Джеймс Миченер - The Source

He pointed to the headline in the English-language paper. “I know nothing. But the story seems real.”

“What I wanting to know …” The Rumanian woman could not finish her sentence because tears, which she could not control, dripped off her nose and struck her papers.

Cullinane waited for some moments, wondering how Ilan Eliav’s putative promotion could cause such a flood of grief. Was the husky girl in love with him? Was she jealous of Vered Bar-El? It was too deep for him, so he shrugged his shoulders and waited.

After a while Zipporah blew her nose again and fought to regain control. “I so ashamed,” she apologized. “Usually not crying, but the world … I wanting help.”

“Now put your papers up here, take a drink of water … You smoke?”

“Oh yes!” she cried with relief. After the first puffs she relaxed and asked formally, “Will you do me the honor to listening, Dr. Cullinane?”

“I sure will,” he assured her.

“Here is Zipporah Zederbaum, born Rumania thirty years ago. Married to Isaac Zederbaum nine years ago Tel Aviv. Widow. I working very hard …”

“I’ve seen that. I wish I could find a housekeeper like you in America.”

At this unfortunate word the stalwart girl’s composure left her, and she wept for some minutes. “I sorry,” she apologized. “My husband … I know you hearing many things like this too much … but he no good. Really. Not give me one agorot to feeding myself. Ran away with Yemeni girl. Left her and going to America. Never send me no money and while he walking along a road”—she consulted her papers —“in Arizona. He killed by truck. So now my friend Yehiam Efrati … maybe you know him? He working in dairy.”

“I don’t know him, but he wants to marry you?”

“Yes,” she cried brightly, as if he had solved a puzzle. “It’s so hard, Dr. Cullinane. A widow my age. Not easy to finding a man who will to marry her. But he is good man.” She dropped her head and repeated quietly, “Yehiam, a very good man.”

“You’re lucky, Zipporah, to find a man like Yehiam,” Cullinane said enthusiastically. “Now, what can I do to help?”

“Would you speaking to Dr. Eliav for me? If he going onto the cabinet …”

“We’re not sure of that yet, but let’s suppose he does. What am I to do?”

“He must speaking with the rabbis,” she whispered. “They must changing what they say.”

“What have they said?” Cullinane asked, and the inevitable papers were pushed before him.

“This my birth paper. Good Jewish parents. This my wedding paper. Signed by rabbi. This is a photograph my husband’s death paper. Notary public American here, rabbi’s name here. And this Yehiam Efrati’s birth paper. Also good Jewish family.”

“Everything seems to be in order,” Cullinane said brightly, checking off the various documents.

“And this,” she said dully, “what the rabbis in Jerusalem saying.”

Cullinane took the document, obviously official, and read the pertinent parts:In the case of Zipporah Zederbaum, widow, who wishes to marry with Yehiam Efrati, bachelor, the judges find that a brother of the deceased husband of said Zipporah Zederbaum is still living in Rumania, and that this living brother, Levi Zederbaum, refuses to grant his brother’s widow permission to remarry. On this point the law is clear, as stated in Deuteronomy Chapter 25: “If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her … And if the man like not to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother. Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her; Then shall his brother’s wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother’s house.”Long ago the rabbis determined that the widow of a dead man must not remarry until her dead husband’s brother give his consent, and it was further agreed that this consent must be given in writing, testified to by proper rabbinical authorities. In this case, all that Zipporah Zederbaum needs do is to obtain in writing the permission of her brother-in-law Levi Zederbaum in Rumania. She would then be free to remarry. But since her brother-in-law refuses to grant her this permission she is not legally free to remarry. And her petition to do so is denied.

Cullinane looked up from the amazing document. His first thought was: She’s playing a joke on me. A medieval joke. Then he saw that she wasn’t. “What does it mean?” he asked.

“As it says,” she replied. She was angry and there were to be no more tears.

“In Israel a widow has to get written permission from her dead husband’s brother …”

“Yes.”

“But why?”

“Our law. Husband’s family still has interest in dead man’s wife.”

“Does that mean your brother-in-law in Rumania is offering to support you?”

“Support?” she echoed contemptuously. “No Zederbaum ever helping another.”

“Then why doesn’t he sign the release … let you get married?”

The sturdy young woman handed Cullinane a translation of a letter and sat back clothed in fury as he read it:

Brasov, Rumania

Sept. 3, 1964

To the Rabbis of Jerusalem,I understand from the incredible document delivered to me yesterday that my sister-in-law, Zipporah Zederbaum, whose husband is dead, is not free to remarry unless I sign a paper indicating that I do not want to marry her and that she is free to marry someone else.I also understand that if I were in Jerusalem my sister-in-law would have the obligation, when she heard that I did not want to marry her, to take off my shoe and spit in my face.This is the twentieth century, and if I participated in any way in such medieval rites the authorities in Rumania would be justified in considering me a fool. I refuse to sign any such nonsense and I advise you to forget it too.In disgust,

LEVI ZEDERBAUM

Cullinane folded the letter and thought: It’s about what I’d have written. “What can you do now?” he asked Zipporah.

“Nothing,” she said.

“What do you mean, nothing?”

“That’s why I coming to see you,” she explained. “After this letter, nothing to do.”

“You mean you have to live the rest of your life unmarried…while a man is willing to marry you and support you.”

“Yes,” she said simply.

“It’s inhuman.”

“It’s the law,” she said, stuffing the papers back into her purse.

“Law, hell!” Cullinane snapped. “You wait here.” He ran out to the dig, calling, “Eliav? Can you come in for a minute?” When Eliav approached, Cullinane asked, “What’s this about a cabinet position?”

“These things come up from time to time.”

“But this time it’s serious?”

“Could be, but don’t tell anyone I said so.”

“Your first constituent is in my office. Woman by the name of Zipporah Zederbaum.”

At the mention of the name Eliav stopped…cold…refused to move. “No, Cullinane. It would be most improper for me to see her. Not at this point.”

“You won’t talk to her?”

“Look! I know more about her problem than she does. I sympathize. But it would be highly improper for me to speak with her now when I may have to judge her case later.”