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

Well, said he, if you want to see him, just lift up your eyes and take a look at me. So then they stared at him and sure enough they recognized him.

There was another great marvel which our men of good heart saw in Jassy. This was a man with hair growing from the palm of his hand. On one occasion when folk had been talking of the coming of the Messiah, he held out his hand and said, There is as much chance for the Messiah to come as there is for hair to grow on the palm of my hand. Before he even had a chance to drop his hand to his side, there the hair was. He always wore a bandage around that hand and would take it off only to prove that we must never despair of the Redemption. Of course, the wiseacres who know everything had already tried pulling out the hair, for, they said, he must have it fixed on with paste; but by the next day the hair would have grown again.

On the day after the Sabbath they left Jassy and arrived at Vaslavi, a town on the river Vasli, which joins the river Barlad. In that town there is a great market for honey and wax, from which five hundred householders make a comfortable living. They spent the night there and next morning proceeded to the Holy Congregation of Barlad, so called after the river running through its midst. In this town there are two graveyards, one new, and the other old, in which people are no longer buried. It stands in the middle of the town and in it are the graves of martyrs killed for the sanctification of the Name; graves that are black as soot and face the east. They spent one night there and in the morning made their way to Tikotsh, a large town containing between five and six prayer quorums. There they spent a night and went on next morning to Avitshi, whence they journeyed to a large town called Galatz on the river Danube, where you take ship for the Black Sea, which the ships must cross in order to reach Stambul.

All the time that our comrades were journeying through this country, the wagons followed one another through villages surrounded by meadows and vineyards and cucumber fields; flocks of sheep were scattered over the whole countryside, grazing in the meadows and drinking from the water troughs next to the wells; and shepherds sat piping pleasant tunes to them, tunes that were sweet and sad and sounded like the tunes that are sung in the House of Prayer on Yom Kippur. How do Gentiles who tend sheep merit such holy music? This was once explained by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov of blessed memory, who said that this people have suffered a great deal but never denied their God, and therefore they merit piping the very music that Israel, who are holy, sing on a holy day and in a holy place before the Holy One, blessed be he.

So the wagons went their way with the horses pacing ahead, neighing and with their tails raised; other horses which they could not see answered them from the meadows, at which they would twitch their ears and pause. Countless sheep went by, crowding and thrusting one against the other, with their wool all in curls; and a cloud of dust rose all around the sheep as they walked, while a little shepherd strode behind them with a whistle in his mouth, playing to himself. Tall hills rose above the ground, now to the east and now to the west. Water ran down from the hills and the hills themselves came together, as if they did not want to let the wagons pass. But the handiness and skill of the wagoner and of Hananiah, who drove their horses expertly, got them out of the narrow pass. They entered one town and left another, and wherever they arrived the men of good heart were received with great affection. Beds were made ready for them and tables were set with food and drink: with mamaliga floating in butter, and with sheep cheese, and with wine; and when they departed the town, the cantor would accompany them singing the Sabbath verse, ‘Happy in their departure.’

When our comrades arrived at Galatz, the party broke up. All the travelers awaited a ship which would take them to the Black Sea, while the wagoner went around looking for other wayfarers. The comrades sat in their inn and wrote letters to their brethren in Buczacz. They had much to write and they wrote much. This is the proper place to mention the good quill pens of the men of Galatz, which do not scratch or pierce the paper and do not splutter and scatter ink while writing; for since their geese are fat, the quills are soft.

The wagoner went to the market and hired out one wagon to the merchants of Leshkovitz, where the fair was still going on, since it sometimes lasted for four weeks and sometimes longer. The other wagon he loaded with sheepskins to take with him to Buczacz, trusting to the Lord that he would do good business with them.

But on the way he began to think, and his thoughts were disturbing. He thought to himself, What kind of fool am I to be going back to Buczacz, when those folk are going up to the Land of Israel? Here I have to water my horses and feed them hay, and do today what I did yesterday, and so every other day, until my time comes, and they lay me away in the ground with my teeth up, and the worms eat me. But why should I slip into thoughts of this kind? Has mine been a case of being able to go up to the Land and not wanting to? Rabbi Abraham the circumciser was certainly worthy of going up, but if the Name, be blessed, did not want him to go up, he did not.

The sun was about to set and its rays gradually faded. The hills were covered over, and the moon came up and lit the way. Everything was silent. All that could be heard was the sound of the wells of the murderers; for it is a custom of the people of those parts when they kill somebody to dig a well to atone for their sin, and put a creaky pump on top.

The horses twitched their tails and their hoofs began slipping. The wagoner looked around him and saw that they had left the right path. He tugged at the reins and cracked his whip, shouting, Where are you dragging me to, you beasts? I’ll show you the way to behave.

The horses lowered their heads and went the way they were required to go. And the wagoner wound the reins around his wrist and went back to thinking, now of himself, and now of Hananiah. This Hananiah fellow bundles his tallit and tefillin in his kerchief, and winds rags around his legs, and goes off to the Land of Israel, while all I do is go back to Buczacz. And why do I go back to Buczacz instead of going up to the Land of Israel? Because I am not prepared for the way. And when the Angel of Death comes, is he going to ask me whether I am ready?

While the wagoner was speaking to himself, his head sank on his chest. The horses turned their heads and saw that he was asleep. So they went ahead on their own accord, till suddenly they stopped. Whereupon the wagoner started up and took his whip and beat them until their flanks began to steam with sweat. And he yelled, Oh, you beasts, you always have to be sent off in a different direction from the way you want to go. By your lives, I shall thrash you until you forget that you are horses.

When the company arrived at Galatz they paid the tax required by the king of Ishmael, the Sultan of Turkey, and entered the town. There they found a market place full of food and drink, with all manner of delicacies and fruits whose names will not be found even in the chapter on blessings to be said over fruit in the Shulhan Arukh code of law. They bought provisions for the way, bread and wine and fruits and other things which sustain the heart. As for the people of Galatz, they showed their affection by giving them all kinds of preserves, to restore them while on the sea. Then the comrades shaved their heads and went to the bathhouse. The warm water drew the weariness out of their bodies, so that they really felt like new beings. After coming out, they hired themselves a ship and set sail on the river Danube until they reached a certain spot called Wilkup, where the river falls into the Black Sea and whence the ships go off to Constantinople. There they waited several days for the rage of the sea to die down, so that they might embark on a big ship.