On This Foundation

by Lynn Austin

  “I care about the rich as much as I do the poor,” he told them. “As your governor, I could impose a tax on all of you for my support, but I’m not going to do that. Neither I nor my brothers have demanded the food allotment that Governor Sanballat required before I came. I know what a heavy burden he placed on the people, taking forty shekels of silver from each of you in addition to a tax on your food and wine. His assistants lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God, I didn’t act like that. I never demanded the food allotted to me because I knew what a heavy load it placed on you. How can I live in luxury when there are people in this province who are in need? I have devoted myself to the work on the wall instead of acquiring land and servants and planting crops. Listen, if you won’t give up your rights to repayment and help your brothers for the Almighty One’s sake, then at least do it to avoid the scorn of the nations. The Gentiles know how our God set us free from slavery in Egypt. Is He now too weak to set His people free from slavery to their own brethren? And one more thing—if we free our brothers out of kindness and compassion, maybe one day the Holy One will free us from servitude to the Persians.”

  Most of the men standing in front of Nehemiah seemed chastened. It was time to ask them to act on what they’d heard. “Do you agree to do what I’m asking?” he challenged. “Will you find it in your hearts to show compassion?”

  “We will give everything back,” one of the leaders said.

  “And we will not demand anything more from them,” another added.

  “We will do as you say.”

  The cheer that followed their promises was deafening. But just to make sure that these men wouldn’t go back on their word, Nehemiah summoned the priests standing off to one side. “Have all these nobles and officials take an oath before God to do what they just promised,” he told them. Then he got the crowd’s attention again and made a dramatic show of shaking out the folds of his robe. “In this way,” he shouted, “may God shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out and emptied!”

  At this the whole assembly shouted, “Amen,” and they praised the Lord in a loud voice.

  Nehemiah stepped down from the platform as the priests took his place to administer the oath. “Let’s get back to work on the wall,” he told his brothers. They headed toward the central staircase leading down to the city, and once again hundreds of people crowded around Nehemiah to thank him, some reaching out to touch him or his robe. He fought to quell his rising panic as they closed in, knowing they meant him no harm.

  At last he reached the city street below, and he could breathe again. He thought of the prophecy that Rebbe Ezra had read about God’s condemnation of the leaders who hadn’t sought justice for their people. That prophecy had been fulfilled in his ancestors’ time, the leaders and kings contributing to their nation’s destruction and exile. But Nehemiah was satisfied that this morning he had restored a measure of justice and righted a wrong.

  Remember me with favor, O my God, he silently prayed, for all I have done for these people.

  Chapter

  29

  JERUSALEM

  Nava stood in the tightly packed crowd at the temple, secretly holding Dan’s hand as they listened to Nehemiah deliver his speech. “Give back their land and their sons and daughters . . .” the governor said. Dan joined the great cheer that erupted all around them but Nava couldn’t utter a sound, her throat tight with emotion. When the noise died away she held her breath, waiting to hear how the rich men would respond. If only God would answer her prayers.

  “Are they going to do it?” she whispered to Dan. Her hand ached from the strength of his grip.

  “Maybe . . . I don’t know . . . listen . . .”

  “We will give everything back,” one of the leaders said.

  “And we will not demand anything more from them,” another added.

  “We will do as you say.”

  The cheer that followed their promises was deafening. Neither Nava nor Dan could resist the urge to hug each other with joyful abandon. Abba would get his land and vineyard back. Nava would go free. She could be with Dan for the rest of her life and never have to worry about Master Aaron again. “It’s too wonderful to believe,” she said as she clung to the man she loved.

  When the governor made the men take an oath before God so they wouldn’t go back on their word, Nava longed to watch Master Malkijah take the vow. But she was too far away to see who came forward to stand before the priests. As Governor Nehemiah plowed through the crowd to leave the temple mount, she and Dan rushed forward to thank him like so many others were doing. He had renewed her hope and given her a future.

  “I need to return to work,” she told Dan after the governor was gone.

  “Why bother? You’re going to be set free now. You can go home to your family.”

  “Maybe . . . but I’m not free yet. And now that the men will be returning to work on the wall, I need to help prepare food for them. The governor did his part, now we all need to do ours.”

  She and Dan made their way through the joyful chaos as poor families like theirs cheered and wept and celebrated the good news. The men who had left their farms to rebuild the wall hurried to their worksites. “Are you going back to help with the wall, too?” she asked Dan.

  “Yes, but I want to go home first, and tell our families the good news. Just think! Our fathers’ farms and crops will belong to them again. Their loans will be canceled. And best of all, you’ll be coming home.”

  “Is it safe to walk there all alone?”

  “I’ll be fine in the daylight hours. Believe me, I’m so happy I could run all the way home and back again!”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” she said as they neared Malkijah’s house. He gave her hand a loving squeeze, and she ran the rest of the way to the courtyard door.

  Nava couldn’t disguise her joy as she hurried into the kitchen. “You’re late again,” the housekeeper said. “Where were you all this time? . . . And why are you grinning like you just found gold?”

  “I have wonderful news! I went to the temple for the sacrifice and Governor Nehemiah held a meeting afterward. . . .” She looked around at the other servants, aware that everyone except the housekeeper was a bondservant like her. “He appealed to all the rich landowners to show mercy to families like ours who’ve become poor because of the drought. He asked them to cancel our debts and set all their bondservants free!”

  Nava’s friend Rachel covered her mouth as she gave a little cry. If it was true, she could go home to her husband and children. Nava saw the tangled mixture of hope and fear in everyone’s eyes as they stared at her. She understood their reluctance to believe her.

  “All the wealthy men agreed to do it,” she told them. “I heard them! Governor Nehemiah made them come forward and take an oath before the priests promising to give everything back to us.” She could barely stand still, wanting to jump up and down with joy.

  “Did Master Malkijah take the oath, too?” Rachel asked. “Is he really going to give us our freedom?”

  “I don’t know for certain . . . it was too crowded to see. But surely he will. All the other leaders swore to do it.”

  “In the meantime, we have work to do,” the housekeeper said, clapping her hands. “I assume this means that the work on the wall will continue?”

  “I think so. I saw a lot of men hurrying to their worksites.”

  “In that case, we have a meal to prepare for a lot of hungry workers. Get busy.”

  Nava did her chores in a daze of joy, imagining all that awaited her in the next few days. She would return home and hug her mother and father and brothers for the first time in more than two months. She would work alongside them on Abba’s land, knowing that it all belonged to him again. With their debts canceled, maybe she and Dan could be married at last. They would announce their betrothal, and Dan would begin digging the foundations for the home they would share.

&nbs
p; Nava and the others finished preparing the midday meal, and a team of servants left to carry it to the workers at the Dung Gate. Master Malkijah was expecting dinner guests that evening, so Nava and the others had another huge meal to prepare that afternoon. But she took a moment to hug Rachel tightly when they were alone in the storage room. “We’re going to be free! Can you believe it?” Nava whispered.

  “No . . . I’m afraid to believe it. I want to hear it from Master Malkijah’s own mouth.”

  When the master returned from his work at the Dung Gate late that afternoon, he went straight to his chambers to wash and change his clothes before his guests arrived. The servants watched his every move, holding their breath, waiting for the announcement that he would cancel their debts and set them free. But Malkijah never said a word about it.

  Nava strained to overhear snatches of conversation as she served the evening meal, but the only thing the men talked about was the progress on the wall. She and the other servants were reluctant to go to bed, waiting for the announcement of their freedom. When Malkijah’s last guest departed, he retired to his bedchamber. “Surely he hasn’t forgotten, has he?” Rachel asked as they cleared the dinner table. “He must know we’re all eager to hear him say it.”

  “Maybe he’s going to make a grand announcement tomorrow,” Nava said.

  But Malkijah left the house early the next morning without eating breakfast. Nava and the other servants gathered in the kitchen to talk to the housekeeper. “Did our master say anything at all about giving us our freedom?” one of them asked.

  The housekeeper shook her head. “Not a word. Nava must have been mistaken about what she heard at the temple. Now eat your breakfast and get to work. We have a lot to do today.”

  Instead of eating, Nava hurried up to the temple for the morning sacrifice. She found Dan waiting for her in their usual place, his eyes filled with hope. “Are you ready to go, Nava? I told your family that I would bring you home today, and they were overjoyed to hear the news. They can hardly wait to see you and—” He stopped when he saw her tears. “Nava, what’s wrong?”

  “I’m not free yet. Master Malkijah never said anything about it when he came home last night. And he left again this morning without saying anything.”

  “I don’t understand. The men took an oath before God.”

  “I don’t understand either. It was hard enough to have our dream snatched away the first time, but if it happens again . . .” She couldn’t finish. Dan steered her out of the courtyard and down the stairs, neither of them in the mood to worship the Almighty One.

  “Let’s just go home to our families,” Dan said. “Come on, what can Malkijah do to us?”

  Nava longed to go, imagining herself at home again with the people she loved. But she knew she couldn’t. “I can’t leave yet, Dan. I promised Abba that I would work as a bondservant to help repay his debts, and I can’t disappoint him. Besides, Malkijah could take away Abba’s land if I don’t work for him. That was the deal they made. I need to work until the debt is officially canceled and I’m set free.”

  “Then let’s find him, either here at the temple or where he works at the Dung Gate. Let’s demand to know why you aren’t free.” Dan’s short temper fueled his impatience. He wanted to take action and do something, and his pent-up energy would be dangerous until his anger cooled.

  “Dan, we can’t confront my master. Our fathers are the ones who need to talk to him, not us.”

  “Nava, no! We need to—”

  “We need to stay calm and wait to see what happens. Malkijah is a very powerful man. Please, Dan.”

  He gazed into the distance toward home, and Nava saw him fighting for control as if trying to calm a whirlwind. “Fine. I won’t confront him. I’ll get my father and yours and all the other men who are in debt to him, and we’ll confront him together. Do you know if he’s going back to Beth Hakkerem soon or should we talk to him here?”

  “He usually goes home for the Sabbath.”

  “If he doesn’t set you free by then, we’ll demand to know why not.”

  For the rest of the week, Nava and her fellow bondservants hung in suspense, waiting for their freedom. Nothing happened. Malkijah traveled home to Beth Hakkerem for Shabbat, and the day of rest seemed a month long as Nava waited for Dan to return from confronting him. When she finally saw Dan climbing the temple steps on the first day of the week, she guessed from his angry expression that the news wasn’t good.

  “What happened? What did he say?” Nava asked.

  “Malkijah refuses to set anyone free. He’s not canceling anyone’s debts.”

  Nava’s strength drained away, along with her hope. She needed to sit down. She stumbled forward and sank onto the top step, ignoring the flow of people coming up for the sacrifice. She listened to the Levites singing the liturgy in the distance, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever,” and wanted to scream at them to stop. Why praise a God who didn’t answer her prayers, a cruel God who gave her hope and then snatched it away again?

  “Did Malkijah give you a reason why?” she finally asked. Dan sat down on the step beside her.

  “He said he can’t afford to do it. He wouldn’t even meet with us. He sent his manager out to tell us, instead.”

  She would confront Malkijah herself, Nava decided, as soon as he arrived home from the Dung Gate this afternoon, or maybe this evening when she waited on him at his table. She would demand to know why he was so greedy and cruel when all the other masters had freed their bondservants. But Nava’s courage melted when she realized that he might send her back to his estate if she angered him. Back to Aaron.

  “What about the woman he’s betrothed to?” Dan said, breaking into her thoughts. “Didn’t you say she was kind to you?”

  “Yes. But what can she do?”

  “Let’s ask her to help us. Maybe she doesn’t know that her future husband is the only man in the province who won’t show compassion.”

  “I suppose it’s worth a try. But how will we find her? I don’t know where she lives.”

  “Does she come to the morning sacrifice? We could wait beside a different set of stairs every morning until we see her. I think I remember what she looks like—short and pretty, with dark, wavy hair and a narrow face?”

  Nava nodded. “Let’s do it.”

  Dan stood and offered his hand to help her to her feet. She couldn’t risk hoping again, but it felt good to have a plan, to be taking action. They chose the western stairs first and stood at the top when the sacrifice ended, on opposite sides, facing the busy stream of exiting people. Nava scanned hundreds of faces, searching and searching, determined not to give up until . . . and there she was! Walking with an older man and two younger women. As soon as Nava spotted Chana, she forced her way into the crowd, swimming upstream through the powerful current, not caring who she elbowed and shoved aside.

  “Miss! Miss, wait! Please!” she called, not daring to call Chana by name.

  Chana halted and the people with her halted, too. “Nava? Is everything all right?”

  “No, miss, it isn’t. Please, I need your help.”

  Chana hesitated, then said, “Go ahead, Abba. I’ll catch up.” She took Nava’s arm, and they stepped aside to avoid the buffeting crowd. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  Nava’s words came out in a babbled rush along with her tears. “All of the rich leaders took an oath to free their bondservants. I heard them doing it, miss. But Master Malkijah refuses to set us free.”

  Chana’s dark brows came together in an angry frown. “He refuses?”

  “Yes, miss. He told my father and all the other men who’ve mortgaged their land to him that he won’t do it. Other servants are going back to their families, and I want to go home so badly! I miss everyone so much and—” Nava saw Dan watching from the other side of the stairs and dropped to her knees. “Please, miss! Please! Can’t you talk to our master and ask him to change his mind?”

  “Stand up,
Nava,” Chana said, tugging her arm. “You don’t need to beg. I’ll talk to him.”

  Nava watched Chana rejoin her group and felt a sliver of hope, as slender as a thread.

  Chapter

  30

  SAMARIA

  We came this close!” Tobiah said. He held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart and waved them in Governor Sanballat’s ruddy face. “This close to an uncontrollable riot breaking out in Jerusalem, the poor against the rich. This close to a work shutdown that would have halted construction on the wall for good!”

  “What happened?” Sanballat asked.

  Tobiah shook his head, his arms falling to his sides. The words tasted bitter in his mouth as he spoke them. “Nehemiah averted the crisis. He pacified the people. Work on the wall is continuing.”

  “I can’t believe that man’s luck!” Sanballat shouted.

  Tobiah watched as the heavyset man struggled to stand, leaning on the arms of his shabby throne. The blustering Samaritan disgusted Tobiah, but he needed him as an ally. He needed Geshem, too, although he trusted the sinister Arab leader even less than he trusted Sanballat. Geshem rarely sat down during their meetings in Sanballat’s private chambers, pacing like a lion, restless to pounce, his long robes trailing across the floor behind him. The three men were alone in the room after Tobiah insisted that all the servants be kept away. He knew better than anyone how easy it was to spy on your enemies.

  “How did Nehemiah do it?” Sanballat asked, finally managing to rise to his feet. “Is the man a sorcerer or a magician that he can mesmerize so many people? How does he get them to blindly follow him?”

  Tobiah gave a short laugh, hating to admit the genius of Nehemiah’s strategy. “He made himself their messiah. He fed them with food from his own storehouses and arranged for their freedom. He shamed the wealthy nobles into taking an oath, making them agree to give back the lands that were mortgaged during the drought and to set all their bondservants free.”