Two Scholars Who Were in Our Town and Other Novellas (14 page)

It is the custom among the Armenians, if one of them should smite and kill another, for the murderer to pay three hundred and sixty-five gold dinars corresponding to the three hundred and sixty-five veins and sinews of the human body; but they cannot do anything to Israel, because they were overcome long ago by Joshua.

After the men of good heart had refreshed themselves from the journey, they entered the Great Synagogue, which was the one that school children had found hidden in the hill and had cleaned out. There the
Baal Shem Tov of blessed memory used to hide in an attic to study Kabbalah; and there his soul had been exalted unto heaven. Prayers said in the Great Synagogue are never in danger of idolatry, but all of them reach the Gates of Mercy entire.

There the men of good heart prayed that they might go up to the Land in peace and not be harmed on the way by packs of beasts or brigands, neither by land nor by sea. Then they went back and climbed into their wagons, and all the townsfolk accompanied them as far as the limits of a Sabbath day’s journey. If you did not see the way the Yaslovitz folk gripped the hands of the Buczacz folk, you never have seen what affection is like in Israel. While the grown-ups stood shaking hands and embracing one another, the children patted the horses’ tails, since their hands could not reach up to those of the folk in the wagons. And that is why they say in Yaslovitz when a little fellow tries to pretend to be grown-up, Go and stroke the horses.

Chapter four

Temptation on the Road

T
he company traveled for several hours until they reached the Holy Congregation of Yagolnitzi, where they spent the night. In the morning they started out and came near Lashkovitz, that Lashkovitz where there is a great fair whose like is not to be found in the whole world; for more than a hundred thousand merchants come there year after year to do business with one another. At that particular time the fair was taking place, and they met small groups of merchants and wagons laden with all kinds of goods, so that the very earth groaned beneath them.

There it was that Satan came along and stood in their way and asked them, Where are you traveling?

To the Land of Israel, they answered him.

And how are you going to make your living over there? said he.

Some of us, said they, have sold houses, and others have other resources.

Don’t you know, said Satan, that journeys eat up money?

We know it well, they answered. So each one of us has labored to lay up money for the expenses of travel, for inns and the ship’s fare.

And how about stuffing the pockets of the frontier guards? he asked. And who is going to pay ransom tax for you to the King of the Ishmaelites?

How much does he ask? said they to him.

May you have the good luck, he answered, to have him leave you food enough for a single meal. Well then, what you must do is go to Lashkovitz and earn money. Happy is the man who dwells in the Land of Israel and does not need to be supported by the Holy Cities. How people toil to reach Lashkovitz! And now that you have come this far, will you go away without doing business?

Busy as he was with the men, Satan certainly did not ignore the women. Kerchiefs and headcloths and dresses he showed them, until their hearts were near bursting after the fashion of women who see fine clothes and covet them.

When your mother Rebecca, said Satan to the womenfolk, reached the Land of Israel, what did she do, according to the Holy Writ? Why, she took her veil and decked herself to show her loveliness in her fine things. And now you propose to go to the matriarchs and yet you don’t behave as they did! Why, is Lashkovitz so far away? Why, it’s in front of your noses. If a man sneezes here, people will say good health to him in Lashkovitz. Even the horses are turning towards it. The very beasts know where the road leads.

But Rabbi Shelomo took out his pouch and filled his pipe with tobacco, and struck iron against a flint, and lit the pipe, and half closed his eyes, and began puffing out smoke fast, like a man who wants to get rid of a thought. He saw that the horses were gadding about in an unusual way, wanting to go on in one direction but actually going in another. Whereupon he touched the wagoner with the long stem of his pipe and said, Take yourself towards Borsztszow. And he urged him to hurry, since folks who proceed to the Land of Israel are like they who go to synagogue, and are duty-bound to run.

The wagoner cracked his whip, and tugged the reins one way and the other, and whistled to the horses, and turned them towards Borsztszow. The horses tossed their heads and dashed on until the dust rose from under their feet. At once the wagons with the goods in them vanished, and the whole countryside filled up with the lame, the halt, the blind, and every other kind of cripple carrying waxen models of limbs, models of hands and legs. For it is their custom to take these to the graves of the holy, there to set them up as candles in order that the holy men might see their deformities and remedy them.

Thereupon the men of good heart understood that all those enticements had come their way only to delay them, so that while they engaged in business to make money with which to live comfortably in the Land of Israel, their souls would depart from them outside the Land.

Like the king who invited his friends to a feast. The wise ones came at once, saying, Does the king lack anything in his palace? But the foolish friends delayed until they had filled their bellies with their own food so as not to require the food of the king. The result was that the wise friends were seated with the king and ate and drank of his best food and wished him well, while the others stayed at home and became drunk on their own wine and besmirched their garments, so that they could not even show themselves in the presence of the king. The king rejoiced at his wise friends and held them dearer than all the others, and was angry at the fools and introduced confusion in their midst.

In just the same way the King over all kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, invites those who love Him to ascend to the Land of Israel. Is there anything lacking in the house of the King? say the wise ones, and proceed there at once and bless His great Name by the study of the Torah, with songs and praise; and the Holy One, blessed be He, rejoices to see them and does them honor. But the fools tarry at home until they fill their pockets with money, in order, as one might suppose, not to require anything of Him, blessed be He, in the Land of Israel. And at the last they grow drunk with their wine, that is, with money, and besmirch their garments, that is, the body, when
buried in earth outside the Land.

Rabbi Alter the teacher spoke first and said, I hate the evil inclination, which brings people to sin.

Rabbi Moshe responded in turn, The inclination to evil deserves to be hated, but I do not hate it; for all the merits I may have, come to me from the evil inclination. But it is only just that the wicked should hate it, since it always leads them into evil; in spite of which, not only do they not hate it but they pursue it as though it were their own true love.

Well said, said Rabbi Shelomo.

But the wagoner said, Here are these people journeying to the Land of Israel and wanting to live on good terms with their evil inclination. I should not wonder if they take it along with them up to the Land of Israel.

Don’t worry about us, said Leibush the butcher to him. Instead, just touch up your horses with the whip a bit, so that Satan will not overtake you on the road.

The wagoner turned his face to him angrily and said, And could I touch them up more if I had two whips?

Rabbi Yehuda Mendel looked with friendly eyes at Leibush the butcher, whose words amused him, and put his hands into his sleeves; for the day was already declining and the heat of the sun had diminished.

The wagoner took the reins and urged his horses on. They dashed ahead till they reached the village near Borsztszow where all wayfarers make a halt. The horses betook themselves towards the inn and pulled up at the stable door. The wagoner got down and unharnessed them, gave them their oats and watered them, while Hananiah aided our men of good heart and took down the pillows and cushions and all their other goods.

Then the travelers stretched their limbs and entered the inn to give rest to their bodies and to say the Afternoon and Evening Prayers.

Chapter five

Welfare and Wayfarers

W
hen the innkeeper saw them, he stared in astonishment. Here they were, coming along to his place at the very time when the whole world, as you might say, was off to the fair. He put it to Rabbi Shelomo, who answered, That’s how it is, you see. The whole world goes faring downward, but we are faring upward.

To which Rabbi Alter the teacher added, You see, all the world is going to the fair, but we are leaving the fair aside and going up to the Land of Israel.

Well, the innkeeper was happy enough to have them since that was the case; and he went and fetched two bottles of brandy that they might wash away the dust of the road.

Which do you prefer? he asked them. The strong or the sweet?

Whereupon Rabbi Moshe clapped his hands with delight and cried, Oh, I love both the strong and the sweet.

The innkeeper supposed that Rabbi Moshe was talking about the liquor, but he was really referring to his Father in Heaven. And they said their blessings, and drank to long life, and said the Afternoon and Evening Prayers, the men inside the house and the womenfolk in the outer room.

Now several days had gone by in that house without a word of prayer being heard, and suddenly there was a whole quorum. The innkeeper and his wife had already been thinking of packing up and moving to the town where you can hear and take part in congregational prayer every day and all day long if you want to; but once a
zaddik had stayed with them.

And how do you know, he had said to them, that the Holy One, blessed be he, requires your congregational prayers? Maybe what he wants of you is a glass of brandy and a dish of buckwheat groats. I assure you, this fine meal you serve wayfarers is as sweet to Him, as you might say, as any of the fine hymns of praise they chant to Him in the town. So, on account of the words of that zaddik, they did not remove but did their best to serve wayfarers with food and drink.

While the company were standing and praying, the innkeeper’s wife stood over her pots and pans preparing the evening meal. Happy the woman whose good fortune it is to have such guests come her way! Why, the very fire in the grate recognized the worth of the guests. Scarce had they finished their prayers when they found their supper ready, buckwheat groats boiled in milk which had come from the cow just before the Afternoon Prayer.

The company sat at the table, the men separate from the women. Rabbi Shmuel Yosef, the son of Rabbi Shalom Mordekhai ha-Levi, sweetened the meal with tales and legends recounting the praises of the Land of Israel. Desolate the Land might be, yet she remained as holy as ever, and Prophet Elijah, may he be remembered to good effect, still offers daily sacrifice in the Temple. Desolate though it be, the Temple is as holy as ever it was. The Patriarchs everlastingly stand at Elijah’s side as witnesses and
Heman and Asaph and Jeduthun are the choir. And from the skins of the offerings Elijah makes many a scroll on which he inscribes the many merits of Israel.

Well, having eaten and drunk and said grace, the men took books out of their sacks and sat down to study, while the women took out needles and wool and sat down to knit. The wagoner sent his horses to graze in the meadow but hobbled their legs that they might not stray off to the forest and be eaten by wild beasts. Hananiah prepared the straw in the wagons and under the seats that there might be no delay when the time came for them to start out. Then he sat down in his own wagon and took out the Book of Psalms from his bundle and read by the light of the moon.

Gentiles from the village came to the door of the inn and took off their hats out of respect for the guests, saying, When there are guests in the house, God is in the house. The men of good heart sat silent, staring at these lofty countryfolk, who were tall as giants and whose hair was black as pitch and grew thick at the back of their necks, while it was cut short and shone over their foreheads. For they have no combs, and they grease their hair with lard and that is why it shines. And their beards are shaved and they clip their mustaches on either side; and their eyes are dark and gloomy with the servitude imposed upon them by their masters.

The chief of the villagers came over to the table and said, Spit into our eyes, O ye wayfarers to the Land of Israel. At that Milka took out one of the honey cakes she had brought with her for the journey and shared it out among them. They lifted up their pieces to the level of their eyes and said, God’s gift, God’s gift. And then each man kissed his piece and put it in his bosom next to his heart. After that they took their leave and went.

Meanwhile Rabbi Alter the slaughterer saw Rabbi Leibush the butcher sitting in amazement. What are you amazed at? he asked.

Those Gentiles, answered Rabbi Leibush, have neither share nor inheritance in the Land of Israel and still they hold the Land of Israel so dear!

The reason, answered Rabbi Alter, is because of the
head of Esau which lies buried in the Cave of Machpelah.

Then the one whose name we have forgotten asked Rabbi Yehudah Mendel, who is always known as the pious Rabbi Yehudah Mendel, Why did Esau merit having his head buried in the Cave of Machpelah?

The reason, replied the pious Rabbi Yehudah Mendel, is because Hushim, the son of Dan, took a stick and hit Esau over the head so that his head fell off and fell on the feet of Jacob; and they buried it with him.

That of course, said Rabbi Alter the teacher, is the plain meaning; but there is a great and mystic secret behind it as well. For during all the years that Jacob was outside the Land of Israel, Esau was in the Land of Israel, and its merits stood him in good stead. Indeed, Jacob had already begun to fear that Esau and his sons might gain the right to the Land of Israel; but then the Holy Writ came and informed him that Israel are ‘a nation one in the Land,’ and not Esau and his sons. Then of course, you might argue that Ishmael had a claim; but Writ has provided even for that in the verse saying, ‘The son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. Said the Holy One, blessed be he: The Land is dear to me and so is Israel, therefore I am going to bring Israel who is dear to me into the Land which is dear to me.