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

9.

About Reb Moshe Pinchas there isn’t much to tell for the moment. He was invested heart and soul in the Talmud, its commentators, and the commentaries on the commentators. He would complete one Tractate and immediately embark upon another.

But about Reb Shlomo there is what to tell. The Emperor’s troops arrived in the town’s environs for training exercises, with the Archduke in command. It occurred to the community elders that should the Archduke come to town he would surely visit the Great Synagogue to bestow honor on the Jews. And here there was no one who knew how to give a proper sermon, particularly not in the vernacular. For in those days our town languished without a rabbi, with an aged instructor serving in place of a rabbi. Moreover, that instructor was not accustomed to delivering sermons, even on Shabbat Shuva or Shabbat HaGadol, and it goes without saying not in the vernacular. They considered bringing in a preacher from Ternopil, from among the students of Yossel ben Todrus, known as Joseph Perl. Reb Shlomo offered, “I will deliver the sermon and I am confident that the merit of my sacred ancestors, whose righteousness endures, will sustain me.” All were delighted that there would be no need to engage a preacher devoid of Torah and mitzvot and they were astonished that Reb Shlomo was willing to undertake to sermonize in a language to which he was not accustomed, because if he erred or stumbled it could only be for the worse, not for the better. The entire town prayed that he wouldn’t trip over his own tongue, and that his words would be pleasing to the Archduke. The prayers did their share and Reb Shlomo’s talent took care of the rest, so that when Reb Shlomo stood by the Holy Ark and greeted the Archduke it was a truly holy moment, and everyone saw and recognized that if a man makes the Torah his lifeblood, all other forms of wisdom will come to him on their own. And yet it wasn’t a miracle at all, inasmuch as Reb Shlomo knew the entire Book of Psalms as translated by Reb Moshe by heart and also most of the hymns that Reb Wolf had translated, and some things he had after all learned from his wife who was fluent in German. This sermon brought him fame throughout the land. Reb Shlomo, however, tried to downplay it, so that it shouldn’t be said he gained acclaim by means of the German language and so as not to create an opening for the “new enlightened ones” to try and curry favor with him.

10.

At around that same time a certain town was bereft of its rabbi. The town sent for Reb Shlomo. They found him suitable and he accepted the rabbinical post. After taking his leave from all the elders of his town and his wife’s family, he visited the grave of his ancestor the sage Reb Pinchas and after leaving his ancestor he went to Reb Moshe Pinchas and said to him, “Now that I’m going to another town, I appeal to you that we make peace.” Reb Moshe Pinchas responded, “There will never be peace between us. Not in this world and not in the world to come.” Reb Shlomo heaved a heavy sigh and departed.

It is a widely accepted custom that when a new rabbi is hired by a congregation, all the townsfolk gather in the Great Synagogue to hear his sermon. And if the rabbi is among the famous ones, they even come from other towns. The topic of the sermon is announced a few days in advance, in order to give the scholars time to hone their studies in the event that they want to engage in back-and-forth with him. Originally, anyone wanting to debate would just interject himself into the sermon and start arguing. When everyone realized this led to confusion, it was resolved that all questions must be held until the conclusion of the sermon.

Now that the breadth of knowledge has waned, and sermonizers know nothing more than what they have specifically prepared, it has become customary instead to ask questions of the rabbi at his house. If he has an answer, he gives it. And if not, he becomes evasive and feigns fatigue. But, at that time, they were still allowing questions immediately after the sermon in front of the entire public. And so the date was set and the topic of Reb Shlomo’s sermon was promulgated, and the announcement was copied and distributed among several towns. This very announcement reached our town as well.

11.

One day Reb Moshe Pinchas said to his wife, “I’m leaving for a few days.” His wife, who was in the habit of accepting his pronouncements without complaint or argument, asked neither where he was going nor why. She gave him provisions for the road and said, “Go in peace.” He gathered his tallit and tefillin and set off for Reb Shlomo’s town.

The entire town was filled with guests. Those who had come for the sake of Reb Shlomo and those who had come to see who else had come. There were those who were eager to see the new rabbi and others eager simply to report what they had seen. The erudite Torah scholars walked around hunched over and debating with themselves. One would say to himself, “If Reb Shlomo says this, I will ask that and if he responds this way, I will inquire that way.” And the way one man strategized, so precisely did his colleague, and so the next and the next. Among those that came you would have also found Reb Moshe Pinchas, who was sitting in the study house, busily ruminating on the precise Talmudic discussion that Reb Shlomo had announced as the topic of his sermon.

The whole town assembled itself into the Great Synagogue, which was already packed with those who had remained after the morning prayers. And when Reb Shlomo entered with his father the sage to his right and his uncle the other great sage to his left, the eyes of most of the assembly welled with tears of joy at having been granted the privilege of beholding two such venerable sages who embodied Torah in human form. And so Reb Shlomo entered, and with him his father and his uncle, and with them several other rabbis and Torah learners, even the least of whom in our generation would have been considered a sage among sages. The entire congregation raised a mighty cheer in their honor and roared, “Welcome! May your arrival be blessed!” until the brass candelabras swayed from the clamor.

12.

Reb Shlomo ascended to the Holy Ark. He wrapped himself in a new prayer shawl and recited the Sheheheyanu blessing. He kissed the ark curtain and whispered several verses which are particularly suited for suppressing pride, and began to sermonize incisively and eruditely, argument and counter argument. Reb Shlomo was possessed of a gift of silver tongued eloquence, and even knew how to sermonize in the lingua franca and all the more so in the holy tongue which he had worked with his entire life. And once he had begun to speak all were filled with joy and they said, “What great fortune has been bestowed upon us to have this rabbi in our midst.” And even the simple folk recognized that great words were being uttered by him. Reb Shlomo endeared himself to them deeply. It’s been told that one butcher cried out in great wonder, “I am ready and willing to proffer my own neck for the slaughter on behalf of our new rabbi.” All the self-proclaimed debaters who had come intending to debate with the rabbi, set aside their arguments and stood trembling and quaking in trepidation lest they miss even one word of his oratory.

Reb Shlomo stood there wrapped in his new prayer shawl crowned with silver ornamentation, his face full of humility, his voice going from the Babylonian Talmud to the Jerusalem Talmud, from the Jerusalem Talmud to the commentary of Rav Alfasi, from Rav Alfasi to Maimonides, and from Maimonides to the Rosh, from the early scholars to the later ones and back again. Torah elders are in the habit of telling that they had heard from several old rabbis that those rabbis had frequently struggled to reconcile the very same Talmudic query posed by Reb Shlomo, and when they heard Reb Shlomo’s solution they realized that their thoughts compared to his were like vinegar compared to wine. They also tell that at the time of Reb Shlomo’s sermon, tears were seen in the eyes of that venerable sage Reb Shlomo’s father and they saw that at times Reb Shlomo would nod his head to his father and his father would then point towards the Holy Ark. The pundits commented that the son was nodding towards his father as if to say, “Father, all of this comes from you,” and the father, in turn, was pointing to the ark as if to say, “Your learning, my son, derives from there.”