Women's Minyan (5 page)
Authors: Naomi Ragen
SHEINHOFF
attempts to go back to the phone but hasn’t the strength.
ADINA
catches her before she falls, helping her back into her chair.
FRUME
: [
to
BLUMA
and
SHAINE RUTH
.] Go. Bring your
Savta
a cup of mint tea.
The girls exit.
FRUME
goes to
SHEINHOFF
.
FRUME
: I tell you—and don’t think it’s not hard for me to say this, I’m her mother after all—she’s brought this all on herself! She saw the pit in front of her and jumped in with both feet. Would she listen to reason? Did she take pity on the little ones? Why should
I
pity her now?
SHEINHOFF
: [
to
FRUME
.] What’s the matter with you? [
to the others.
] With all of you? Have you forgotten everything? [
she leans on
ADINA
.]
ADINA
: Please Mother, don’t excite yourself.
SHEINHOFF
: Have you forgotten—who Chanaleh was? [
to
ETA
and
TOVAH
.] How all the Rabbis in Meah Shearim sent women to her for counseling? How you yourselves wouldn’t put one foot in front of the other without hearing her opinion? [
she rises, walking around the dining room table, as if willing the past to come back.
] Have you forgotten Chana’s Sabbath table? [
remembering with joy
.] How everything shone! The children, all twelve of them, smiling, clean from their baths. The boys in their ironed starched white shirts, the girls in their pretty dresses…. and Chana, like a queen. [
goes to the head of the table, touches the chair.
] And my son, my Yankele, a king at the head…[
covers her face and weeps.
] Have we no pity for Chanaleh? She was the joy of my life!
In the middle of the monologue,
SHAINE RUTH
enters with the tea.
She pauses, listening. When
SHEINHOFF
finishes, the sound of a police siren and then a megaphone is heard from outside: “Stand back. Don’t block the way!”
SHAINE RUTH
drops the cup.
GITTE LEAH
: I told you! She’s bringing the Cossacks!
SHEINHOFF
grows faint.
ADINA
: Mother, are you all right?
SHEINHOFF
: [
shakes head “no.”
] Take me to the kitchen Adinaleh. I don’t want to be here.
ADINA
: Come Mother, come. I’ll make you another cup.
Harsh knocks on the door.
MAN’S VOICE
: Police! Open up!
GITTE LEAH
: What a disgrace!
SHAINE RUTH
: [
to
BLUMA
.] I can’t face her. I can’t!
BLUMA
: Calm down!
ETA
: [
to
TOVAH
, whispering in delight.
] In a minute, there’s going to be a huge scandal….
TOVAH
: [
warningly.
]
Oy-va-Voy
if your husband finds out you were with her….
ETA
: [
threateningly.
] As it is written: “Who tells his friend’s secret sheds blood.”
Farshteyst?
TOVAH
:
Ah- vaadah
!
TOVAH
and
ETA
prepare themselves for the
TV
cameras. Another knock on the door.
MAN’S VOICE
: Police! Open up!
FRUME
: Gitte Leah, go open!
GITTE LEAH
: I can’t. I’m
plotzing
(collapsing). My back….
Pause. No one moves.
FRUME
: [
in a trembling voice, without moving from her place.
] What are you all so terrified of? Outside, the police helped her. But here, inside, no one will help her. Bluma-leh, go open the door….
BLUMA
approaches the door. Stops. Backtracks.
The front door opens.
ENTER CHANA
, carrying a purse and a shopping bag.
CHANA
: [
to the police behind her
.] Thank you, officer. I’ll be all right now. There’s no need for you to come in.
An extended pause: They have not seen each other for two years—her daughters, family, friends. They examine each other. The moment bristles with tension.
CHANA
: Bluma-leh, a married woman [
approaches
BLUMA
.]
BLUMA
,
who has stood frozen opposite her at a safe distance, instinctively moves back. Pause. She turns her back on her mother, and moves away.
CHANA
: [
painfully.
] Shaine-leh?
SHAINE RUTH
draws closer. They hug each other wordlessly, intensely.
CHANA
,
who has dreamed of this reunion for two years—holds her and caresses her. The
WOMEN
are moved despite themselves.
FRUME
,
trapped by circumstances, is furious.
FRUME
: [
vindictive, every word a dagger.
] So, this is what you think? That a hug will erase what you did to them? To all of us? Suddenly, she remembers her children! You abandon twelve angels and a saintly husband and imagine you won’t have to pay? One hug and everything will be fine again, what? How do you even have the
chutzpah
to walk in here—and with the Cossacks yet! Until now you at least respected the Rabbinical court order and left us in peace, but now even the Rabbis you mock! Get out of here, go! You’ll pay for everything you did; and pay and pay and pay and pay, until the end of time!
With every bitter word,
CHANA
’s
embrace around her daughter loosens. It is as if
FRUME
is physically tearing them apart.
CHANA
will not be drawn into confrontation. She burns to see her children. She turns toward the children’s bedrooms.
FRUME
blocks her way.
CHANA
: [
restrained.
] Please, let me through. [
FRUME
doesn’t move.
] This is
my
house. These are
my
children. I want to see them. [
to daughters.
] You did well, girls, to leave the little ones in their rooms. My wise girls. Children shouldn’t have to see grownups behave like fools. [
she maneuvers around
FRUME
, continues to the bedrooms, softly calling out her children’s names.
] Ruchele, Faigele, your mother is home! Shifraleh, I brought you a baby doll—come see! Moishe! Shimmy! Eliahu! My boys. There are presents for you too. Your
Ima
is back. Malka-leh, where are you? [
going from room to room.
] Are you playing hide and seek with me? [
she runs to the kitchen, encountering
SHEINHOFF
and
ADINA
.] Mameh Goldie! You’re here too. Adina! [
she smoothes back a stray lock of
ADINA
’s
hair.
] You are still not—? [
ADINA
indicates “no.” A moment of shared sympathy.
] Are the children with you? [
CHANA
returns to the living room, to the women
.] Where are they? [
no answer. With concern.
] Bluma, Shaine Ruth, where are the children? [
no one answers. She looks in panic from face to face around the room, as the truth begins to dawn on her. To
FRUME
.] What have you done with my children?
SHAINE RUTH
walks forward
.
BLUMA
holds her back.
SHEINHOFF
enters with
ADINA
, sighing heavily.
CHANA
: [
near panic.
] Something happened to them?
ADINA
: God forbid! They are all alive and well, Chana. They’re fine. [
to
SHEINHOFF
.] Don’t get upset, Mother. You know you’re not allowed.
CHANA
: [
to
FRUME
.] What have you done with them!? [
FRUME
turns her back. Pleading.
] Tovah, do you have my children? [
TOVAH
shakes her head no.
]
ETA
? [
no answer.
] Have you swallowed your tongue?
TOVAH
: Her husband threatened to divorce her if she talked to you.
ETA
: And in the ritual baths, the women wouldn’t let Tovah touch them anymore.
TOVAH
: They suspected me too of being unnatural, because I was your friend.
ETA
: You have no idea how
we’ve
suffered, because of you.
CHANA
: So you have my children?
ETA
: No, I don’t!
TOVAH
: Leave the children in peace, Chana. You need help. You’re not well.
CHANA
: [
restrained fury.
] When you went into depression after your fourth child, was that the advice I gave you? Or did I come to your house, day after day, bathe your kids, take you shopping, cook your meals until you were back on your feet? (
TOVAH
turns away, ashamed)
ETA
: You helped everyone, Chana. But now the best thing you can do is leave. Remember what you told me when I came to talk to you about my Gershon? You said, “Don’t force things. The damage you do to a child’s tender soul can never be undone.”
TOVAH
: Let the children get on with their lives, Chana. Enough you’ve humiliated them!
CHANA
: [
pleading.
] I just want to talk to them.
TOVAH
wavers.
FRUME
gives her a withering look that says: Are you with us or against us?
TOVAH
: [
to
CHANA
.] If only you had listened to me two years ago and committed yourself for treatment. Your soul is sick…. You need help.
GITTE LEAH
: She isn’t sick. She’s corrupt….
SHAINE RUTH
: Why do you have to insult her?
ETA
: [
to
GITTE LEAH.
] The child is right! God watch over us, why? [
to
CHANA
.] Chana, you yourself must know that the proper thing to do is for you to leave here quietly.
GITTE LEAH
: There’s nothing for you here, are you deaf? [
imploringly.
] Adina, Rebbitzen Sheinhoff, tell her!
ADINA
: Excuse me…. But I’ll talk when I have something to say.
SHEINHOFF
: Chanaleh, in the name of the love that I have always had for you, I’m asking you, please, go quietly….
CHANA
: [
full of pain.
] Mameh Goldie, please, where are my children?
Pause. Music:
TWO GIRLS
,
the ghost children, appear in the background, dressed in white.
CHANA
is startled, then understands.
CHANA
: [
devastated.
] You’ve hidden my children from me.
Pause.
GITTE LEAH
: Finally, finally, she’s woken up! Yes, the house is empty. Yes, the children are gone. And
you
are not going to be able to find them.
CHANA
receives this like a blow to her stomach. She sits down heavily, hugging herself.
FRUME
: You’re in pain? You’re suffering? I also suffered. [
looking at
BLUMA
.] I suffered when a beautiful young girl lost her chance to marry the best match. I suffered when everything I worked for all these years—to be respected and accepted in the community of Meah Shearim—was destroyed. I suffered when I heard people say that our family wasn’t worthy to marry into a Rabbinical family like the Sheinhoffs. I suffered when I watched my grandchildren crying themselves to sleep every night because they missed their mother! I warned you, Chana—I begged you—not to leave. If you’d only listened to me we could have settled everything! But you ran away. You always did exactly what was good for you.
CHANA
: [
in pain
.] They cried? My poor babies…. If only I could have stayed…. But I had no choice.
FRUME
: You had no choice? So now also you have no choice. Go!
GITTE LEAH
: With the Cossacks, or without the Cossacks, you will never get your children back. You are a Jezebel.
TOVAH
: [
drawing closer.
] Go, go, Chana, for your own good.
ETA
: [
drawing closer, fearfully.
] Go, before all of Meah Shearim sees you.
TOVAH
: Think about Shaine Ruth, and
her
chances for a good match! Do you want to do to her what you did to her sister? Who will want to marry the daughter of a woman who behaves like you?
SHEINHOFF
: Let her breathe! What is this, a stoning? She hears us. She understands by herself. She won’t hurt her children, isn’t that true, Chanaleh?
CHANA
: [
still in shock. To herself
.] A match for Shaine Ruth? Already?…. How time rushes by…when did I give birth to these children? When did I bring them up?…. Twelve children I raised, all by myself, without help from anyone. Twelve children I have….
FRUME
: You had. Now they are motherless.
CHANA
: [
waking up. Quietly
.] No. I am their mother. I am here for them.
FRUME
: They don’t want you.
CHANA
: [
passionately.
] What do you know? I wasn’t a mother like you. My children miss me. You yourself said so. I still feel them here, inside me. I am not budging from here until I see them. [
she sits down and holds herself, as if her body will break.
] My baby, my Shifraleh. How she must have grown…. [
to
ADINA
.] She’s walking, talking?
ADINA
nods.
SHAINE RUTH
: And Shimmy is already learning in
cheder
!
CHANA
: Really? My little scholar. You must let me see them.
GITTE LEAH
: Me, me, me! All your life, that’s all you ever thought about. Yourself. You never cared what you were doing to everyone else. Your husband, your children. Us. We can’t walk down the street because of you! So if you hope you’ll work on our pity, you are an even bigger fool than I thought.
SHEINHOFF
: How can you speak that way, Gitte Leah? What does our holy Torah teach us if not compassion and loving kindness?
