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

Reb Moshe Pinchas heaved a sigh. “What can I possibly say?” he said. “There are things I know to be true and yet I twist them around so as to remove them from their truth.” His teacher said to him, “You have to set your heart straight by delving into ethical literature, such as Kav HaYashar and Shevet Musar . Reb Moshe Pinchas said, “The Holy One blessed be He does not bother with the minor books.” The old one smiled and said, “In that case, we shall turn to the major books.” And he immediately began discoursing on the various halakhic midrashim, and Tosefta and the entire Talmud until the house expanded like the foyer of a grand hall and yet there remained not one item that Reb Moshe Pinchas could not complete from memory, nor one legal ruling from which Reb Moshe Pinchas had not drawn a genuinely true outcome. At the end of three days when Moshe Pinchas was about to take leave of his teacher, the latter said , “ Here I am a man of seventy three years, and I have never before had the privilege of spending three days as joyful as these. Come sit down and I shall sign your rabbinic ordination, authorizing you to issue halakhic decisions. Though I am a small town rabbi, I am widely known and it is also known that my ordination is reliable since I was ordained by the Rav of Buczacz, the renowned sage Rabbi Hershele Kra, about whom our Rabbi Meshulam Igra said, “He is an ironclad rabbi!” The old man took a sheet of paper and wrote: “He shall teach! He may judge!” — the ancient formula for rabbinical ordination. He placed the paper in his pupil’s hand and said to him, “Here you have a talisman against melancholy.” The old one gazed upon Reb Moshe Pinchas and said to his household, “This pupil will not shame me when I appear before the authority of the heavenly court.” Reb Moshe Pinchas returned to his town and to his studies.

18.

What more can we tell that we have not already told? Reb Moshe Pinchas returned to his town and to his studies and tried diligently to put these matters out of his mind. And once again he was studying the way he had been taught. The renowned sage, author of Horeh Gaver , who was fond of his pupil and was proud of him, used to tell anyone and everyone that he had ordained Reb Moshe Pinchas as an authorized rabbi. And in that generation, the rabbis would not grant ordination to anyone other than an accomplished scholar. Word had reached Reb Moshe Pinchas’s father-in-law. His father-in-law said to him: “For the time being, you sit at my table and you share my food, but what will you do after my days on this earth are over? Perhaps it would be worthwhile to consider a rabbinic profession.” Reb Moshe Pinchas shrugged his shoulders by way of refusal. When his father-in-law tried to bring up the subject again, Reb Moshe Pinchas said, “If my father-in-law keeps me from my studies with idle conversation, I will end up being a complete ignoramus.” Reb Meirtche walked away from him, sighing and dejected.

19.

The Lord giveth and he taketh away, dethrones kings and installs others in their place. At that time, Reb Shlomo’s father departed to his final resting place. After they had returned the expired sage to the earth and eulogized him, the entire holy congregation stood and anointed Reb Shlomo in place of his father. After the seven days of mourning, Reb Shlomo went to his town to collect his wife and children. The town leaders asked him, “Rabbi, whom should we appoint to your chair?” He said to them, “Remember the day that I delivered my first sermon and that young scholar tried to trip me up with the law? I tell you that there is no one more worthy of being a rabbi than he.” The town leaders heard this and were astounded; here was a man who had publicly embarrassed him and had attempted to dishonor him and yet here he was advocating on his behalf. Reb Shlomo clutched his beard and said, “Know this, gentlemen, this Rabbi Moshe Pinchas is as great in Torah knowledge as the ancient sages, and even in a subject in which he attempted to trip me up his greatness was evident; I was saved only by the merit of my ancestors in that Moshe Pinchas was forced to study from a defective book and thus came to err, and when a man falls into error that error leads him to further error. And certainly by now he has recognized his mistakes. Go to his town and accept him as your Rabbi. And you, my beloved brethren, are bound to be happy with him, because the rabbinate suits him and he is suited to the rabbinate. And even the holy Torah is destined to be happy that one of her worthy sons is sitting at her throne.”

20.

Not too many days had passed before two men arrived at our town and in their hands the rabbinical appointment for “Our teacher, the erudite and astute rabbi, great scholar excelling in the entirety of Torah, etc., etc., and so on and so forth, may his name be of blessed glory, the sage, Rabbi Moshe Pinchas, a just and upright man of Israel.” They parked their carriage at the inn and entered, washed their hands, changed their clothes and went to see Reb Moshe Pinchas. At that same time, his wife Shaindel was sitting in the nursing chair, suckling her small son. Next to her stood her mother Elka, looking at the baby who was small for his years and yet melancholy for his age. Shaindel herself was also melancholy both on her own account and on account of her children, since as soon as one arose from his sick bed his brother was already laid up sick. And because she was immersed in gloom she flung it in the face of the entire world that it had been created only to oppress her in suffering. By her feet lay the cat, grooming itself. Elka observed this and remarked, “Your cat is washing itself.” Shaindel grumbled and said, “What have you come to tell me?” Said Elka, “If the cat is licking its fur, it’s a sign that guests are getting ready to arrive.” Shaindel said, “A house in which the head of the household is not found, is not likely to have guests found in it. God forbid that I should say anything against Moshe Pinchas, who doesn’t move from the study house. And where else would he sit? In this garbage heap? But this much I’ll tell you, Mother, my strength has ebbed and I don’t know why the Angel of Death tarries and doesn’t just come and take me from this world. It would better for him to kill me a thousand times a day. Why is it that all day long my eyelashes twitch and don’t stop twitching?” Elka asked, “Is it the right or the left eyelid?” Shaindel said. “You are a strange woman, Mother, what’s the difference whether it’s the right one or the left one?” Said Elka, “There is a big difference in it. If it’s the left, it’s a sign the guests are coming.” Shaindel said, “You see, Mother, it just so happens that it’s the lashes of the right one that are twitching. That being the case, there are no guests or anything else, only drivel. Now I’m going to fix the lunch meal. The fire is burning and the pot is boiling and I am sitting here babbling as if it’s Shabbat afternoon after the noodle pudding.”

21.

Meanwhile, the two dignitaries entered the town. They came across a little girl and asked her, “Whereabouts here is the house of Rabbi Moshe Pinchas?” The little one ran to her mother and in a loud excited voice exclaimed, “Two Jews are asking after Father. Mother, had you seen their garments, you would have thought they were going to a wedding!” Shaindel scolded her daughter and said, “Why are you hollering? What, am I deaf? If they’re asking, let them ask.” The little one said, “Mother, Mother, on my life, on my life, I’m not lying! Two important Jews dressed like fathers-of-the-bride came and asked me, Whereabouts here is Rabbi Moshe Pinchas’s house?” Shaindel said to her mother, “Go outside and see what this child is jabbering about, screaming non-stop like a crow.” Tears flowed from the child’s eyes and she said while crying, “I’m not screaming! I’m not screaming! I’m telling the truth! I’m telling the truth!” Said Shaindel, “Either you stop or get away from here. I will not tolerate yelling and crying. Oy, if only I had a place to escape to from here. How can one live in a house with incessant crying?”