Sixty houses all at once. You advise me to learn to be a scribe. I can earn more from Mezuzas than what I earned from Lulavs. Or maybe we’ll cross the Jordan and make ourselves a butter factory. They sell a Rotel of lambs’ milk there for two Matliks, and there are two fingers of fat on it, and in the morning it’s frozen and you have to cut it with a knife. After he finished his work at Wagner’s, Isaac went to Ephraim the plasterer. Isaac said to Ephraim, You’re involved with folks, maybe you know of a room for me? Ephraim took him to a woodcarver who was hard up for money and had to sublet a room.
A Chapter unto Itself
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That woodcarver was one of the remnants of artisans in Jerusalem, whose forefathers got fed up with the bread of idleness and learned to enjoy the labor of their hands. The people of Jerusalem saw their poverty and destitution, living in cramped and dreary apartments, and wearing tatters, and their children’s only food was one dried fig in the morning and a slice of bread and oil fried with onion in the evening, and all day long they sit in Heder or in Yeshiva without food, while from all corners of the Diaspora crowds and crowds come because of the Distribution, and even at the beginning, the Distribution wasn’t enough to provide one fourth of a person’s needs. Dis-cerning people started asking, How are the Children of Israel different from the Gentiles that live in the Land? For this Land wasn’t given to their forefathers, and now they live in the Land as we do, and yet they make a living from the produce of the Land, while we are mea-ger with poverty and shriveled with suffering. Is it not because of our sins that we eat the bread of sorrows, and no one raises a finger to im-prove his deeds? Some of them considered commerce and some considered working the land or finding a trade. But wherever a person turned, success turned away from him, for Jerusalem is solitary and forsaken and her events are meager and penurious. And these things are known, so there is no need to detail them.
Some philanthropists of the nation of the God of Abraham, led by the dignitary Reb Moses Montefiore, of blessed memory, saw the trouble of their brothers, and wanted to save them. They nego-tiated with the Sages and Rabbis of Jerusalem. There was a lot of advice and little action. A lot of money Montefiore invested in
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Jerusalem and a lot of money he scattered was lavished on the desti-tute. But giving money is an ephemeral salvation, money goes and trouble remains. For two things Montefiore won merit and brought merit to the community, for raising the prestige of Israel with the Gentiles and for building houses and neighborhoods in Jerusalem.
The name of Reb Moses Montefiore began ringing like a golden bell, and his good deeds won great fame throughout the Diaspora. And many who yearned to ascend to Jerusalem relied on the generosity of that dignitary and came.
Poverty from all over the whole world descended on Jerusalem and gave birth to a lot of troubles there. Some accepted their sufferings with love, and rejoiced their heart with Torah and prayer; and poverty drove some of them out of their mind and away from their Creator and they did all kinds of contemptible things, for resentment of the Lord of Hosts, for resentment of themselves, for money, for honor, for futile hatred, for belligerence. And sometimes they brought the Consuls into their quarrels, and gave Jerusalem a bad name among the Gentiles. Those who degenerated, degenerated, those who weren’t yet degenerate shrieked, O Heaven, where am I and what will happen to my sons? Will we ever get out of this abject poverty? Some considered returning Outside the Land or sending their children away, but they said, Was all the trouble our forefathers took to ascend to the Land of Israel only so their sons would return Outside the Land? They started reflecting that pun-ishments came only because of idlers, for idleness leads to boredom, and boredom leads to bad deeds, and as long as they sit idle, there is no solution. They tried to repair what had been broken by generations before them. They were unable to save themselves, for many obstacles were placed in the Holy City, and everyone who tried to act had a lot of idlers against him.
There were in Jerusalem some artisans, who engraved tomb-stones and carved seals. They knew how to draw and mold ceramics and make handsome objects. Some made holy instruments and rit-ual articles. Some knew how to write the whole Bible story of Haman on a grain of wheat, and some drew pictures for the Christians of Bethlehem to engrave on their chalices of black stone. And when
Jerusalem had to send a gift to the Kaiser, the heads of the Societies asked them to make splendid figures of silver and gold, wood and stone. And never did they receive pay, but did as the Torah teachers and prayer leaders in Jerusalem, who serve the community not for re-ward. Individuals began coming to them to study.
They heard about that in the Diaspora and were filled with joy that Jerusalem, which had been idle, had turned to work. They started reinforcing their spirit and promising them good things and established committees and associations to support the craftsmen in Jerusalem, and wrote articles about them. The sound of words was heard but no action was seen. But those who had tasted the taste of work didn’t let go of it. Before long, handsome and well-made figures came from their hands. But they found no profit from the products of their hands, for because of the poverty in Jerusalem, no one could buy himself an art object. And not only did they not see a blessing from their toil, but they became an example for the lazy, who said, You see them? They work like slaves and are starving like dogs.
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One craft that some Children of Israel practiced in Jerusalem was carving olive wood figures, bought as souvenirs by all the travelers who come to the Holy Land. This craft was mostly in the hands of the Children of Israel, and a German Christian buys from them and sells in the Land and Outside the Land. That Christian attained wealth and honor, but those who do the work are poor and wretched. They work like slaves and their master eats their wealth.
They practiced their craft in grief and suffering, in poverty and humiliation, lacking food, and they bowed their head under every single trouble, until their boss intended to lower their salary by a third. Then, some of them banded together and said, How long will we wear ourselves out for others while we barely make a living. Let’s make our own shop and sell our wares ourselves and share the profit. They wrote to some philanthropists of Israel to lend them money. The long expectation disappointed the artisans. The Holy-One- Blessed-Be-He advised them to help themselves. They borrowed money at interest and made themselves a workshop. Within three or
four years they paid the debt, principal and interest, and still had seven hundred Pounds Sterling in hand.
Some of the Christian artisans saw it and were jealous of them. One night, they sneaked into the workshop. They took all the portable tools and what wasn’t portable they burned down. The artisans were left with no tools and without anything. One Austrian Deputy Consul in Jerusalem took pity on them. He went to his fel-low consuls in Jerusalem and collected about twenty Pounds Sterling. The dignitaries of the House of Rothschild also sent a contri-bution of two hundred Francs. And the artisans went back to their work. One day, they recognized their tools in the hands of the thieves. They brought them to trial in the municipal court. The proceedings lasted about three months. The thieves, who came from distinguished families, were supported by their relatives and they inter-vened to pervert justice. But the leader of the artisans, Reb Haim Jacob, didn’t rest until he had brought them to trial before great dignitaries who came from Damascus. What did the thieves do? Not only had they damaged the property, but they also wanted to hurt the people. In those days, an Ishmaelite baby was lost. Witnesses came and testified that that Jew Jacob stole the baby and slaughtered him and brought his blood to the Rabbis for Passover. The royal guards came and beat Reb Haim and wounded him and dragged him off to prison. The leaders of the community gathered and went to the Pasha. The Pasha sent to search for the baby and they found him alive in the home of one of his relatives outside the city. They let Reb Haim Jacob out of prison, but he didn’t recover from the blows. Fear of the foes descended on him and he dropped his lawsuit, lest they slander him again and bring evil upon him. He became weak and the business declined because money had to be borrowed at eigh-teen percent interest, and the mortgaged merchandise was in the home of the lender. If a tourist came to buy an item and he didn’t have it—he went to the home of the lender. The lender didn’t want to give it to him unless he gave him money. The workshop was shut down and the artisans dispersed.
Sometime later, they made themselves a new company. They found agents in the Diaspora who bought from them on credit.
Some paid them back a little and some didn’t. They wrote to them. They replied from Diaspora, We didn’t succeed in selling the merchandise, send shipping charges and we’ll return it to you. They had no money to send. The merchandise sank in the hands of the agents and the artisans had neither merchandise nor money. They despaired of companies and agents and every one of them went back to acting on his own and sold to Christian shopowners, and the Christian shopowners sold them as items made in Bethlehem and Nazareth. Once that engraver where Isaac rented a room saw that they carved a cross on his figures and he didn’t want to sell his figures to the shopowners. He was hard pressed for money and needed to rent his workroom. Isaac saw the room and found it nice, and he saw the people of the house and found them decent. He paid them rent and went to live there.
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Isaac was mistaken neither about the room nor about the people of the house. The room was small but looked handsome, and the peo-ple of the house were good people, their spirit was humble, and their soul was meek and they looked kindly on all people, as is the wont of artisans of Jerusalem who enjoy what comes from the work of their hands and don’t ask for anything except bread to eat and raiment to put on and good teachers for their sons and suitable sons-in-law for their daughters.
Isaac lived in the woodcarver’s house like an artisan among his comrades. The landlord does his work inside and Isaac works outside. And since Isaac didn’t need his room during the day, the landlord got to work in it as he was accustomed. The landlord worked in the tenant’s room and was amazed that he took rent. Great are the works of HASHEM, from the place where He narrows, from there He expands. And His mercy is not yet done, Blessed-Be-He. When Isaac saw how the people of the house were crowded, he took a child into his room and made a bed for him on two chairs as he had learned in his father’s house at the time when his mother was alive. The child lorded it over his brothers for they slept on the ground and he lay on a bed, the child hugs Isaac and whispers in his ear, Isaac, I love you.
Isaac kisses his forehead and says, Good good, the main thing is for you to sleep well. Says the child to Isaac, I’m already sleeping, and he peeps between his eyelashes to see if Isaac sees that he isn’t sleeping. Meanwhile, sleep descends upon him and he dozes off, and when he wakes up in the morning he looks and wonders where Isaac is. Why, just a little while ago, he was hugging his neck.
Ever since the day Isaac first dwelt in the Land of Israel, he had never lived with others, aside from the first days when he wandered among his comrades’ places and afterward at the inn in Jaffa. All of a sudden he found himself living like a member of the family with members of the family. And more than that. Ever since the day he first dwelt in the Land of Israel, he had never played with a child, for most of our comrades in the Land were either single or didn’t have children. And now that he has come upon that child, the child endeared himself to Isaac and Isaac endeared himself to the child. Isaac amused himself with the boy and sat him on his lap as Yudele did with Vove, and recited a rhyme to him,
Av
is a father,
le’troakh
is to bother,
kedar
is a Tartar,
kadosh
is a martyr, and so on. The child sits and is amazed at the rhymes rolling out of Isaac’s mouth, and Isaac is amazed at the child, at how great is the wisdom of the little one, he grasps many words at once. Says Isaac to himself, If my brother Yudele was here, he would tell him more rhymes. Yudele is a poet and makes rhymes. But Isaac has another advantage that Yudele doesn’t have, for Isaac can draw, and he draws funny shapes for the child, like a dog holding a stick in his mouth, and all kinds of other amusing pictures.
