S. Agnon - Two Scholars Who Were in our Town and other Novellas

27.

Reb Moshe Pinchas remained without any source of livelihood. A little merchandise remained from his father-in-law’s inheritance. Once this had been sold off and the widow’s portion distributed, not even one meal’s worth was left for Reb Moshe Pinchas. Well-to-do Jewish householders support themselves and their children, so long as they are still alive; when they die their sustenance dies with them. Rabbi Moshe Pinchas was willing to make due with a slice of bread dipped in salt. Before long, even his bread and salt became scarce. And now his children went begging for bread and a piece of cloth to cover their nakedness. And at home there was neither bread nor garment.

The Holy One blessed be He did not leave him long to suffer. One day Reb Moshe Pinchas took ill. The second day word got around that he was seriously ill. The third day word spread in town that he was dangerously ill. When Reb Moshe Pinchas sensed that they were preparing for his demise, he raised himself upon his bed and said, “The time has not yet come for this man to die; there still remain some pages of Talmud that he has not studied sufficiently well.” Not many days passed before he had arisen from his sickbed. And naturally, upon leaving his bed he entered the study house and did not budge from there until he had learned those very pages and completed studying the entire Talmud. Had he postponed the conclusion of his studies he would have lived, but could a man whose entire life had been Torah survive even one day without Torah? As he completed the Talmud, his life also ended. The Kaddish prayer, customarily recited upon completing Talmud study was recited instead by his son at his gravesite.

28.

Reb Moshe Pinchas was raised on Torah, labored on Torah, acquired a good name and passed on from the world with a good name. At his burial, his eulogizer got excited while giving the tribute and proclaimed, “Happy is he who arrives in the next world with his learning in hand. At this funeral it is as if we have just buried all of the major works of Torah interpretation.” His mother who had aged greatly, stood at her son’s grave, leaning on her cane and rubbing her eyes dimmed with age saying, “Would you have ever imagined that my little Pinchas would do this to me, that he would go off to the Garden of Eden and leave his mother behind in a world that is worse than hell? And wouldn’t it have been more fitting that I should die and he should live? I implore you, good people, look and see, I haven’t even the eyes with which to cry.” And so, Reb Moshe Pinchas parted from this world. And after the snows had melted and the ground had firmed up, they placed a monument on his grave, like those of the great rabbis who had served in the rabbinate of our town.

29.

About Reb Moshe Pinchas we will presently add not a word more. However, about Reb Shlomo we will tell, for about him there is what to tell. Reb Shlomo was a man of high stature. He had married off his sons and daughters and with each passing year his prominence soared. His teachings were recognized throughout the land and all the most difficult questions were brought before him. And it goes without saying that our town, which had no rabbi, made no move either large or small without consulting him. And although besieged with burdensome inquiries, his responses were never tardy. The majority of them began thus: “To my beloved soul mates,” and other such words of endearment. And at times at the end of his response he would add new insights gained during the course of his studies. He would also respond to insights sent to him by students, in order to strengthen their devotion to Torah.

30.

In the meantime the rabbinical post in our town stood vacant, and every time a wealthy householder from our town was invited to Reb Shlomo’s town he would say to him, “Rabbi, when will you finally come to us? The rabbinical seat still awaits you.” A few of those in the community, who feared that the matter would drag on and that our town would remain without a rabbi as it had until now, entered into discussions with a sage from one of the nearby towns. This sage, seeing that most of the people were leaning towards Reb Shlomo, got out of it by way of a jest. He said, “After all, I am already a rabbi in your town, as most of the householders who are in my town reside in yours.” And here we must explain the words of the sage. “Reside” meant reside in the jails, in that some of the householders of his town would be caught conducting fraudulent business and would be incarcerated in the jails of our town, as the jails in our town serviced the entire region.

31.

Reb Shlomo occupied the seat of his father and led his congregation peacefully and equitably. He issued several rulings which were good for the rich as well as for the poor, for the mighty as well as for the meek, for the men as well as for the women. How so for the rich? Among the wealthy are those who avert their eyes from the poor and do not give charity. When the needy die, even if their debts are paid off, they are not permitted to be buried until their heirs pay a certain amount for plot fees. And at times this would delay the deceased from burial so long that the body emitted a stench. Reb Shlomo ruled that every rich person had to purchase a burial plot in the cemetery and donate annually to the poor fund an amount equal to the interest he would have earned had he loaned the same amount that the land had cost him. And the result was that the rich and poor benefited equally. And how so for the mighty and the meek? There were some people who could not afford to pay tuition for private tutors and were embarrassed to bring their children to the local schoolhouse, for that is where the children of the poor study and it would become known that they were poor. Reb Shlomo appointed good teachers at the school and personally tended to the pupils. Some of the wealthy householders envied them and began to bring their boys there as well, so that one could no longer distinguish between the poor and the rich. For men and women, how so? It was customary in town that when an important person died his remains would be purified in the ritual bath. As this caused some women to fear going to that mikveh, Reb Shlomo decreed that it was prohibited to bring the dead for immersion.

32.

And thus Reb Shlomo sat in peace and led his congregation equitably. He issued many rulings and received everyone graciously. But anywhere he detected even a hint of desecrating God and His Holy Torah he wouldn’t stand for it, even from the upstanding. In the town there was a certain wealthy Enlightenment scholar, one of those about whom scripture says, “Can an Enlightened one seek after God?” Once during the life of the old scholar of blessed memory, this man was seen riding in a steam-powered wagon, which today is called a train, on the second day of the festival, a holy day. And when he was chastised instead of saying, “I was forced to,” he rather attempted to prove that travel by this type of wagon is permitted even on the Sabbath. Back in those days, transgressors used to seek a lenient interpretation of the rules of law, the very same kind of interpretation that the later medieval rabbis had decreed to be without foundation. When Reb Shlomo had been appointed as rabbi of the town, that same Enlightenment scholar had tried to get close to him, mistakenly thinking that he had found someone of like mind, inasmuch as the rabbi was familiar with German. Reb Shlomo, who embraced everyone, detested those scholars who used their knowledge perversly, uncovering ways to interpret the Torah in contravention of religious law, all the more so with respect to Sabbath observance upon which the redemption of Israel depends. And the more this man tried to get close to him, the more he would keep him at a distance. He started griping about the rabbi, and once he started griping about the rabbi, he discovered other gripers like himself.