by S. Y. Agnon
The entire congregation was distressed about the insult to Reb Shlomo and a few of the scholars wanted to respond to the words of the challenger, but did not know what to say since they saw that he was in the right, in that Reb Shlomo had erred about an explicit Gemara and that in any case his entire sermon had been built on a shaky foundation.
Reb Shlomo’s uncle now rapped on the podium and offered, “I’ll respond.” His father then rapped and said, “I’ll respond.” Without a doubt, they would have succeeded in countering Reb Moshe Pinchas’s counter-arguments, but it is doubtful that they would have satisfied the Gemara’s own contradiction. They were blinded by their love for Reb Shlomo and did not pay mind to the Gemara, but instead chose to justify him by means of Talmudic argumentation. Reb Shlomo waved his hand once towards his father and once towards his uncle and said, “With your permission, I myself will respond.” Reb Moshe Pinchas jeered and said, “Is it not enough that a man refuses to concede the truth, but now he intends to heap lies on top of it?”
Reb Shlomo fixed his two luminous eyes upon him and said, “It appears you have saddled me with an enormously difficult question from the Gemara, and it would also appear that nothing can be said in response, except that if you had scrutinized the text carefully you would have seen that this version of the text is inaccurate, and already two illustrious pillars, the Maharshal and the Bach, have amended the text of the Talmud in this spot with the version postulated by the Rav Alfasi, and everything I have put forth I based on the true version of the text relied upon by most commentators to determine the law.” And here Reb Shlomo began to weave from commentator to commentator until he arrived at the legal ruling. At the same time Reb Moshe Pinchas’s countenance darkened like the edges of a cauldron and he did not respond at all; after all what would there have been to say given that the law was on Reb Shlomo’s side? Reb Moshe Pinchas stood like a stricken man, and Reb Shlomo returned to his sermon. Reb Moshe Pinchas stomped on the floor so forcefully that the stones underneath cried out. And he also cried out, “Panie Horowitz, how fortunate for you that all your silver and gold have enabled you to purchase proofread books. Even so, your new conclusions are nonsense and your homilies mere folly.” And immediately Reb Moshe Pinchas began to refute Reb Shlomo’s words one after the other, to the point where the great Torah scholars were astounded by the sheer power of the man’s intellect and the minds of these eminent ones were totally confounded. Reb Shlomo raised his right hand and said pleasantly, “Rabbi Moshe Pinchas, how vast is your erudition and how abundant your acuity, but tell me is it really fitting for a true scholar to use the Torah deceitfully? Surely, you and I both know full well that there is no substance to the refutations with which you are trying to undermine my position.” And here Reb Shlomo chipped away, argument after argument, and did not omit responding to any of Reb Moshe Pinchas’s refutations. Reb Moshe Pinchas turned apoplectic with rage and, leaping up and down, and bellowed, “In that case, I’ll confront you from another angle.” And right away he began attacking a different point in the lecture and to squawk about each of Reb Shlomo’s findings until there was not one conclusion that he had not shattered. Reb Shlomo’s face clouded over and he heaved a bitter sigh, like a warrior dealt a fatal blow, and stripped of his weapons.
By this point everyone was under the impression that Reb Shlomo was drained of all his strength and that he no longer had it in him to stand up to someone more forceful than himself. And once again Reb Shlomo sighed deeply and looked at Reb Moshe Pinchas with neither anger nor animosity. On the contrary, it was apparent that he pitied him, even though he was really the one in need of mercy, Reb Moshe Pinchas having humiliated him in front of the entire gathering on his very first day as rabbi. Reb Shlomo passed his hand over his forehead and said in a sad voice, “There is no limit to what a skillful man can accomplish by the force of his cunning, but what will you answer on Judgment Day?” Reb Moshe Pinchas sneered at him and said, “Can you believe how consumed this man is with his own piety, that I deliver him actual words of Torah and he responds with words about the fear of Heaven? If you are able to reply to me from Torah do so, and if not, confess in front of the whole congregation that your whole sermon is chaff and straw.” Most of the congregants began to holler at Reb Moshe Pinchas, but a certain elderly and assertive scholar rebuked them. He said to them, “If scholars battle over Jewish law, who are you to interfere?” Reb Shlomo turned back towards the Holy Ark and laid his head on the curtain. Everyone assumed he was withdrawing and about to step down. Suddenly he turned back towards the people and the whole crowd noted that he seemed to have gotten taller by a whole head. Reb Shlomo said, “With your permission, gentlemen, I will repeat the essence of my sermon and you will determine the veracity of my words.” Reb Shlomo succinctly recapped the crux of his presentation and reinforced it with new proofs, until the faces of the scholars lit up and they called out, “Hear, hear!,” having been completely distracted from Reb Moshe Pinchas and all his argumentation. At the same time the simple folk glared at Reb Moshe Pinchas with daggers in their eyes and were just about ready to beat him up. Reb Moshe Pinchas dismissed them as the dust of the earth, even though he was consumed with a desire to show them that their rabbi was a poor scholar. And when he attempted to say something they started yelling and saying, “Enough already! We don’t want to hear what you have to say.” And when he raised his voice they silenced him and shouted, “Let’s get him out of here and may his face no longer be seen in this place.”
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 wo
uld 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.”
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 ha
d 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.”