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A short story by David Pinski |
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Reb Shloimeh |
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Title: Reb Shloimeh Author: David Pinski DAVID PINSKI
REB SHLOIMEH
"Times have changed," considered Reb Shloimeh; "it can't be helped!" and he engaged a good teacher for the children, after making inquiries here and there. "Give me a teacher who can tell [*] the whole of their Law, as the saying goes, standing on one leg!" he would say to his friends, with a smile. [* "Give me a teacher who can tell," etc.--Reference to the story of the heathen who asked, first of Shammai, and then of Hillel, to be taught the whole of the Jewish Law while standing on one leg.] At seventy-one years of age, Reb Shloimeh lived more indoors than out, and he used to listen to the teacher instructing his grandchildren. "I shall become a doctor in my old age!" he would say, laughing. The teacher was one day telling his pupils about mathematical geography. Reb Shloimeh sat with a smile on his lips, and laughing in his heart at the little teacher who told "such huge lies" with so much earnestness. "The earth revolves," said the teacher to his pupils, and Reb Shloimeh smiles, and thinks, "He must have seen it!" But the teacher shows it to be so by the light of reason, and Reb Shloimeh becomes graver, and ceases smiling; he is endeavoring to grasp the proofs; he wants to ask questions, but can find none that will do, and he sits there as if he had lost his tongue. The teacher has noticed his grave look, and understands that the old man is interested in the lesson, and he begins to tell of even greater wonders. He tells how far the sun is from the earth, how big it is, how many earths could be made out of it--and Reb Shloimeh begins to smile again, and at last can bear it no longer. "Look here," he exclaimed, "that I cannot and will not listen to! You may tell me the earth revolves--well, be it so! Very well, I'll allow you, that, perhaps, according to reason--even--the size of the earth--the appearance of the earth--do you see?--all that sort of thing. But the sun! Who has measured the sun! Who, I ask you! Have you been on it? A pretty thing to say, upon my word!" Reb Shloimeh grew very excited. The teacher took hold of Reb Shloimeh's hand, and began to quiet him. He told him by what means the astronomers had discovered all this, that it was no matter of speculation; he explained the telescope to him, and talked of mathematical calculations, which he, Reb Shloimeh, was not able to understand. Reb Shloimeh had nothing to answer, but he frowned and remained obstinate. "Hê" (he said, and made a contemptuous motion with his hand), "it's nothing to me, not knowing that or being able to understand it! Science, indeed! Fiddlesticks!" He relapsed into silence, and went on listening to the teacher's "stories." "We even know," the teacher continued, "what metals are to be found in the sun." "And suppose I won't believe you?" and Reb Shloimeh smiled maliciously. "I will explain directly," answered the teacher. "And tell us there's a fair in the sky!" interrupted Reb Shloimeh, impatiently. He was very angry, but the teacher took no notice of his anger. "Two hundred years ago," began the teacher, "there lived, in England, a celebrated naturalist and mathematician, Isaac Newton. It was told of him that when God said, Let there be light, Newton was born." "Psh! I should think, very likely!" broke in Reb Shloimeh. "Why not?" The teacher pursued his way, and gave an explanation of spectral analysis. He spoke at some length, and Reb Shloimeh sat and listened with close attention. "Now do you understand?" asked the teacher, coming to an end. Reb Shloimeh made no reply, he only looked up from under his brows. The teacher went on: "The earth," he said, "has stood for many years. Their exact number is not known, but calculation brings it to several million--" "Ê," burst in the old man, "I should like to know what next! I thought everyone knew that--that even they--" "Wait a bit, Reb Shloimeh," interrupted the teacher, "I will explain directly." "Ma! It makes me sick to hear you," was the irate reply, and Reb Shloimeh got up and left the room. * * * * * All that day Reb Shloimeh was in a bad temper, and went about with knitted brows. He was angry with science, with the teacher, with himself, because he must needs have listened to it all. "Chatter and foolishness! And there I sit and listen to it!" he said to himself with chagrin. But he remembered the "chatter," something begins to weigh on his heart and brain, he would like to find a something to catch hold of, a proof of the vanity and emptiness of their teaching, to invent some hard question, and stick out a long red tongue at them all--those nowadays barbarians, those nowadays Newtons. "After all, it's mere child's play," he reflects. "It's ridiculous to take their nonsense to heart." "Only their proofs, their proofs!" and the feeling of helplessness comes over him once more. "Ma!" He pulls himself together. "Is it all over with us? Is it all up?! All up?! The earth revolves! Gammon! As to their explanations--very wonderful, to be sure! O, of course, it's all of the greatest importance! Dear me, yes!" He is very angry, tears the buttons off his coat, puts his hat straight on his head, and spits. "Apostates, nothing but apostates nowadays," he concludes. Then he remembers the teacher--with what enthusiasm he spoke! His explanations ring in Reb Shloimeh's head, and prove things, and once more the old gentleman is perplexed. Preoccupied, cross, with groans and sighs, he went to bed. But he was restless all night, turning from one side to the other, and groaning. His old wife tried to cheer him. "Such weather as it is to-day," she said, and coughed. "I have a pain in the side, too." Next morning when the teacher came, Reb Shloimeh inquired with a displeased expression: "Well, are you going to tell stories again to-day?" "We shall not take geography to-day," answered the teacher. "Have your 'astronomers' found out by calculation on which days we may learn geography?" asked Reb Shloimeh, with malicious irony. "No, that's a discovery of mine!" and the teacher smiled. "And when have 'your' astronomers decreed the study of geography?" persisted Reb Shloimeh. "To-morrow." "To-morrow!" he repeated crossly, and left the room, missing a lesson for the first time. Next day the teacher explained the eclipses of the sun and moon to his pupils. Reb Shloimeh sat with his chair drawn up to the table, and listened without a movement. "It is all so exact," the teacher wound up his explanation, "that the astronomers are able to calculate to a minute when there will be an eclipse, and have never yet made a mistake." At these last words Reb Shloimeh nodded in a knowing way, and looked at the pupils as much as to say, "You ask me about that!" The teacher went on to tell of comets, planets, and other suns. Reb Shloimeh snorted, and was continually interrupting the teacher with exclamations. "If you don't believe me, go and measure for yourself!"--"If it is not so, call me a liar!"--"Just so!"--"Within one yard of it!" Reb Shloimeh repaid his Jewish education with interest. There were not many learned men in the town like Reb Shloimeh. The Rabbis without flattery called him "a full basket," and Reb Shloimeh could not picture to himself the existence of sciences other than "Jewish," and when at last he did picture it, he would not allow that they were right, unfalsified and right. He was so far intelligent, he had received a so far enlightened education, that he could understand how among non-Jews also there are great men. He would even have laughed at anyone who had maintained the contrary. But that among non-Jews there should be men as great as any Jewish ones, that he did not believe!--let alone, of course, still greater ones. And now, little by little, Reb Shloimeh began to believe that "their" learning was not altogether insignificant, for he, "the full basket," was not finding it any too easy to master. And what he had to deal with were not empty speculations, unfounded opinions. No, here were mathematical computations, demonstrations which almost anyone can test for himself, which impress themselves on the mind! And Reb Shloimeh is vexed in his soul. He endeavored to cling to his old thoughts, his old conceptions. He so wished to cry out upon the clear reasoning, the simple explanations, with the phrases that are on the lips of every ignorant obstructionist. And yet he felt that he was unjust, and he gave up disputing with the teacher, as he paid close attention to the latter's demonstrations. And the teacher would say quite simply: "One can measure," he would say, "why not? Only it takes a lot of learning." When the teacher was at the door, Reb Shloimeh stayed him with a question. "Then," he asked angrily, "the whole of 'your' learning is nothing but astronomy and geography?" "Oh, no!" said the teacher, "there's a lot besides--a lot!" "For instance?" "Do you want me to tell you standing on one leg?" "Well, yes, 'on one leg,'" he answered impatiently, as though in anger. "But one can't tell you 'on one leg,'" said the teacher. "If you like, I shall come on Sabbath, and we can have a chat." "Sabbath?" repeated Reb Shloimeh in a dissatisfied tone. "Sabbath, because I can't come at any other time," said the teacher. "Then let it be Sabbath," said Reb Shloimeh, reflectively. "But soon after dinner," he called after the teacher, who was already outside the door. "And everything else is as right as your astronomy?" he shouted, when the teacher had already gone a little way. "You will see!" and the teacher smiled. * * * * * Never in his whole life had Reb Shloimeh waited for a Sabbath as he waited for this one, and the two days that came before it seemed very long to him; he never relaxed his frown, or showed a cheerful face the whole time. And he was often seen, during those two days, to lift his hands to his forehead. He went about as though there lay upon him a heavy weight, which he wanted to throw off; or as if he had a very disagreeable bit of business before him, and wished he could get it over. On Sabbath he could hardly wait for the teacher's appearance. "You wanted a lot of asking," he said to him reproachfully. The old lady went to take her nap, the grandchildren to their play, and Reb Shloimeh took the snuff-box between his fingers, leant against the back of the "grandfather's chair" in which he was sitting, and listened with close attention to the teacher's words. The teacher talked a long time, mentioned the names of sciences, and explained their meaning, and Reb Shloimeh repeated each explanation in brief. "Physics, then, is the science of--" "That means, then, that we have here--that physiology explains--" The teacher would help him, and then immediately begin to talk of another branch of science. By the time the old lady woke up, the teacher had given examples of anatomy, physiology, physics, chemistry, zoology, and sociology. It was quite late; people were coming back from the Afternoon Service, and those who do not smoke on Sabbath, raised their eyes to the sky [*]. But Reb Shloimeh had forgotten in what sort of world he was living. He sat with wrinkled forehead and drawn brows, listening attentively, seeing nothing before him but the teacher's face, only catching up his every word. [* "And those who do not smoke on Sabbath, raised their eyes to the sky."--To look for the appearance of three stars, which indicate nightfall, and the end of the Sabbath.] "You are still talking?" asked the old lady, in astonishment, rubbing her eyes. Reb Shloimeh turned his head toward his wife with a dazed look, as though wondering what she meant by her question. "Oho!" said the old lady, "you only laugh at us women!" Reb Shloimeh drew his brows closer together, wrinkled his forehead still more, and once more fastened his eyes on the teacher's lips. "It will soon be time to light the fire," muttered the old lady. The teacher glanced at the clock. "It's late," he said. "I should think it was!" broke in the old lady. "Why I was allowed to sleep so long, I'm sure I don't know! People get to talking and even forget about tea." Reb Shloimeh gave a look out of the window. "O wa!" he exclaimed, somewhat vexed, "they are already coming out of Shool, the service is over! What a thing it is to sit talking! O wa!" He sprang from his seat, gave the pane a rub with his hand, and began to recite the Afternoon Prayer. The teacher put on his things, but "Wait!" Reb Shloimeh signed to him with his hand. Reb Shloimeh finished reciting "Incense." "When shall you teach the children all that?" he asked then, looking into the prayer-book with a scowl. "Not for a long time, not so quickly," answered the teacher. "The children cannot understand everything." "I should think not, anything so wonderful!" replied Reb Shloimeh, ironically, gazing at the prayer-book and beginning "Happy are we." He swallowed the prayers as he said them, half of every word; no matter how he wrinkled his forehead, he could not expel the stranger thoughts from his brain, and fix his attention on the prayers. After the service he tried taking up a book, but it was no good, his head was a jumble of all the new sciences. By means of the little he had just learned, he wanted to understand and know everything, to fashion a whole body out of a single hair, and he thought, and thought, and thought.... Sunday, when the teacher came, Reb Shloimeh told him that he wished to have a little talk with him. Meantime he sat down to listen. The hour during which the teacher taught the children was too long for him, and he scarcely took his eyes off the clock. "Do you want another pupil?" he asked the teacher, stepping with him into his own room. He felt as though he were getting red, and he made a very angry face. "Why not?" answered the teacher, looking hard into Reb Shloimeh's face. Reb Shloimeh looked at the floor, his brows, as was usual with him in those days, drawn together. "You understand me--a pupil--" he stammered, "you understand--not a little boy--a pupil--an elderly man--you understand--quite another sort--" "Well, well, we shall see!" answered the teacher, smiling. "I mean myself!" he snapped out with great displeasure, as if he had been forced to confess some very evil deed. "Well, I have sinned--what do you want of me?" "Oh, but I should be delighted!" and the teacher smiled. "I always said I meant to be a doctor!" said Reb Shloimeh, trying to joke. But his features contracted again directly, and he began to talk about the terms, and it was arranged that every day for an hour and a half the teacher should read to him and explain the sciences. To begin with, Reb Shloimeh chose physiology, sociology, and mathematical geography. * * * * * Days, weeks, and months have gone by, and Reb Shloimeh has become depressed, very depressed. He does not sleep at night, he has lost his appetite, doesn't care to talk to people. Bad, bitter thoughts oppress him. For seventy years he had not only known nothing, but, on the contrary, he had known everything wrong, understood head downwards. And it seemed to him that if he had known in his youth what he knew now, he would have lived differently, that his years would have been useful to others. He could find no stain on his life--it was one long record of deeds of charity; but they appeared to him now so insignificant, so useless, and some of them even mischievous. Looking round him, he saw no traces of them left. The rich man of whom he used to beg donations is no poorer for them, and the pauper for whom he begged them is the same pauper as before. It is true, he had always thought of the paupers as sacks full of holes, and had only stuffed things into them because he had a soft heart, and could not bear to see a look of disappointment, or a tear rolling down the pale cheek of a hungry pauper. His own little world, as he had found it and as it was now, seemed to him much worse than before, in spite of all the good things he had done in it. Not one good rich man! Not one genuine pauper! They are all just as hungry and their palms itch--there is no easing them. Times get harder, the world gets poorer. Now he understands the reason of it all, now it all lies before him as clear as on a map--he would be able to make every one understand. Only now--now it was getting late--he has no strength left. His spent life grieves him. If he had not been so active, such a "father of the community," it would not have grieved him so much. But he had had a great influence in the town, and this influence had been badly, blindly used! And Reb Shloimeh grew sadder day by day. He began to feel a pain at his heart, a stitch in the side, a burning in his brain, and he was wrapt in his thoughts. Reb Shloimeh was philosophizing. To be of use to somebody, he reflected, means to leave an impress of good in their life. One ought to help once for all, so that the other need never come for help again. That can be accomplished by wakening and developing a man's intelligence, so that he may always know for himself wherein his help lies. And in such work he would have spent his life. If he had only understood long ago, ah, how useful he would have been! And a shudder runs through him. Tears of vexation come more than once into his eyes. * * * * * It was no secret in the town that old Reb Shloimeh spent two to three hours daily sitting with the teacher, only what they did together, that nobody knew. They tried to worm something out of the maid, but what was to be got out of a "glomp with two eyes," whose one reply was, "I don't know." They scolded her for it. "How can you not know, glomp?" they exclaimed. "Aren't you sometimes in the room with them?" "Look here, good people, what's the use of coming to me?" the maid would cry. "How can I know, sitting in the kitchen, what they are about? When I bring in the tea, I see them talking, and I go!" "Dull beast!" they would reply. Then they left her, and betook themselves to the grandchildren, who knew nothing, either. "They have tea," was their answer to the question, "What does grandfather do with the teacher?" "But what do they talk about, sillies?" "We haven't heard!" the children answered gravely. They tried the old lady. "Is it my business?" she answered. They tried to go in to Reb Shloimeh's house, on the pretext of some business or other, but that didn't succeed, either. At last, a few near and dear friends asked Reb Shloimeh himself. "How people do gossip!" he answered. "Well, what is it?" "We just sit and talk!" There it remained. The matter was discussed all over the town. Of course, nobody was satisfied. But he pacified them little by little. The apostate teacher must turn hot and cold with him! They imagined that they were occupied with research, and that Reb Shloimeh was opening the teacher's eyes for him--and they were pacified. When Reb Shloimeh suddenly fell on melancholy, it never came into anyone's head that there might be a connection between this and the conversations. The old lady settled that it was a question of the stomach, which had always troubled him, and that perhaps he had taken a chill. At his age such things were frequent. "But how is one to know, when he won't speak?" she lamented, and wondered which would be best, cod-liver oil or dried raspberries. Every one else said that he was already in fear of death, and they pitied him greatly. "That is a sickness which no doctor can cure," people said, and shook their heads with sorrowful compassion. They talked to him by the hour, and tried to prevent him from being alone with his thoughts, but it was all no good; he only grew more depressed, and would often not speak at all. "Such a man, too, what a pity!" they said, and sighed. "He's pining away--given up to the contemplation of death." "And if you come to think, why should he fear death?" they wondered. "If he fears it, what about us? Och! och! och! Have we so much to show in the next world?" And Reb Shloimeh had a lot to show. Jews would have been glad of a tenth part of his world-to-come, and Christians declared that he was a true Christian, with his love for his fellow-men, and promised him a place in Paradise. "Reb Shloimeh is goodness itself," the town was wont to say. His one lifelong occupation had been the affairs of the community. "They are my life and my delight," he would repeat to his intimate friends, "as indispensable to me as water to a fish." He was a member of all the charitable societies. The Talmud Torah was established under his own roof, and pretty nearly maintained at his expense. The town called him the "father of the community," and all unfortunate, poor, and bitter hearts blessed him unceasingly. Reb Shloimeh was the one person in the town almost without an enemy, perhaps the one in the whole province. Rich men grumbled at him. He was always after their money--always squeezing them for charities. They called him the old fool, the old donkey, but without meaning what they said. They used to laugh at him, to make jokes upon him, of course among themselves; but they had no enmity against him. They all, with a full heart, wished him joy of his tranquil life. Reb Shloimeh was born, and had spent years, in wealth. After making an excellent marriage, he set up a business. His wife was the leading spirit within doors, the head of the household, and his whole life had been apparently a success. When he had married his last child, and found himself a grandfather, he retired from business, and lived his last years on the interest of his fortune. Free from the hate and jealousy of neighbors, pleasant and satisfactory in every respect, such was Reb Shloimeh's life, and for all that he suddenly became melancholy! It can be nothing but the fear of death! * * * * * But very soon Reb Shloimeh, as it were with a wave of the hand, dismissed the past altogether. He said to himself with a groan that what had been was over and done; he would never grow young again, and once more a shudder went through him at the thought, and there came again the pain in his side and caught his breath, but Reb Shloimeh took no notice, and went on thinking. "Something must be done!" he said to himself, in the tone of one who has suddenly lost his whole fortune--the fortune he has spent his life in getting together, and there is nothing for him but to start work again with his five fingers. And Reb Shloimeh started. He began with the Talmud Torah, where he had already long provided for the children's bodily needs--food and clothing. Now he would supply them with spiritual things--instruction and education. He dismissed the old teachers, and engaged young ones in their stead, even for Jewish subjects. Out of the Talmud Torah he wanted to make a little university. He already fancied it a success. He closed his eyes, laid his forehead on his hands, and a sweet, happy smile parted his lips. He pictured to himself the useful people who would go forth out of the Talmud Torah. Now he can die happy, he thinks. But no, he does not want to die! He wants to live! To live and to work, work, work! He will not and cannot see an end to his life! Reb Shloimeh feels more and more cheerful, lively, and fresh--to work----to work--till-- The whole town was in commotion. There was a perfect din in the Shools, in the streets, in the houses. Hypocrites and crooked men, who had never before been seen or heard of, led the dance. "To make Gentiles out of the children, forsooth! To turn the Talmud Torah into a school! That we won't allow! No matter if we have to turn the world upside down, no matter what happens!" Reb Shloimeh heard the cries, and made as though he heard nothing. He thought it would end there, that no one would venture to oppose him further. "What do you say to that?" he asked the teachers. "Fanaticism has broken out already!" "It will give trouble," replied the teachers. "Eh, nonsense!" said Reb Shloimeh, with conviction. But on Sabbath, at the Reading of the Law, he saw that he had been mistaken. The opposition had collected, and they got onto the platform, and all began speaking at once. It was impossible to make out what they were saying, beyond a word here and there, or the fragment of a sentence: "--none of it!" "we won't allow--!" "--made into Gentiles!" Reb Shloimeh sat in his place by the east wall, his hands on the desk where lay his Pentateuch. He had taken off his spectacles, and glanced at the platform, put them on again, and was once more reading the Pentateuch. They saw this from the platform, and began to shout louder than ever. Reb Shloimeh stood up, took off his prayer-scarf, and was moving toward the door, when he heard some one call out, with a bang of his fist on the platform: "With the consent of the Rabbis and the heads of the community, and in the name of the Holy Torah, it is resolved to take the children away from the Talmud Torah, seeing that in place of the Torah there is uncleanness----" Reb Shloimeh grew pale, and felt a rent in his heart. He stared at the platform with round eyes and open mouth. "The children are to be made into Gentiles," shouted the person on the platform meantime, "and we have plenty of Gentiles, thank God, already! Thus may they perish, with their name and their remembrance! We are not short of Gentiles--there are more every day! And hatred increases, and God knows what the Jews are coming to! Whoso has God in his heart, and is jealous for the honor of the Law, let him see to it that the children cease going to the place of peril!" Reb Shloimeh wanted to call out, "Silence, you scoundrel!" The words all but rolled off his tongue, but he contained himself, and moved on. "The one who obeys will be blessed," proclaimed the individual on the platform, "and whoso despises the decree, his end shall be Gehenna, with that of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat [*], who sinned and made Israel to sin!" [* "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat."--The Rabbinical type for one who not only sins himself, but induces others to sin, too.] With these last words the speaker threw a fiery glance at Reb Shloimeh. A quiver ran through the Shool, and all eyes were turned on Reb Shloimeh, expecting him to begin abusing the speaker. A lively scene was anticipated. But Reb Shloimeh smiled. He quietly handed his prayer-scarf to the beadle, wished the bystanders "good Sabbath," and walked out of Shool, leaving them all disconcerted. * * * * * That Sabbath Reb Shloimeh was the quietest man in the whole town. He was convinced that the interdict would have no effect on anyone. "People are not so foolish as all that," he thought, "and they wouldn't treat him in that way!" He sat and laid plans for carrying on the education in the Talmud Torah, and he felt so light of heart that he sang to himself for very pleasure. The old wife, meanwhile, was muttering and moaning. She had all her life been quite content with her husband and everything he did, and had always done her best to help him, hoping that in the world to come she would certainly share his portion of immortality. And now she saw with horror that he was like to throw away his future. But how ever could it be? she wondered, and was bathed in tears: "What has come over you? What has happened to make you like that? They are not just to you, are they, when they say that about taking children and making Gentiles of them?" Reb Shloimeh smiled. "Do you think," he said to her, "that I have gone mad in my old age? Don't be afraid. I'm in my right mind, and you shall not lose your place in Paradise." But the wife was not satisfied with the reply, and continued to mutter and to weep. There were goings-on in the town, too. The place was aboil with excitement. Of course they talked about Reb Shloimeh; nobody could make out what had come to him all of a sudden. "That is the teacher's work!" explained one of a knot of talkers. "And we thought Reb Shloimeh such a sage, such a clever man, so book-learned. How can the teacher (may his name perish!) have talked him over?" "It's a pity on the children's account!" one would exclaim here and there. "In the Talmud Torah, under his direction, they wanted for nothing, and what's to become of them now! They'll be running wild in the streets!" "What then? Do you mean it would be better to make Gentiles of them?" "Well, there! Of course, I understand!" he would hasten to say, penitently. And a resolution was passed, to the effect that the children should not be allowed to attend the Talmud Torah. Reb Shloimeh stood at his window, and watched the excited groups in the street, saw how the men threw themselves about, rocked themselves, bit their beards, described half-circles with their thumbs, and he smiled. In the evening the teachers came and told him what had been said in the town, and how all held that the children were not to be allowed to go to the Talmud Torah. Reb Shloimeh was a little disturbed, but he composed himself again and thought: "Eh, they will quiet down, never mind! They won't do it to me!----" Entering the Talmud Torah on Sunday, he was greeted by four empty walls. Even two orphans, who had no relations or protector in the town, had not come. They had been frightened and talked at and not allowed to attend, and free meals had been secured for all of them, so that they should not starve. For the moment Reb Shloimeh lost his head. He glanced at the teachers as though ashamed in their presence, and his glance said, "What is to be done now?" Suddenly he pulled himself together. "No!" he exclaimed, "they shall not get the better of me," and he ran out of the Talmud Torah, and was gone. He ran from house to house, to the parents and relations of the children. But they all looked askance at him, and he accomplished nothing: they all kept to it--"No!" "Come, don't be silly! Send, send the children to the Talmud Torah," he begged. "You will see, you will not regret it!" And he drew a picture for them of the sort of people the children would become. But it was no use. "We haven't got to manage the world," they answered him. "We have lived without all that, and our children will live as we are living now. We have no call to make Gentiles of them!" "We know, we know! People needn't come to us with stories," they would say in another house. "We don't intend to sell our souls!" was the cry in a third. "And who says I have sold mine?" Reb Shloimeh would ask sharply. "How should we know? Besides, who was talking of you?" they answered with a sweet smile. Reb Shloimeh reached home tired and depressed. The old wife had a shock on seeing him. "Dear Lord!" she exclaimed, wringing her hands. "What is the matter with you? What makes you look like that?" The teachers, who were there waiting for him, asked no questions: they had only to look at his ghastly appearance to know what had happened. Reb Shloimeh sank into his arm-chair. "Nothing," he said, looking sideways, but meaning it for the teachers. "Nothing is nothing!" and they betook themselves to consoling him. "We will find something else to do, get hold of some other children, or else wait a little--they'll ask to be taken back presently." Reb Shloimeh did not hear them. He had let his head sink on to his breast, turned his look sideways, and thoughts he could not piece together, fragments of thoughts, went round and round in the drooping head. "Why? Why?" He asked himself over and over. "To do such a thing to me! Well, there you are! There you have it!--You've lived your life--like a man!--" His heart felt heavy and hurt him, and his brain grew warm, warm. In one minute there ran through his head the impression which his so nearly finished life had made on him of late, and immediately after it all the plans he had thought out for setting to right his whole past life by means of the little bit left him. And now it was all over and done! "Why? Why?" he asked himself without ceasing, and could not understand it. He felt his old heart bursting with love to all men. It beat more and more strongly, and would not cease from loving; and he would fain have seen everyone so happy, so happy! He would have worked with his last bit of strength, he would have drawn his last breath for the cause to which he had devoted himself. He is no longer conscious of the whereabouts of his limbs, he feels his head growing heavier, his feet cold, and it is dark before his eyes. When he came to himself again, he was in bed; on his head was a bandage with ice; the old wife was lamenting; the teachers stood not far from the bed, and talked among themselves. He wanted to lift his hand and draw it across his forehead, but somehow he does not feel his hand at all. He looks at it--it lies stretched out beside him. And Reb Shloimeh understood what had happened to him. "A stroke!" he thought, "I am finished, done for!" He tried to give a whistle and make a gesture with his hand: "Verfallen!" but the lips would not meet properly, and the hand never moved. "There you are, done for!" the lips whispered. He glanced round, and fixed his eyes on the teachers, and then on his wife, wishing to read in their faces whether there was danger, whether he was dying, or whether there was still hope. He looked, and could not make out anything. Then, whispering, he called one of the teachers, whose looks had met his, to his side. The teacher came running. "Done for, eh?" asked Reb Shloimeh. "No, Reb Shloimeh, the doctors give hope," the teacher replied, so earnestly that Reb Shloimeh's spirits revived. "Nu, nu," said Reb Shloimeh, as though he meant, "So may it be! Out of your mouth into God's ears!" The other teachers all came nearer. "Good?" whispered Reb Shloimeh, "good, ha? There's a hero for you!" he smiled. "Never mind," they said cheeringly, "you will get well again, and work, and do many things yet!" "Well, well, please God!" he answered, and looked away. And Reb Shloimeh really got better every day. The having lived wisely and the will to live longer saved him. The first time that he was able to move a hand or lift a foot, a broad, sweet smile spread itself over his face, and a fire kindled in his all but extinguished eyes. "Good luck to you!" he cried out to those around. He was very cheerful in himself, and began to think once more about doing something or other. "People must be taught, they must be taught, even if the world turn upside down," he thought, and rubbed his hands together with impatience. "If it's not to be in the Talmud Torah, it must be somewhere else!" And he set to work thinking where it should be. He recalled all the neighbors to his memory, and suddenly grew cheerful. Not far away there lived a bookbinder, who employed as many as ten workmen. They work sometimes from fifteen to sixteen hours, and have no strength left for study. One must teach them, he thinks. The master is not likely to object. Reb Shloimeh was the making of him, he it was who protected him, introduced him into all the best families, and finally set him on his feet. Reb Shloimeh grows more and more lively, and is continually trying to rise from his couch. Once out of bed, he could hardly endure to stay in the room, and how happy he felt, when, leaning on a stick, he stept out into the street! He hurried in the direction of the bookbinder's. He was convinced that people's feelings toward him had changed for the better, that they would rejoice on seeing him. How he looked forward to seeing a friendly smile on every face! He would have counted himself the happiest of men, if he had been able to hope that now everything was different, and would come right. But he did not see the smile. The town looked upon the apoplectic stroke as God's punishment--it was obvious. "Aha!" they had cried on hearing of it, and everyone saw in it another proof, and it also was "obvious"--of the fact that there is a God in the world, and that people cannot do just what they like. The great fanatics overflowed with eloquence, and saw in it an act of Heavenly vengeance. "Serves him right! Serves him right!" they thought. "Whose fault is it?" people replied, when some one reminded them that it was very sad--such a man as he had been, "Who told him to do it? He has himself to thank for his misfortunes." The town had never ceased talking of him the whole time. Every one was interested in knowing how he was, and what was the matter with him. And when they heard that he was better, that he was getting well, they really were pleased; they were sure that he would give up all his foolish plans, and understand that God had punished him, and that he would be again as before. But it soon became known that he clung to his wickedness, and people ceased to rejoice. The Rabbi and his fanatical friends came to see him one day by way of visiting the sick. Reb Shloimeh felt inclined to ask them if they had come to stare at him as one visited by a miracle, but he refrained, and surveyed them with indifference. "Well, how are you, Reb Shloimeh?" they asked. "Gentiles!" answered Reb Shloimeh, almost in spite of himself, and smiled. The Rabbi and the others became confused. They sat a little while, couldn't think of anything to say, and got up from their seats. Then they stood a bit, wished him a speedy return to health, and went away, without hearing any answer from Reb Shloimeh to their "good night." It was not long before the whole town knew of the visit, and it began to boil like a kettle. To commit such sin is to play with destiny. Once you are in, there is no getting out! Give the devil a hair, and he'll snatch at the whole beard. So when Reb Shloimeh showed himself in the street, they stared at him and shook their heads, as though to say, "Such a man--and gone to ruin!" Reb Shloimeh saw it, and it cut him to the heart. Indeed, it brought the tears to his eyes, and he began to walk quicker in the direction of the bookbinder's. At the bookbinder's they received him in friendly fashion, with a hearty "Welcome!" but he fancied that here also they looked at him askance, and therefore he gave a reason for his coming. "Walking is hard work," he said, "one must have stopping-places." With this same excuse he went there every day. He would sit for an hour or two, talking, telling stories, and at last he began to tell the "stories" which the teacher had told. He sat in the centre of the room, and talked away merrily, with a pun here and a laugh there, and interested the workmen deeply. Sometimes they would all of one accord stop working, open their mouths, fix their eyes, and hang on his lips with an intelligent smile. Or else they stood for a few minutes tense, motionless as statues, till Reb Shloimeh finished, before the master should interpose. "Work, work--you will hear it all in time!" he would say, in a cross, dissatisfied tone. And the workmen would unwillingly bend their backs once more over their task, but Reb Shloimeh remained a little thrown out. He lost the thread of what he was telling, began buttoning and unbuttoning his coat, and glanced guiltily at the binder. But he went his own way nevertheless. As to his hearers, he was overjoyed with them. When he saw that the workmen began to take interest in every book that was brought them to be bound, he smiled happily, and his eyes sparkled with delight. And if it happened to be a book treating of the subjects on which they had heard something from Reb Shloimeh, they threw themselves upon it, nearly tore it to pieces, and all but came to blows as to who should have the binding of it. Reb Shloimeh began to feel that he was doing something, that he was being really useful, and he was supremely happy. The town, of course, was aware of Reb Shloimeh's constant visits to the bookbinder's, and quickly found out what he did there. "He's just off his head!" they laughed, and shrugged their shoulders. They even laughed in Reb Shloimeh's face, but he took no notice of it. His pleasure, however, came to a speedy end. One day the binder spoke out. "Reb Shloimeh," he said shortly, "you prevent us from working with your stories. What do you mean by it? You come and interfere with the work." "But do I disturb?" he asked. "They go on working all the time----" "And a pretty way of working," answered the bookbinder. "The boys are ready enough at finding an excuse for idling as it is! And why do you choose me? There are plenty of other workshops----" It was an honest "neck and crop" business, and there was nothing left for Reb Shloimeh but to take up his stick and go. "Nothing--again!" he whispered. There was a sting in his heart, a beating in his temples, and his head burned. "Nothing--again! This time it's all over. I must die--die--a story with an end." Had he been young, he would have known what to do. He would never have begun to think about death, but now--where was the use of living on? What was there to wait for? All over!--all over!-- It was as much as he could do to get home. He sat down in the arm-chair, laid his head back, and thought. He pictured to himself the last weeks at the bookbinder's and the change that had taken place in the workmen; how they had appeared better-mannered, more human, more intelligent. It seemed to him that he had implanted in them the love of knowledge and the inclination to study, had put them in the way of viewing more rightly what went on around them. He had been of some account with them--and all of a sudden--! "No!" he said to himself. "They will come to me--they must come!" he thought, and fixed his eyes on the door. He even forgot that they worked till nine o'clock at night, and the whole evening he never took his eyes off the door. The time flew, it grew later and later, and the book-binders did not come. At last he could bear it no longer, and went out into the street; perhaps he would see them, and then he would call them in. It was dark in the street; the gas lamps, few and far between, scarcely gave any light. A chilly autumn night; the air was saturated with moisture, and there was dreadful mud under foot. There were very few passers-by, and Reb Shloimeh remained standing at his door. When he heard a sound of footsteps or voices, his heart began to beat quicker. His old wife came out three times to call him into the house again, but he did not hear her, and remained standing outside. The street grew still. There was nothing more to be heard but the rattles of the night-watchmen. Reb Shloimeh gave a last look into the darkness, as though trying to see someone, and then, with a groan, he went indoors. Next morning he felt very weak, and stayed in bed. He began to feel that his end was near, that he was but a guest tarrying for a day. "It's all the same, all the same!" he said to himself, thinking quietly about death. All sorts of ideas went through his head. He thought as it were unconsciously, without giving himself a clear account of what he was thinking of. A variety of images passed through his mind, scenes out of his long life, certain people, faces he had seen here and there, comrades of his childhood, but they all had no interest for him. He kept his eyes fixed on the door of his room, waiting for death, as though it would come in by the door. He lay like that the whole day. His wife came in continually, and asked him questions, and he was silent, not taking his eyes off the door, or interrupting the train of his thoughts. It seemed as if he had ceased either to see or to hear. In the evening the teachers began coming. "Finished!" said Reb Shloimeh, looking at the door. Suddenly he heard a voice he knew, and raised his head. "We have come to visit the sick," said the voice. The door opened, and there came in four workmen at once. At first Reb Shloimeh could not believe his eyes, but soon a smile appeared upon his lips, and he tried to sit up. "Come, come!" he said joyfully, and his heart beat rapidly with pleasure. The workmen remained standing some way from the bed, not venturing to approach the sick man, but Reb Shloimeh called them to him. "Nearer, nearer, children!" he said. They came a little nearer. "Come here, to me!" and he pointed to the bed. They came up to the bed. "Well, what are you all about?" he asked with a smile. The workmen were silent. "Why did you not come last night?" he asked, and looked at them smiling. The workmen were silent, and shuffled with their feet. "How are you, Reb Shloimeh?" asked one of them. "Very well, very well," answered Reb Shloimeh, still smiling. "Thank you, children! Thank you!" "Sit down, children, sit down." he said after a pause. "I will tell you some more stories." "It will tire you, Reb Shloimeh," said a workman. "When you are better----" "Sit down, sit down!" said Reb Shloimeh, impatiently. "That's my business!" The workmen exchanged glances with the teachers and the teachers signed to them not to sit down. "Not to-day, Reb Shloimeh, another time, when you--" "Sit down, sit down!" interrupted Reb Shloimeh, "Do me the pleasure!" Once more the workmen exchanged looks with the teachers, and, at a sign from them, they sat down. Reb Shloimeh began telling them the long story of the human race, he spoke with ardor, and it was long since his voice had sounded as it sounded then. He spoke for a long, long time. They interrupted him two or three times, and reminded him that it was bad for him to talk so much. But he only signified with a gesture that they were to let him alone. "I am getting better," he said, and went on. At length the workmen rose from their seats. "Let us go, Reb Shloimeh. It's getting late for us," they begged. "True, true," he replied, "but to-morrow, do you hear? Look here, children, to-morrow!" he said, giving them his hand. The workmen promised to come. They moved away a few steps, and then Reb Shloimeh called them back. "And the others?" he inquired feebly, as though he were ashamed of asking. "They were lazy, they wouldn't come," was the reply. "Well, well," he said, in a tone that meant "Well, well, I know, you needn't say any more, but look here, to-morrow!" "Now I am well again," he whispered as the workmen went out. He could scarcely move a limb, but he was very cheerful, looked at every one with a happy smile, and his eyes shone. "Now I am well," he whispered when they had been obliged to put him into bed and cover him up. "Now I am well," he repeated, feeling the while that his head was strangely heavy, his heart faint, and that he was very poorly. Before many minutes he had fallen into a state of unconsciousness. A dreadful, heartbreaking cry recalled him to himself. He opened his eyes. The room was full of people. In many eyes were tears. "Soon, then," he thought, and began to remember something. "What o'clock is it?" he asked of the person who stood beside him. "Five." "They stop work at nine," he whispered to himself, and called one of the teachers to him. "When the workmen come, they are to let them in, do you hear!" he said. The teacher promised. "They will come at nine," added Reb Shloimeh. In a little while he asked to write his will. After writing the will, he undressed and closed his eyes. They thought he had fallen asleep, but Reb Shloimeh was not asleep. He lay and thought, not about his past life, but about the future, the future in which men would live. He thought of what man would come to be. He pictured to himself a bright, glad world, in which all men would be equal in happiness, knowledge, and education, and his dying heart beat a little quicker, while his face expressed joy and contentment. He opened his eyes, and saw beside him a couple of teachers. "And will it really be?" he asked and smiled. "Yes, Reb Shloimeh," they answered, without knowing to what his question referred, for his face told them it was something good. The smile accentuated itself on his lips. Once again he lost himself in thought. He wanted to imagine that happy world, and see with his mind's eye nothing but happy people, educated people, and he succeeded. The picture was not very distinct. He was imagining a great heap of happiness--happiness with a body and soul, and he felt himself so happy. A sound of lamentation disturbed him. "Why do they weep?" he wondered. "Every one will have a good time--everyone!" He opened his eyes; there were already lights burning. The room was packed with people. Beside him stood all his children, come together to take leave of their father. He fixed his gaze on the little grandchildren, a gaze of love and gladness. "They will see the happy time," he thought. He was just going to ask the people to stop lamenting, but at that moment his eye caught the workmen of the evening before. "Come here, come here, children!" and he raised his voice a little, and made a sign with his head. People did not know what he meant. He begged them to send the workmen to him, and it was done. He tried to sit up; those around helped him. "Thank you--children--for coming--thank you!" he said. "Stop--weeping!" he implored of the bystanders. "I want to die quietly--I want every one to--to--be as happy--as I am! Live, all of you, in the--hope of a--good time--as I die--in--that hope. Dear chil--dren--" and he turned to the workmen, "I told you--last night--how man has lived so far. How he lives now, you know for yourselves--but the coming time will be a very happy one: all will be happy--all! Only work honestly, and learn! Learn, children! Everything will be all right! All will be hap----" A sweet smile appeared on his lips, and Reb Shloimeh died. In the town they--but what else could they say in the town of a man who had died without repeating the Confession, without a tremor at his heart, without any sign of repentance? What else could they say of a man who spent his last minutes in telling people to learn, to educate themselves? What else could they say of a man who left his whole capital to be devoted to educational purposes and schools? What was to be expected of them, when his own family declared in court that their father was not responsible when he made his last will? * * * * * Forgive them, Reb Shloimeh, for they mean well--they know not what they say and do. [The end] GO TO TOP OF SCREEN |