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

In recounting all of this, I did not intend to give an example of an exemplary man or to tell about the zeal of Reb Moshe Pinchas. Rather, I have merely told the tales of two scholars who were in our town two or three generations ago, at a time when Torah was the glory of Israel and all of Israel walked in the paths of Torah, which is the delight of the Lord our Fortress until the coming of the Redeemer at the end of days. At which time we will be privileged to hear God’s Torah directly from the lips of our righteous Messiah, who will sit and study Torah with all those of Israel who have studied Torah with love.

Translated by Paul Pinchas Bashan & Rhonna Weber Rogol

Annotated by the Translators with Jeffrey Saks

Title: Two Scholars Who Were in Our Town / Cf. Sota 49a: “Two scholars who reside in one town, yet cannot abide each other in matters of Torah law — one will die and the other will go out to exile.”

Enhanced wisdom / Cf. Isaiah 28:29.

Wisdom calls aloud… / Proverbs 1:20.

Hoshen Mishpat / The essential work of Jewish financial law, codified in R. Yosef Karo’s 16th century Shulhan Arukh code of law.

Kloyz / A small house of study and prayer.

Fifteenth of the month of Av… / The Kloyz, in other words, was open for study and prayer around the clock, with the exception only of the month-long period of mourning (in mid-summer) for the Temple, from the fast day of the 17th of the month Tammuz until the 15th day of the following month of Av, when study did not take place in the evenings.

Joy of the Lord… / Cf. Nehemiah 8:10.

Gemara / Rabbinical analysis and commentary on the Mishnah, together the two comprise the Talmud.

Not a birthright… / Cf. Mishnah Avot 2:12.

Kosher for Passover / Since there can be no trace of leavened bread on Passover, the rabbi would have to ensure that the millstones were properly cleaned before the Passover flour for baking matzah could be ground.

Horeh Gaver on Yoreh De’ah / Reinush and his Horeh Gaver are fictitious, but cf. Job 3:3 from which Agnon takes the name of this rabbinic work, purported to be a commentary on a section of the Shulhan Arukh .

Kiddush and Havdalah / Kiddush is the benediction over the wine at the onset of the Sabbath; Havdalah is the ceremony at the end of the Sabbath separating it from the secular week.

Three parsas / A Talmudic measure of itinerant distance: one parsa is about four kilometers, approximately the distance a man can walk in 72 minutes.

Mikveh / A bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion to obtain purification.

Shemoneh Esreh / “The Eighteen” blessings, so called in reference to the original number of constituent blessings (there are now nineteen), is the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy, recited three times a day. It is also known as the Amidah (or, “Standing” prayer).

“Myriad are the needs of your people”/ Opening line of a short prayer recited during times of imminent danger or extreme stress; see Berakhot 29b.

Reb Mordechai Yafeh / Called “Ba’al (author of) HaLevushim” after the series of halakhic (religious law) works he authored, an important scholar and posek (legal arbiter) (1530–1612, Poland).

Horowitz the Holy Shelah / A Hebrew acronym for Shnei Luhot HaBrit (“The Two Tablets of the Covenant”), a book written by the revered rabbi and kabbalist R. Yesha’ayahu Horowitz (1560–1630), usually referred to as the “Shelah HaKadosh (the Holy).”

Ba’al Mofet / A saintly man or man of wonders.

Reb Moshe / Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), German Jewish philosopher, considered the father of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), had translated the Hebrew Bible into German.

Rabbi Wolf / R. Binyamin Zev Wolf Hindenheim (1757–1832), a grammarian and translator of the siddur to German.

Samuel II 6:16 / “And [as] the ark of the Lord came [into] the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul peered through the window, and she saw the king David hopping and dancing before the Lord; and she loathed him in her heart.” — for her criticism of her husband King David, it is implied that Michal died childless (compare v. 23)

Tallit / Prayer shawl traditionally worn only by married men.

Hatan Bereishit / The “groom” of the Book of Bereishit (Genesis), is the term used for the person called up for the first reading from the Book of Genesis on the holiday of Simhat Torah. This high honor is reserved for a respected member of the community.

Gabbai / Treasurer.

Forbidden to alter the interior space… / See Deuteronomy 12:4: “You will not do likewise to the Lord Your God,” which prescribes the destruction of idolatrous spaces, but proscribes doing the same to Holy space such as the Temple, and by extension synagogues (cf. Megilla 29a). The specific case, boarding up a space in the synagogue to block a draft, which does then reduce the “volume” of “holy” synagogue space, is discussed in the rabbinic commentaries, and is left as a difference of opinions between various authorities. The sources under question are outlined in E.E. Urbach’s important Hebrew essay on this story, “ Shnei Talmidei Hakhamim Shehayu Be‘Irenu — Mekorot uFerush ” in LeAgnon Shai , Urbach and D. Sadan, eds. (Jerusalem: Jewish Agency Press, 1959), pp. 9-25.

A bukher makht kidesh af a groyp / Yiddish: “An unmarried boy makes kiddush on barley grain.”

Ketzot HaHoshen / Important commentary on Jewish financial law authored by Rabbi Aryeh Leib HaCohen (1745–1812).

Rabbi Meshulam Igra / A master sage who became the Chief Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Pressburg, Hungary (1742–1801). R. Igra was a native of Buczacz, Agnon’s Galician hometown, which is never named explicitly as the “our town” of this story, although this seems apparent.

Chapter 200 / Volume 1 of the Ketzot HaHoshen is a commentary on the first two hundred chapters (simanim) the Shuhan Arukh’s 427-chapter section on financial law, the Hoshen Mishpat.

Chariot / As depicted in the vision related in Ezekiel, chapter 1.

Yehudah ben Teimah in tractate Avot / Mishnah Avot 5:23: “Yehudah son of Teimah said, Be bold as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer, and strong as a lion to do the will of your Father in heaven.”

Deliverance came from another place / Esther 4:14.

Shabbat Shuva or Shabbat HaGadol / The Sabbaths before Yom Kippur and Passover, respectively, on which rabbis traditionally deliver the major sermons of the year.

Ternopil / Major city of Eastern Galicia (today, Western Ukraine), about 70 km. north of Buczacz.

Perl / (1773–1839), major figure of the Galician Haskalah.

Sheheheyanu (“Who has given us life and sustained us”) / A blessing said to celebrate special occasions, especially in thankfulness for new and unusual experiences.

Rav Alfasi, Maimonides, Rosh / The major medieval commentaries on the Talmud and halakhah.

Reveling in his own distress / Cf. Prov. 17:5.

Maharshal, Bach, Rav Alfasi / R. Shlomo Luria (1510–1573); Bach — R. Joel ben Samuel Sirkis (1561–1640); Rav Alfasi — Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi (1013–1103) of Fes — all three engaged in determining the accuracy of the Talmudic text. Unable to access these rarer editions of these volumes (on which Reb Shlomo based his lecture), Reb Moshe Pinchas launched his attack on the incorrect text from the commonly available volumes.

Panie / Polish meaning “Mister”; i.e. Reb Moshe Pinchas is calling him “Mister” instead of “Rabbi” Horowitz.

If scholars battle / Cf. Bava Metzia 59b.

Shema / Recitation of the Shema (“Hear O Israel”) prayer, traditionally recited twice daily, as well as upon going to sleep.