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

Why, he answered, the Holy One, blessed be He, is roasting the Leviathan for the great feast of the righteous at the end of days, and that is why he has heated the sun to the boiling point.

What is happening to me? said one of the women to another. My eyes are growing dim!

Do you think, answered the other, that my eyes are made of glass? I feel as though they were being pierced with white-hot spits.

That’s not the sun in the sky, said Tzirel, but a fiery oven.

But Rabbi Moshe overheard them and said, No, your eyes are growing dim because of the radiance of the Divine Presence.

Even Feiga, who had made the journey for love of the Land of Israel, could not feel satisfied with what she saw. Where were those pleasant breezes which, people said, blew all day long among pleasant gardens and groves of myrtles and palms and citrons? And all the mountains of spices and odors like those in the Garden of Eden? Here the fires of hell were descending and burning the very marrow of their bones. Had the ship lost its way and strayed, God forbid, into a desolate wilderness of fiery serpents and scorpions, and were all manner of fresh woes about to descend upon them? The womenfolk knew that the Land of Israel is in ruins and that many troubles dog a person’s heels; but they preferred to remember what suited them and to forget what did not suit them.

Milka sat across the way, smiling.

Are you grinning at me? said Feiga to Milka.

It’s not you I am grinning at, answered Milka, but myself. In my dreams I saw a long and beautiful mantle at Lashkowitz to wrap one’s whole body in, and I wanted to buy it. And now do you know what I am thinking? If I had bought it, what could I have done with it? Why, wrap up the sun in it so that it should not catch a chill.

In my dreams, I too, answered Feiga, was sitting in a wagon and a fur coat appeared to me and I heard someone or other whisper, Just you go along to the fair at Lashkowitz, for there are all kinds of bargains waiting for you there.

And did you suppose that Satan had our good in mind? said Milka. All he wanted was to hold us up on the road.

The sun stood in the middle of the sky, heating up the ship, which became as hot as a pot resting on coals. Yet he in whose heart the love of the Land of Israel is fixed gathers strength from the sanctity of the Land, where the Higher Light still flows freely and without any hindrance, though the Land is in ruins.

Meanwhile the men of good heart withdrew their attention from the toils and troubles of their wayfaring and from all the devils who had hindered them, and their faces were aflame with the force of their perfect will. Rabbi Alter the teacher stretched out his hands and began tapping the box before him with his fingers and singing the mystical hymn beginning, ‘Sons of the Heavenly Hall, who yearn,’ and Rabbi Alter the slaughterer accompanied him with, ‘May they be with us…’

Ere the day was over, the ship reached the Jaffa shore and fired a loud cannon. Arabs came out of the town, wearing miserable clothing, short and dirty shirts reaching only to their knees and tied round with a thick rope, and the soles of their stockingless feet were covered only with slippers. They spoke noisily as though they were quarreling, and nobody could make head or tail of their language. Up they came on board, yelling at the top of their voices. They dragged the folk away like captives, and took their goods and flung them down into their ramshackle boats. They took their fee, yet even that was not enough for them, and they wanted to beat our comrades; but the Holy One, blessed be he, rescued them from the Arabs’ hands and brought them safe and sound to shore.

As soon as our men of good heart reached the shore they flung themselves on the ground, kissed the earth, and burst into loud weeping, until their eyes streamed like wells. How is it possible for children who return to their father’s home and find it ruined not to weep? Yet even in their mourning they rejoiced because they had been worthy to return home. They took one another by the hand and sang, ‘I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go up unto the house of the Lord.’ Furthermore they sang, ‘The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.’ And the Ishmaelites stood in the distance staring.

And so they went their way singing until they were brought to a certain courtyard known as the Courtyard of the Jews. There they found chambers, one for prayer with the congregation when they were ten together, and two more known as the Holy Chambers where there were beds for the use of the sick people coming from the journey; one chamber for men and the other for women. And there was another chamber there which was the chamber of the beasts, where the beasts on which people rode up to Jerusalem were stabled.

When a caravan that has been on a journey reaches its destination, the travelers assuredly rejoice, particularly if they have been in great distress and have come forth from it; for then indeed they have good reason to rejoice. But when one of the group is missing and nobody knows whether he is alive or dead, the thought of him is bound to come up no matter how much they rejoice and to disturb their joy. So it was with our comrades. For Hananiah had gone through so much together with them and had passed through so many adventures on his own in order to go up to the Land of Israel. And then when his time had come to go up to the Land he had not done so, and they did not know whether he was alive or dead; so how could their joy be complete? They vowed to have his name commemorated in Jerusalem and to pray for him at the Holy Places.

And now it is fitting to find out what happened to him — to Hananiah, that is. When his comrades went to fetch victuals for the journey, he went along with them. But on the way he parted from them and went in a different direction, but they did not notice it. After a while he came back and did not find them. Off he went to the port. When he came there, he saw that their ship had already set sail. How the poor fellow had toiled and labored in order to go up to the Land of Israel! And now when his time had actually come, the ship had started off and left him behind, and he stood watching and could not go with it!

Now Hananiah was always quick and nimble; so what had held him up on the way? Well, while he was standing in the market, a Gentile came along.

Aren’t you the fellow, said Hananiah to him, who wished to lead me to the Land of Israel through some cave or other?

Yes, said he, I am the man.

And what are you doing here? asked Hananiah.

I don’t know any more than you, said the other. Every day when I put on the tefillin of our former robber chief, I hear him weeping for his wife and children, and now I am wandering through the world in search of them.

May you live a hundred years, said Hananiah to him. You are earning your share of the world-to-come. Come along with me.

They went to a certain house, and Hananiah knocked on the window. The householder opened the window and asked, What do you want?

Where is the woman, answered Hananiah, who came here from Hutin?

I do not know, said the other. She went out with her children this morning and has not come back. Perhaps she has already gone off to Hutin.

On hearing this, Hananiah sighed and said nothing.

What do you need that woman for? asked the householder.

Hananiah pointed to the Gentile and said, This fellow can bear witness as to where he last saw her husband.

It would be a good thing, said the householder, if he were able to give his evidence before a rabbi.

While Hananiah was talking to the householder, the Gentile went to one side to put on his tefillin. No sooner had he done so when the woman came along and shrieked, Oh, those are my husband’s tefillin!