Women's Minyan (11 page)

FRUME
: Shame makes us fear sin. I did to you what my mother did to me, and her mother did to her. My husband refused to punish his pretty daughter, so I was forced to teach her some self-discipline. Your father just spoiled you. He was weak.

CHANA
: You were always jealous of the love he gave me. Behind your back, he sent me signals…encouragement. I only survived because of him.

BLUMA
: What does any of this have to do with
us
? With what you did to
us
?

SHAINE RUTH
: Bluma, don’t!

BLUMA
: [
hugging her sister, but undeterred.
] You tell us that Granny Frume was a terrible mother? She didn’t give you things? She hit you? Well, you were much worse. You ran away! Who do you think had to take care of your children while you went looking for happiness? We did, the “older” girls…Older…

BLUMA
: I was seventeen years old. I still needed a mother. Instead, I had to become one for ten children. You always taught us we had to make choices in life. But you didn’t give us any. You were a grown, educated woman…. You had a choice, yet you chose to abandon us, to blacken our name. You chose to ruin my chances to marry the man I wanted, a scholar, Joseph Graetz. And now you’ve come back to ruin Shaine Ruth’s chances. [
to
SHAINE RUTH
.] Tell her! Say something! [
to
CHANA
.] This was
your
choice,
Ima
. So, now I get to choose. And I choose not to know you. You are nothing to me anymore. A stranger.

CHANA
: [
in pain.
] It wasn’t a choice, Blumaleh. It was a matter of life or death. But how could you have known…? I did everything to hide what was happening between me and your father….

BLUMA
: Don’t you dare blame Father! You ran and he stayed. For Father, the Torah is his whole life, yet he took care of us instead of you. Father is a model of righteousness! [
returns to the outer circle.
]

CHANA
: The model of righteousness. Yes…When I met him, he was [
beat
.]…Yankele Sheinhoff, the brilliant Talmud scholar. The first time we went out alone, he said he wanted to touch me. I knew it was forbidden to say such things. But I thought: How wonderful. He’s studied so much. He knows the truth outside the rules. He’ll teach me. We’ll spend our lives together, learning and growing. Together we’ll discover the secrets of life. We married—in happiness. I was happy, even though I didn’t know what to expect. I’d never once touched a man. On our wedding night, I sat in our hotel room waiting. Finally, Yankele came over and asked me: What are you waiting for? And I answered: I read in a holy book that it is better for the bride to feel desire before she does the mitzva. And so I’m sitting here, waiting to feel some….

CHANA
: He also laughed.

SHEINHOFF
: You were such a beautiful couple.

ETA
: It was a match made in heaven.

TOVAH
: You looked so happy together.

CHANA
: Yes. We kept up appearances…. And maybe, in the beginning, I was content. From a humiliated child I became the honored Rabbi’s wife:
Rebbitzen
Chana Sheinhoff. All the rabbis sent me women to advise. Yankele learned Torah, and I built the family. I took care of supporting us by working at odd jobs, and tried to keep up my studies in the evenings. But most of all, I gave birth…. [
looks with pride at her daughters
].

TOVAH
: [
enters the circle. To
CHANA
.] I remember how you came to the ritual bath for the first time. Like all the young brides, just a little older than children they are, their skin so pink and creamy, their bodies supple and beautiful. And then, God be blessed, they get pregnant. Years go by, you wouldn’t recognize them. Their eyes are dull, their bodies bloated and neglected and tired. All those beautiful young brides….

SHEINHOFF
: This is God’s will, the purpose of woman’s creation….

CHANA
: [
to daughters.
] I never regretted a single one of you. You filled my life with joy. Willingly, I gave you my soul. I was prepared to work endlessly. Twelve children!! Soon enough I understood that I had no choice; that I was in this all alone. Yankele made a separate life for himself. He spent his time in the yeshiva, or else alone in his study. He would disappear suddenly, I had no idea where…. I started to feel as if I was rolling a great rock up a mountain alone and with every step it threatened to roll back and crush me….

FRUME
: All of us work hard for our homes and our children. It’s God’s will.

ZEHAVA
: No, Mrs. Kashman, it’s the men’s will. In our marriage contracts it’s written that the husband has to support his wife. That’s Jewish law.

GITTE LEAH
: [
haughty and indignant.
] The letter of the law.
By us
, it’s a woman’s duty and honor to be the helpmate of a Torah scholar, if you don’t mind.

TOVAH
: [
superior. To
ZEHAVA
.] Like Joseph’s brothers in the Bible. Zebulun worked so Yissacher could study. “Happy is Zebulun in going out and Yissacher in his tent.”

ETA
:
She
has to be the breadwinner so that
he
can learn.

GITTE LEAH
: And she has to be obedient to the man in everything. You understand?

ADINA
: Excuse me, Gitte Leah…. A woman has to be obedient to God and His holy Torah, not to men.

TOVAH
: A God-fearing woman accepts the Rabbis interpretation of the Torah, and keeps the commandments as the men explain them. She’s like the earth, a receptacle for the holy seed.

ZEHAVA
: And like the earth, the men step all over her…

ADINA
: Maimonides says that it’s man’s obligation to love his wife as himself, and to honor her more than himself.

ZEHAVA
: True. There has to be love, honor, partnership.

GITTE LEAH
: Maimonides doesn’t mean what you mean. This whole business of “love” is foolishness for silly girls. A woman with complete faith doesn’t look for such things. She’s on a higher level.

CHANA
: I saw how your
ADMOR
treats you, there, on that “higher level”…

GITTE LEAH
: [
defensively.
] This is our life on this earth! A decent woman doesn’t marry for love, but for a family! You serve your husband, give birth to his children, and in exchange you get honor in this world and your portion in the World to Come. Everything else is wantonness for the faithless.

CHANA
: If a woman is only a womb, then why did God torture her with intelligence, understanding, creativity, wisdom? Why didn’t He make her ant-like, without the consciousness to raise her head and examine her role as a beast of burden?

ZEHAVA
: Where is it written that a woman has to give birth every year?

FRUME
: “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” It’s the first commandment in the Torah.

ADINA
: [
drily.
] I don’t think the Torah meant single-handedly. Anyhow, if you’ll excuse me Mrs. Kashman, the Torah gives the
mitzvah
of procreation to Adam, not Eve. And it’s enough to have two children to fulfill the commandment.

GITTE LEAH
: Even that you don’t do, so what are you making yourself so wise? “A person with no children is considered dead.”

FRUME
: Gitte Leah! [
to
SHEINHOFF
.] I’m sorry, Goldie. She’s in pain so she gets nervous….

SHEINHOFF
: [
in sorrow and admonition.
] With God’s help, her turn will come. It’s all God’s will. Everything is in God’s hands.

SHAINE RUTH
:
Ima
, are you going to continue?

CHANA
: [
with effort
.] Yes, yes…I was like Zevulun. I thought: it’s my duty to be the model Rabbi’s wife. I opened my doors to needy yeshiva boys, arranged lectures for women, guided my friends with pious advice, and never complained, even though I thought I would melt from exhaustion. I obeyed my husband in everything, even when his demands…even when he behaved in a way…a way…I couldn’t understand. His will was done. The important thing was not to fail in my marriage. Except that it wasn’t only dependent on me…. I want to stop now.

ZEHAVA
: [
encouragingly.
] Tell about the money. That should be enough.

CHANA
: [
nodding assent, she chooses her words carefully.
] When it came time for Bluma to marry, I tried every way I knew to increase our income. Zehava and I decided to open a dress store. My husband, the “model of righteousness”, agreed, but on condition that he keep the books and handle the money. The store brought in a good income. Until one day, just like that, our checks began to bounce. The bank stopped payment to our suppliers. Someone had withdrawn all our funds. Sixty thousand shekel. Mine and Zehava’s money.

ZEHAVA
: I was desperate. I didn’t know how I’d feed my children.

SHEINHOFF
: What happened? Who could have taken the money?

CHANA
: Who had access to the account? [
pause.
] I was shocked.

SHEINHOFF
: Enough already! [
to
CHANA
.] I didn’t want to believe what they all said about you, but now I know: Your mother was right. Only she knows the real Chana Kashman. A child who lies and steals, it’s in her character, it’s forever! And that’s what you’re doing now, making up disgusting lies about your husband to cover up your own sins. And to think, I always defended you, even here, today! Do you really expect me to believe such a thing about my son?! Never! What a mistake we made in agreeing to listen to you at all.

CHANA
: It’s the truth, Mameh Goldie. Didn’t I take a sacred oath?

FRUME
: [
supporting
SHEINHOFF
.] A decent woman would have gotten advice from a Rav, but she—!

CHANA
: [
fighting for
SHEINHOFF
’s
support.
] That’s
exactly
what I did, Mameh Goldie! Instead of going to the police, I went to a Rav! To the head of my husband’s distinguished family—and told him about the theft.

SHEINHOFF
: Don’t you dare use that word!

CHANA
: All right, all right, just listen to me, please! Didn’t you all swear you’d hear me out honestly? Unlike you, Rav Aaron believed me. He was very angry at what I told him—and not just about the stealing…“Go home, my daughter,” the Rav said. “And don’t worry. I’ll speak to Yankele and force him to return all he took. And I’ll make him treat you according to the laws of our holy Torah. And if he refuses, you have my word, I’ll help you get a divorce.”

FRUME
: [
shocked
.] You spoke of divorce?! On account of some money?

CHANA
: That was just the last straw.

FRUME
: [
to
CHANA
.] Naturally, you didn’t give the Rav a chance….

CHANA
: I followed his instructions to the letter! I waited in the dress store while the Rav spoke to Yankele. It was late when I finally went home. Shaineleh was setting the table for the holiday. Bluma was ironing the boys’ white shirts. I went to Yankele in his study. Looking down at my shoes, humbly, I begged him to at least return a little money to Zehava so she could feed her children. There was silence. I looked at him: there was murder in his eyes. I had ripped away his mask, shown his real face to Rav Aaron!! How dare I!! Before I could answer, he locked the door behind me, threw me on the floor, dragged me to the bed, hit me with his fists, choked me. I thought: this is the end. Now I will die. I don’t know how, I managed to get free, to unlock the door….

SHEINHOFF
: [
with great emotion.
] What? What is she saying about my sensitive, gentle son who never raised his hand to hurt a fly…

CHANA
: There are many things you don’t know about him, Mameh.

SHEINHOFF
: But stealing, wife-beating? For years you had a beautiful life together. Overnight he turned into a monster?

CHANA
: [
quietly.
] It didn’t happen overnight. For years I…. [
stop
s
herself. To
BLUME
,
SHAINE RUTH
.] The children were there. The girls saw how I came out of that room. [
to them
.] I had to escape. My life was in danger. You can tell the truth now!

FRUME
: Don’t forget: I was there too. Didn’t I warn you, beg you, not to go? But you wouldn’t listen, as usual. You shook us off and ran!

CHANA
: [
to daughters.
] Bluma, Shaine Ruth, you heard my screams. You know it’s true!

FRUME
: Don’t answer her, girls! [
to
CHANA
.] So maybe he raised his hand to you [
shrugs
.]. These things happen. You made him angry. A family quarrel you settle inside the family! You should have gone back to the Rav instead of running!

ZEHAVA
: [
bitterly.
] She did go back. I told her there was no point, but she insisted. She wanted to do everything respectably—for the children. For you, Mrs. Kashman.

CHANA
: The Rav saw the bruises. And this time I told him the rest—everything Yankele had done to me over the years. I asked him to help me get a divorce, to keep his word.

ADINA
: What was his answer?

ZEHAVA
: What they always say to us when they send us home to these men.

CHANA
: [
ironically
.] He rubbed his hands together, and smoothed down his beard. “We have ways of dealing with women who slander fine Torah scholars,” he warned me. “Stubborn women, women with
chutzpah
. There are doctors who commit them to insane asylums. Modesty Patrols who discipline them. There are two sides to every story. Go home and ask your husband to forgive you, woman.”

ADINA
: [
incredulous.
]
Him
to forgive
you
?! What did you do?

CHANA
: Zehava took me in off the street, endangering her own life. And then, after the holiday, I went to a divorce lawyer. I couldn’t go back. I would rather have died. It was the hardest decision of my life.

TOVAH
: And every one of us paid the price and continues to pay.

FRUME
: In our world there are rules. Women have to obey them. She never understood that!

TOVAH
: [
to
CHANA
.] It’s true. You always tried to convince us that we could change things, but it’s impossible.

ETA
: As it is written: If the hand hits the rock or the rock hits the hand,
Oy
to the rock….
farshteyst?

TOVAH
: The opposite!
Oy
to the hand!!

CHANA
: It is possible to change things! If we stop hiding, stop pretending. We women are taught to wash away the dirt, and when the messes the men create cannot be bleached, we’re taught to take the stains on ourselves so that they can remain spotless. What was my great sin, I ask you? That I couldn’t cover up for my husband anymore? That I told the truth? I was the victim, but the community will never forgive me. The sacrificial lamb isn’t allowed to climb down off the altar, right? She has to stretch out her neck to the blade.

ADINA
: Chana’s life was in danger. She had no choice. She was treated unjustly, and now we have the chance to give her justice, all of us. I vote that she be allowed to see her children.

ZEHAVA
: [
hurriedly
.] I also vote yes. [
joining
ADINA
.]

ADINA
: [
to
SHEINHOFF
.]
Ima
?

FRUME
: No. Rav Aaron was right. A woman who destroys her family on account of money? Your children were the victims, not you. Why do you have the right to see them?

ADINA
: But he…he stole from her!

GITTE LEAH
: That’s
her
story.

ADINA
: He choked her…threatened to kill her!

SHEINHOFF
: [
furious.
] How can you believe this?
You
, his own sister?!