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

In this way they journeyed for nearly two hours through fields and forests and villages until they reached the Holy Congregation of Yaslovitz. Here the wagoner whistled to his horses and stopped the wagon, for it had been agreed in advance that the wayfarers would make a pause there in order to see their kinsfolk in the town before their departure.

There is no town so close to Buczacz as Yaslovitz. The head of one lies, as you might say, alongside the tail of the other; nevertheless, there is no peace and good will between them. Why? Because, when the old rabbi of Buczacz died, the town elders set their eyes on his brother-in-law who was rabbi in Yaslovitz, and desired to appoint him their head. They went and proposed the post to him, but he was not prepared to accept it.

Could it be, said he, that I should leave Yaslovitz, which is a small town where nobody disturbs me in my study, and go to a large town full of sages and merchants who give the rabbi no rest, the first with their casuistics, the second with their business?

Well, what did the Buczacz folk do but take a carriage and horses, and go into his house one night and seat him on the carriage and run off with him to Buczacz. It had barely grown light, when the whole of Buczacz shone with his honor and glory, while the light of Yaslovitz grew dim. Thereafter, whenever anyone from Buczacz went to Yaslovitz, the folk of Yaslovitz would quarrel with him and try to pull his hat off since Buczacz had taken away their crown.

Now however, since our company had left Buczacz behind them and were about to proceed to the Land of Israel, all the hatred of the Yaslovitz folk vanished; the whole town gathered together to honor them and received them with brandy and cakes and confectionery and fresh water which they brought from the well.

Even the Gentiles showed them respect on account of the honor in which the Land of Israel is held. Never was so much honor and respect shown in those parts. People actually prostrated themselves before the wayfarers, and kissed their garments, and gave fodder to their horses, on account of their affection for the Land of Israel; with the exception of the Armenians, who did not share in all this, since they are descended from Amalek and Amalek is the foe of Israel. The Armenians dwell all over the country and do business with the Orientals in peppers and spices and scents, thus competing with Israel; and their country is near the river Sambation, beyond which lie the lands of the Ten Tribes of Israel; and they wage war with the pious King Daniel who slays a thousand of them together, and who dwells in Armenia in the community called The Blood of the Chick; and he is a great and mighty king, tall as a giant, and thirty-one kings pay homage to him.

It is the custom among the Armenians, if one of them should smite and kill another, for the murderer to pay three hundred and sixty-five gold dinars corresponding to the three hundred and sixty-five veins and sinews of the human body; but they cannot do anything to Israel, because they were overcome long ago by Joshua.

After the men of good heart had refreshed themselves from the journey, they entered the Great Synagogue, which was the one that school children had found hidden in the hill and had cleaned out. There the Baal Shem Tov of blessed memory used to hide in an attic to study Kabbalah; and there his soul had been exalted unto heaven. Prayers said in the Great Synagogue are never in danger of idolatry, but all of them reach the Gates of Mercy entire.

There the men of good heart prayed that they might go up to the Land in peace and not be harmed on the way by packs of beasts or brigands, neither by land nor by sea. Then they went back and climbed into their wagons, and all the townsfolk accompanied them as far as the limits of a Sabbath day’s journey. If you did not see the way the Yaslovitz folk gripped the hands of the Buczacz folk, you never have seen what affection is like in Israel. While the grown-ups stood shaking hands and embracing one another, the children patted the horses’ tails, since their hands could not reach up to those of the folk in the wagons. And that is why they say in Yaslovitz when a little fellow tries to pretend to be grown-up, Go and stroke the horses.

The company traveled for several hours until they reached the Holy Congregation of Yagolnitzi, where they spent the night. In the morning they started out and came near Lashkovitz, that Lashkovitz where there is a great fair whose like is not to be found in the whole world; for more than a hundred thousand merchants come there year after year to do business with one another. At that particular time the fair was taking place, and they met small groups of merchants and wagons laden with all kinds of goods, so that the very earth groaned beneath them.

There it was that Satan came along and stood in their way and asked them, Where are you traveling?

To the Land of Israel, they answered him.

And how are you going to make your living over there? said he.

Some of us, said they, have sold houses, and others have other resources.

Don’t you know, said Satan, that journeys eat up money?

We know it well, they answered. So each one of us has labored to lay up money for the expenses of travel, for inns and the ship’s fare.

And how about stuffing the pockets of the frontier guards? he asked. And who is going to pay ransom tax for you to the King of the Ishmaelites?

How much does he ask? said they to him.

May you have the good luck, he answered, to have him leave you food enough for a single meal. Well then, what you must do is go to Lashkovitz and earn money. Happy is the man who dwells in the Land of Israel and does not need to be supported by the Holy Cities. How people toil to reach Lashkovitz! And now that you have come this far, will you go away without doing business?

Busy as he was with the men, Satan certainly did not ignore the women. Kerchiefs and headcloths and dresses he showed them, until their hearts were near bursting after the fashion of women who see fine clothes and covet them.

When your mother Rebecca, said Satan to the womenfolk, reached the Land of Israel, what did she do, according to the Holy Writ? Why, she took her veil and decked herself to show her loveliness in her fine things. And now you propose to go to the matriarchs and yet you don’t behave as they did! Why, is Lashkovitz so far away? Why, it’s in front of your noses. If a man sneezes here, people will say good health to him in Lashkovitz. Even the horses are turning towards it. The very beasts know where the road leads.

But Rabbi Shelomo took out his pouch and filled his pipe with tobacco, and struck iron against a flint, and lit the pipe, and half closed his eyes, and began puffing out smoke fast, like a man who wants to get rid of a thought. He saw that the horses were gadding about in an unusual way, wanting to go on in one direction but actually going in another. Whereupon he touched the wagoner with the long stem of his pipe and said, Take yourself towards Borsztszow. And he urged him to hurry, since folks who proceed to the Land of Israel are like they who go to synagogue, and are duty-bound to run.

The wagoner cracked his whip, and tugged the reins one way and the other, and whistled to the horses, and turned them towards Borsztszow. The horses tossed their heads and dashed on until the dust rose from under their feet. At once the wagons with the goods in them vanished, and the whole countryside filled up with the lame, the halt, the blind, and every other kind of cripple carrying waxen models of limbs, models of hands and legs. For it is their custom to take these to the graves of the holy, there to set them up as candles in order that the holy men might see their deformities and remedy them.