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

Already from the outset of the exchange, when Reb Moshe Pinchas had addressed Reb Shlomo “ Panie Horowitz,” the whole assembly had been shocked, as they had never before heard a learned Jew address a Torah scholar using a secular title, especially not in a holy place. The elderly sage jumped up from his place and admonished him harshly, “Show some common decency!” And the rest shouted, “You audacious lout!” Reb Moshe Pinchas paid heed neither to them nor their shouting, instead fixing his eyes on Reb Shlomo in order to relish in his humiliation. And if not for Reb Shlomo, they would have thrown him out of the synagogue. Now even Reb Shlomo could not quiet the congregation down. And since Reb Moshe Pinchas realized that they weren’t going to let him speak, and all the more so since he was in a dangerous situation, he twisted his neck and started threading himself out of the congregation. And had it not been for Reb Shlomo’s kindly eyes he would have had his limbs crushed on his way out. Reb Shlomo resumed his sermon, and Reb Moshe Pinchas returned to his hometown. And even greater than his regret over not being able to contradict Reb Shlomo’s presentation was his regret that Reb Shlomo had attained even greater stature for showing him boundless affection from beginning to end.

15.

Upon Reb Moshe Pinchas’s return to his town he entered the study house and gathered a pile of books and each and every book demonstrated to him that the law was in Reb Shlomo’s favor. And even when he chanced upon a treatise which seemed to lean towards his interpretations it failed to ease his mind, since he was not inclined towards the kind of semantic splitting of hairs engaged in by hairsplitters, who push elephants through the eyes of needles with their sophistry. Reb Moshe Pinchas was consumed with regret for having attempted to delude himself, all the while having known the truth. He was overcome by sadness and fell into a dark melancholy. And when he managed to rise above his gloominess enough to return to his studies, he had lost the joy of learning. He ruminated, “What does it matter if I study or if I don’t, if I derive no gratification from my studies?” He began to examine his deeds. He remembered his mother. He started rebuking himself and said, “Now that I don’t need her, I’ve forgotten her.” He sighed and said, “I shall go and see her.” He gathered his tallit and tefillin and went to fulfill the commandment of honoring one’s mother.

The old woman had aged considerably but was still going about her way as always. Each morning with the crow of the rooster she would arise from her bed and wash her hands and face in the water troughs at the old mill; then she would feed and water the fowl and check their roosts to see if any hens had laid eggs. After that she would feed the cat. After that she would fluff up the straw in her bed while saying, “Yesterday you were light, today you are dense; today you are sprawled on my bed and I’m sprawled upon you, but tomorrow you will be used to stoke the hellfire that torments my soul.” Once she had made her bed she would sit and pray. When done praying she would perform the ritual hand washing and soak her bread in water so as not to trouble the last two tooth stumps remaining in her mouth, which she would need to eat the obligatory bit of matzah on the nights of Passover. Once she had eaten and then said the blessing over her food, she would sit and contemplate what else needed to be done. If there were people in need of help in the village, she would go to help them. If there were none needing help, she would go to her neighbor to trade an egg for a cup of milk or a spoonful of grain for her evening meal, which she would eat while there was still daylight since from the time her husband had died and Moshe Pinchas had gone off to reside in town she would not light candles except on Sabbath eve and the festivals. After she had eaten and blessed, she would take out her burial shrouds, lay them next to her bed and recite the Shema.

16.

When the son arrived at his mother’s she was sitting on the ground in front of the house, cutting up apples and pears to dry them in the sun. Seeing her son approach she put down the knife, smoothed her apron, raised herself up from the ground and said, “I don’t know how I got myself so caught up with these fruits. Have I not already eaten too much in this world? Oy, Moshe Pinchas, how many days, how many weeks, how many months have I not seen you?” Moshe Pinchas shook his head and said, “And as if I’ve seen you?” His mother saw that he was sad and said, “Heaven forbid, has trouble befallen you?” Reb Moshe Pinchas said, “To me, no.” She said, “If I had a mirror in the house, I would show you your face which is as dark as the plague in Egypt. Perhaps you have problems with your wife or your father-in-law or mother-in-law?” He responded, “I have neither sorrow nor travails, not from my wife, not from my in-laws.” His mother said, “This kind of face your father, may he intercede on our behalf, had when a certain good — for-nothing from the town wanted to build a steam powered mill. When you get to the river, take a look into the water and you will see your own face. Do you have an enemy, my son? Tell me his name and his mother’s name.” Reb Moshe Pinchas said, “His name and his mother’s name, what do you need them for?” The old one said, “My son, do you remember Mikita, who stole a grindstone from the mill? That uncircumcised one went to prostrate himself on the graves of their saints and returned all fire and brimstone, and when he curses a man in his name and that of his mother he turns him into dust and ashes. So, tell me my son, the name of the one who hates you and his mother’s name and I will go to Mikita.” Reb Moshe Pinchas heard this and shuddered. As his mother began to pester him he told her, “This same man whom I hate seeks only my welfare.” His mother said, “He seeks your welfare? Why then do you hate him?” Reb Moshe Pinchas said, “I hate him because he brings out in me this deplorable quality of hatred.” The old woman said, “I don’t understand a word you’re saying.” He told her, “Even I don’t understand, except that this is the way it is and I can’t explain it. Don’t fret, Mother, the Holy One blessed be He will help me.” The old one said, “The Holy One blessed be He will surely help you, for whom will He help if not for you? Don’t you study His Torah?” Moshe Pinchas’s face fell and he said, “Is it truly Torah that I learn? I’m worthless and I speak worthless words. Let me be, Mother, and I shall return to the study house. Perhaps the Merciful One will show mercy.”

After he ate, he returned to his town and to his studies. From this time forward, he did not budge from the study house and they would bring him his meals there. And if it was not for the beadle, who would remind him that it was time to say Kiddush and eat the festive meal, he would not have returned home even on Sabbath eves, so engrossed was he in his studies. The elders of the study house would say, “If you have not yet seen a man prepared to kill himself for his studies, just take a look at Rabbi Moshe Pinchas.”

17.

One day Reb Moshe Pinchas vanished from the town. People assumed he had gone to his mother, but finally it was discovered that he he had gone to see his first teacher, our renowned scholar Rabbi Gabriel Reinush, the author of Horeh Gaver , a commentary on Yoreh De’ah. For what reason did he go to his teacher? Let us listen and find out: he came to his teacher and found him lying on his bed reading a book. He said to him, “Is my teacher ill?” He responded, “Why?” And he said, “Because I see him laid out on his bed.” He responded, “I am an old man and it no longer pays for me to get new clothes made, so I lie in my bed in order not to wear out my clothes from sitting. Turn away and I’ll get dressed.” The old man donned his clothing and stood up straight. Before long he had begun to hold forth to his pupil awesome and wondrous new insights, from the mere tip of which the rabbis of today’s generation would compile voluminous books. Finally, he began to direct the conversation to the name of the town where he had attempted to obtain a rabbinical post and had raised, in his astute expertise, some doubts about whether it was permissible to arrange divorces there. In the midst of speaking, the teacher looked at his pupil and noticed that he was not happy, but how could that be when “God’s precepts are straight and good, making our hearts rejoice.” The teacher said to him, “You’re sitting there as if you’re listening to something insignificant. You know, Moshe Pinchas, we may need to send you back to primary school.” Reb Moshe Pinchas lowered his head and said, “It is for that reason that I came.” The teacher was moved by compassion for his pupil and said to him, “My son, what has brought you here?” Reb Moshe Pinchas whispered and said, “Woe is me, my teacher, for I have strayed from the path of righteousness.” The old one responded, “The Torah protects and the Torah rescues.” Reb Moshe Pinchas said, “This refers to someone who learns Torah for the sake of Torah.” The old one said, “God Forbid that a man who learned Torah from me did not learn Torah for its own sake.”