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

After he had handed over the response to the trustees, he rested his head on the pillow. Later he got up from his bed and ate a little something and received every visitor, until the day and most of the night had passed. In the morning he wanted to go and pray in the Kloyz, but his legs would not oblige him and he was forced to pray in his room. A prayer quorum of ten men was found to pray with him, for many had come with the intent to pray with the rabbi wherever he prayed. After prayers his sister-in-law, the lady of the house, brought him coffee and something sweet. He drank the coffee and left the sweets. The matron saw this and said, “Rabbi, you shame my handiwork.” He tore off a small bit and ate. Some say that from the time he had learned of the matter of Reb Moshe Pinchas rejecting the rabbinate he hadn’t allowed himself so much as a taste of anything indulgent. While still sitting there, he raised his skullcap and wiped his forehead. This he did several times. The distinguished Reb Yehudah, father-in-law of my grandfather Reb Yehudah, observed him and hinted that they needed to let the rabbi rest. They began to leave. And Reb Yehudah also tried to leave, but the rabbi gestured to him with his hand to detain him.

The rabbi sat and said the grace after meals, while his brother-in-law and the rabbi Reb Yehudah and two other gentlemen who had arrived after everyone else had left were standing there and gazing upon him affectionately. He took out his handkerchief, wiped his forehead, and rose from his chair as if intending to leave. Where was he intending to go and who was worthy of the rabbi coming to see him? Out of an abundance of courtesy, no one dared ask. Finally, he came back, sat down and said, “I have been meaning to ask you. What is the state of affairs with Reb Moshe Pinchas’s widow?” Reb Shimon Eliyah responded, “Like the situation with every poor widow, so it is with this widow. She receives a little sustenance from heavenly mercy and a little from the mercy of people.” Reb Shlomo glanced over at the distinguished Reb Yehudah, father-in-law of my grandfather Reb Yehudah. Reb Yehudah said, “I give so that she and her children should not die of starvation.” Reb Shlomo said, “And who gives to them so that they should live?” The great sage looked over at his brother-in-law, who was very wealthy, perhaps worth ten thousand pieces of pure silver.

Rabbi Shimon said cleverly, “It is told that Sir Rabbi Moses Montefiore always used to say ‘It’s better to be a poor man among Israel than to be a rich man among Israel.’” The great sage grasped his beard, obviously suppressing his anger with difficulty, and said, “It is one thing to talk about a time when there were such generously charitable souls as Rabbi Moses Montefiore. But at a time…” He hadn’t finished what he was saying before he stood up from his chair and asked, “Where does she live?” They realized that he intended to call on her. They said to him, “Better you shouldn’t go, as she lives in a squalid, cold hovel.” The rabbi sighed and said, “She lives in squalor, the furnace is not kindled and people know this and yet are indifferent!” When they saw that he was going, they wanted to accompany him. He waved them off with his hand and said, “You have no interest in kindling her furnace, so why trouble yourselves? I also shall not kindle her furnace since you can see I am dressed nicely, and wouldn’t it be a pity for one’s clothes to get soiled.”

36.

It was exceedingly cold that day, and as cold as it was outside, inside the house it was colder still. The furnace was lit, but not enough to warm the house. The woman and her children sat wrapped in tattered clothing, vapor rising from the ground, and from the corner of the house there arose the sweet, pleasing voice of the eldest son of Reb Moshe Pinchas, sitting and studying at home because he had no shoes to wear to the study house. Because he was so engrossed in his studies, he had not noticed the rabbi enter. But the rabbi noticed him: that he was studying very nicely. And he immediately began to discuss Torah with him and was aware neither of the chill in the house nor of the heat of the fever within his body. The people in our town are in the habit of telling that upon his return from there he had said, “Had I not already married off my sons and daughters, I would marry them off to the sons and daughters of Reb Moshe Pinchas.” And he also had said, “For what reason has the significance of Torah waned in this generation? It is because the rabbis marry off their sons to daughters of the wealthy. The grooms are dependent on the riches of their fathers-in-law who buy them rabbinic posts, and they fail to toil wholeheartedly in Torah. Having secured for themselves rabbinic posts and exhausted their dowries, they naturally look to the wealthy householders for hand-outs in order to satisfy the needs of their wives, because the daughters of the rich cannot tolerate the pain of poverty, and as a result of that these rabbis are prone to obsequiousness and other unsavory traits. This is in stark contrast to one who marries the daughter of a poor scholar who all of her days had been accustomed to scarcity and deprivation, and her husband does not need to demean himself before boorish ignoramuses, and does not diminish the power of Torah.” Regarding the sage Reb Shlomo, it cannot be said that he was harmed on account of his wealthy wife, in that the merit of her ancestor our rabbi Ba’al HaLevushim enabled him to serve the Torah from a place of wealth and to perform good deeds of charity and kindness. But it has been said in his name that he used to say, “I doubt that it is appropriate for a rabbi to deal in money lending, even to do a good deed.”

He went to visit the widow once again. They say that he went to ask if there remained any writings of her husband and to bring her a dowry for her daughters. This time he did not linger at her home and did not discuss Torah with her son, because speaking had become difficult as a result of the severity of his cough, so he invited the boy to come to him. And when the boy did come, he dispensed with the town leaders and spoke with him.

37.

That day happened to be the twentieth day of the Jewish month of Tevet, and it was the sage Reb Shlomo’s practice to devote that whole day to the works of Maimonides inasmuch as it was the anniversary of the death of Maimonides, of blessed memory, and in the evening he would share any new insights that he had gleaned from his studies. Due to the onslaught of visitors, he had not had a chance that day to study and at any rate had not gleaned any new insights. And when the town leaders arrived and with them the great scholars, he told them, “Today is the anniversary of the death of Maimonides, of blessed memory, and it would be fitting for us to speak about him, but because of the infirmity of my body I have not studied today. Yet I will tell you a fine elucidation about Maimonides which I heard attributed to the sage and pious Reb Elazar of Amsterdam, of blessed memory, which he told before the great ones of his time when he came to our country to bless his family prior to going up to the Holy Land.”

“In the book Fundamentals of Torah, chapter 7, Maimonides, of blessed memory, says the following: ‘Prophetic insight does not alight upon anyone other than a great Torah scholar who is also a man of great principle.’ The commentary Kessef Mishneh raised the following quandary: ‘Why did Maimonides not write that he should be powerful, wealthy and humble, as in the opinion of Rabbi Yonatan in Tractate Nedarim, page 87’? In addition to Kessef Mishneh, the Lehem Mishneh raised the question, ‘Why didn’t Maimonides think of what was indicated in the tenth chapter of Tractate Sabbath, page 84, that the Divine Presence does not come to rest upon anyone other than one who is wise, wealthy, humble and tall?’ Except that our rabbis do give us a way to reconcile Maimonides. For after all, we have found in the Gemara that the Divine Presence rests even upon a total pauper, and even upon someone who is not tall. And if so, Rabbi Yonatan’s principle must be rejected, as it is told in Tractate Sanhedrin, page 11, “One time, the great rabbis were assembled in an attic in Yavneh and a heavenly voice came to them and said, There is one present here who is worthy of the Divine Presence resting upon him, except that his generation does not merit it.” The scholars cast their eyes upon Samuel the Small. Yet another time they were assembled in an attic in Yavneh and a heavenly voice called out and said, “There is one present here who is worthy of the Divine Presence resting upon him, except that his generation does not merit it.” The scholars cast their eyes upon Hillel the Elder.’ We conclude from this that the Divine Presence can rest upon a pauper, for after all it is said in Tractate Yoma, page 37, that Hillel the Elder was the greatest of paupers and that he was a woodchopper. And we conclude also that the Divine Presence can rest upon one who is not tall, for after all the scholars had gazed upon Samuel the Small. Indeed, Tosfot Yom Tov says in his Mishnah commentary, chapter four of the tractate Ethics of the Fathers, ‘Why was he called Samuel the Small? Because he used to belittle himself, except that according to the literal interpretation it appears that he really was quite short.’”