S. Agnon - A Guest for the NIght

Nevertheless, let us tell a little more about Yeruham and Rachel. They live in peace and their son is growing up and giving pleasure to them, to his grandfather and grandmother, and also to his aunt Babtchi, who consoles herself with her sister’s son. Kuba and Erela are preparing to settle in the Land of Israel, Schutzling asks me to send him an immigration certificate for his son, and Genendel asks for a handful of dust from the Land to give her contentment after her death. What Genendel wanted for her body, Leibtche Bodenhaus has done for his soul: he has sent a copy of his book to our National Library, so that he may be remembered in Jerusalem.

What else can we tell that we have not yet told? Daniel Bach strolls in the town or sits in front of his son Raphael, who lies on his bed and sees dreams the whole world over. When they have nothing to eat, they pin their hopes on those children that Sara Pearl as midwife will one day help bring into the world, those who in the future will build houses for themselves and buy beams for building and wood for their stoves.

What else can we tell? Every day letters come for me from Szibucz. Zippora has recovered and is firm on her feet. But what is the good of feet to one who has nothing to do with them? So long as her father was alive she used to go and visit him: now he is dead, she has nowhere to go, so she sits at home with her sister Hannah and weeps with her for Zvi, who was sent back from the Land of Israel, and between one time of tears and another they hope for divine mercy.

All Szibucz waits for the divine mercy, each in his own way; trade is bad and no one earns enough for food, and if a man earns a zloty the government comes and takes half for taxes and half for levies. On the other hand, Antos and Zwirn grow steadily richer, but I doubt whether that is any consolation.

There are other people in Szibucz with whom we have had to do and of whom we have not yet written, such as Reuben and Simon, Levi and Judah, or the tailor and his wife, or that old man who made a key for our old Beit Midrash, or the people of Gordonia, or all the other sons of Szibucz; but there is a covenant made for the Land of Israel that whoever does not settle in the Land is forgotten in the end, but everyone who has the privilege will be remembered and written of in the Land, as it is said (Isaiah, chapter 4), “Everyone who is written for life in Jerusalem.”

Now let us see what happened to that man who will live in Jerusalem and what he did in the Land; or rather — since he is settled in the Land and is only a tiny grain of its soil — who will deal with a single grain when the whole Land is before him?

The story of the guest is ended; his doings in Szibucz are done.

ADAR: Hebrew month; February or March.

ADDITIONAL SERVICE ( Musaf ): prayer service on the Sabbath and holidays, recited after the general Morning Prayer.

AFIKOMEN ( afikoman ): piece of matzoh eaten at the conclusion of the Seder.

AGADA: portions of the Talmud dealing with non-legal materials.

AKDAMUT: hymn recited on the Feast of Weeks ( Shavuot ) preceding the reading from the Torah.

RABBI AKIBA: leading Palestinian teacher of the second century c.e.

AL-FASI: Isaac Al-Fasi (eleventh century), author of a famous talmudic compilation.

ARBA TURIM: compendium of Jewish law by Jacob ben Asher (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries).

ASHKENAZI: pertaining to the Ashkenazim, Jews of the central European tradition, as opposed to Sephardim, Jews of the Spanish tradition, from whom they differ in ritual and in their pronunciation of Hebrew.

ASHREI (happy): the opening word in Psalms 84:5 and 144:15, recited in the Afternoon Prayer.

BAAL SHEM TOV (Master of the Good Name): founder of the hasidic movement (eighteenth century).

BEIT MIDRASH ( pl. Batei Midrashot): House of Study, a place of learning and worship. Usually identical with the House of Prayer.

CHAJES, ZVI PEREZ (1876–1927): Chief Rabbi of Vienna, 1918–27.

CLOSING MEAL: meal preceding the fast on the Day of Atonement.

DAY OF ATONEMENT ( Yom Kippur ): the tenth of the Days of Awe, which start with the New Year’s Day; a day of prayer, fasting, and forgiveness of sin.

DAYAN: member of a Jewish religious court; authority in ritual questions.

EIGHTEEN BENEDICTIONS: one of the oldest parts of the Jewish liturgy, occurring in the weekday prayer service.

EIN YAAKOV: compendium of non-legal sections from the Babylonian Talmud, by Jacob ibn Habib of Zamora (fifteenth-sixteenth centuries).

FESTIVAL OF TABERNACLES ( Sukkot ): an eight-day holiday, beginning on the fifth day after the Day of Atonement. It commemorates the wandering of the Israelites in the desert.

FOUR SPECIES: citrus ( etrog ), palm branch ( lulav ), myrtle, and willow branch, used in the prayer service on the Festival of Tabernacles.

RABBI GADIEL THE INFANT: a legendary creature of small size and great learning, known for his wondrous deeds; Agnon composed a short story abiut Rabbi Gadiel (in Hebrew in Elu veElu ).

GEHENNA: the Valley of Hinnom, represents the idea of Hell.

GEMARA: part of the Talmud consisting of discussions of the Mishna. There is a distinction between the Gemara of the Babylonian Talmud and that of the Jerusalem Talmud.

GENIZA: repository for Hebrew writings no longer in use; particularly applied to the one in the Ezra Synagogue in Cairo.

GUIDE TO THE PERPLEXED ( Moreh Nevukhim ): work in religious philosophy by Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides), twelfth century.

HAGGADAH: the text of the Passover home service.

RAV HAI GAON: leading talmudic authority in Babylonia, tenth-eleventh centuries.

ELEAZAR HAKALIR: influential liturgic poet in the early Middle Ages.

HALACHA (path): law; portions of the Talmud dealing with legal materials and proper observance.

HANUKKAH: an eight-day holiday (Feast of Lights) beginning on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev (November or December), commemorating the re-dedication of the Sanctuary by the Maccabees (167 b.c.e.).

HASID ( lit. , a pious man): a follower of Hasidism, religious movement founded by the Baal Shem Tov.

HAVDALA (“separation” of the sacred and the profane): benediction at the conclusion of the Sabbath and holidays.

KABBALAH: Jewish mysticism; its writings pointed to the deeper layers of religion, which it represented as the authentic ‘tradition’ of Israel.

KADDISH: prayer recited by mourners.

KASHRUTH: dietary laws and practices.

KERITOT: talmudic tractate.

KIDDUSH (sanctification): benediction pronounced over wine at the commencement of the Sabbath and holidays.

KLEISEL ( pl. kleislech): a small klois (see next entry).

KLOIS ( pl. kloisen): name given from sixteenth century on in Central and Eastern Europe to a house of talmudic study, usually attached to a synagogue.

KOHEN ( pl. Kohanim): priest, descendant of Aaron.

KVUTZA ( pl. kvutzot): collective settlement in the Land of Israel.

LAG B’OMER: the thirty-third day of a counting of days that begins with the second day of Passover and ends with the Feast of Weeks. Festive occasions banned in this period are permitted on this day.

MAIMONIDES (Moses ben Maimon): most prominent medieval Jewish philosopher; see ‘Guide to the Perplexed.’

MECHILTA: a midrashic work on the Book of Exodus.

MEZUZA: parchment scroll containing scriptural texts, attached to the doorpost of a Jewish home.

MIKVEH: ritual bath.

MINYAN: quorum of ten men necessary for a communal religious service.

MISHNA: compilation of legal teachings made by Judah Ha-Nasi about 220 c.e., which forms the basis of the Talmud.