Two Scholars Who Were in our Town and other Novellas

by S. Y. Agnon

  Maharshal / Rabbi Shlomo ben Yehiel Luria (1510-1573) of Lublin. The citation is to Responsa (Shut) Maharshal #101, dealing with a 1572 case of evidence in a case of marital engagement.

  Bread dipped in salt / Cf. Mishnah Avot 6:4 (“bread in salt” is a rabbinic metaphor for minimum sustenance; akin to “living on bread and water” in English).

  As he completed the Talmud, his life also ended / The theme of the Angel of Death waiting for his victim’s completion of a portion of study, or performance of some mitzvah, is found in Mo’ed Katan 28a, Ketubot 77b, and elsewhere.

  Happy is he who arrives… / Moed Katan 28a.

  Can an Enlightened one… / Cf. Psalms 14:2 (translated here out of context and ironically according to the narrator’s intention, the word “maskil” in the Biblical verse means “wise one” but here is applied to a follower of the secularizing Jewish Enlightenment movement).

  Out of Asher / Genesis 49:20.

  It is the only covering… / Exodus 22:25-26.

  The Divine table /Cf. Mishnah Avot 3:3, “Rabbi Shimon says: Three who ate at one table, without saying words of Torah while upon it, are considered to have eaten from sacrifices to the dead [i.e., idols] as it is written (Isaiah 28:8): ‘All their tables are full of vomit and excrement, without a clean place’. But three who ate at one table and said upon it words of Torah are considered to have eaten from the table of God, as it is written (Ezek. 41:22): ‘And he said to me: This is the table which is in the presence of God’.”

  Maimonides’s ‘Laws of Temperaments’ / Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot De’ot 6:2.

  Teomim / (1814-1868) served as rabbi in Buczacz from 1853 until his death.

  Bach / R. Joel ben Samuel Sirkis (1561-1640); a prominent halakhist who was known for various clashes with lay leaders.

  The apportionment of charity… / Bava Batra 43a.

  Sir Moses Montefiore / (1784-1885) English Baronet, financier and banker, advocate of social reform and great philanthropist.

  Rabbi Elazar Rokeach / (1685-1741) Galician rabbi who was appointed to the Amsterdam rabbinate late in life, prior to emigrating to the Holy Land. This particular insight is found in his Arba’ah Turei Even commentary to Maimonides.

  Fundamentals of Torah, chapter 7 / Maimonides, Hilkhot Yesodei HaTorah 7:1.

  Kessef Mishneh / A commentary on Maimonides’s Mishneh Torah, written by R. Joseph Karo (1488-1575).

  Lehem Mishneh / A commentary on Maimonides’s Mishneh Torah by Abraham Hiyya de Boton (c. 1560 - c. 1605).

  Yavneh / The seat of the High Court after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

  Tractate Yoma, page 37 / Three of the Talmudic citations in this passage are incorrect. The correct page numbers are: Nedarim 38a, Shabbat 92a, and Yoma 35b. Urbach, op. cit., p. 22, n. 16, insists that these were intentional errors inserted by Agnon, mimicking the common phenomenon of a sage mis-citing a specific page number when referencing from memory, as would have been this case in the learned discourse presented by Reb Shlomo. Urbach further points out that the thrust of Reb Shlomo’s presentation of the sources, and resolution of the question on Maimonides’s teaching, is that even Reb Moshe Pinchas, with all of his flaws, would have been worthy of receiving prophecy.

  Tosfot Yom Tov / An important commentary on the Mishnah by Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller (1578-1654, Cracow).

  Noda BeYehudah / Yehezkel ben Yehudah Landau (1713-1793), rabbi of Prague. His work, Tikkun HaNefesh (Healing of the Soul) prescribes 18 specific chapters of Psalms to be recited as merit for the healing of the sick.

  Even the tranquil women / Cf. Isaiah 32:9.

  And you shall love… / Deuteronomy 6:5.

  Half Kaddish / Used to punctuate divisions within the prayer service. The nicknames of the gravediggers are plays on the meanings of their names – Chaim means life, since he was tall he was called “Long Life”; Kaddish was a name sometimes given to a child born to a couple in old age, as he would be the one to recite the mourner’s Kaddish when they die. Agnon is being playful in assigning these names to gravediggers.

  Righteousness shall walk / Psalms 85:14.

  In the Heart of the Seas

  A Story of a Journey to the Land of Israel

  “So he took the lamp and all the other vessels for light in the House of Study, and mixed sand and water, and went and sat him down behind the stove, and rubbed them and polished them until they shone like new. That day people said, the lamps in our House of Study are worthy of lighting before Him who hath light in Zion.”

  Illustration by T. Herzl Rome for the 1948 edition

  Chapter one

  Dust of the Roads

  Just before the first of the hasidim went up to the Land of Israel, a certain man named Hananiah found his way to their House of Study. His clothes were torn, rags were wound around his legs, and he wore no boots on his feet; his hair and beard were covered with the dust of the roads, and all his worldly goods were tied up in a little bundle which he carried with him in his kerchief.

  Ye sons of the living God, said Hananiah to the comrades, I have heard that you are about to go up to the Land of Israel. I beg you to inscribe me in your register.

  He Who will bring us up to the Land, said they to him, will bring you up as well. And they wrote his name in their list and assigned him a place to rest in the House of Study. He rejoiced in them because he would go up to the Land of Israel with them; while they rejoiced in him because he would complete the quorum, and they could pray as a congregation on their journey.

  It can clearly be seen, said the comrades to Hananiah, that you have walked far.

  True indeed, said he to them. It is not a short distance I have come.

  Where were you? they asked.

  Where was I? he answered. And where was I not?

  Whereupon they began to question him on every side, until at last he recounted all his travels.

  At first, said Hananiah, I went from my town to another town, and from that town to yet another. In that way I went from place to place until I reached the frontier of a country where no man is permitted to pass unless he pays a tax to the king. They took my money from me and stripped me naked, and left me nothing but a kerchief with which to cover myself. But the people of that town took pity on me, and clothed me and gave me all I needed, a tallit and tefillin and tzitzit.

  Now in that country it is cold for the greater part of the year. At the Festival of Shavuot their houses stand in snow though it is May, while at the Feast of Sukkot a man cannot even hold the lulav to shake it on account of the cold; and they have no citrons for the blessing. So what they do is, all the congregations share a single citron, a slice for each congregation. They hallow the Sabbath over black bread instead of white wheaten loaves, and they mark the Sabbath’s end by drinking milk, for they have no wine. When I told them where I was going, they took me for an exaggerator, because they had never in all their days heard of any man who really and truly went up to the Land of Israel.

  By that time I myself was beginning to doubt whether the Land of Israel actually existed; so I decided I had better leave them to themselves and went away. Better, said I to myself, that I should perish on the way and not lose my faith in the Land of Israel.

  I do not remember how long a time I had been journeying or the places to which I came, but at length I reached a robbers’ den. The robbers allowed me to stay among them and did not do anything to me; but every time they went off on their business they would say to me, Pray on our behalf that we may not be caught. And most of them had their good qualities, and were merciful, and were a stay and prop to the poor in their need, and believed in the Creator; and once they took an oath by the Everlasting they would never go back on their word even if they were to lose their lives. And they were not robbers to begin with, but lords and nobles whose oppressors compelled them to give up their fields; and so they came to try their hands at robbery and pillage.

  One of them I saw putting on tefillin. I made the mistake of thinking th
at he was a Jew, though he was not one; but the robber chief before him had worn tefillin, and when he was killed, his successor put them on.

  Now this was the story of how that robber chief of theirs had been killed. He used to leave his booty with a certain Greek priest. But once the priest denied that anything had been left with him. The robber chief threatened to take vengeance on him; whereupon the priest went and denounced him to the king; the king at once ordered him to be killed.

  When they took the robber chief off to be executed, they said to him, If you tell us where your comrades are, we shall let you go.

  You do what you have to do, said he to them.

  Well, they tied the rope around his neck and sent his soul on its way. When he died, he said, Alas for you, O my wife, and alas for my children, whom I leave behind to be orphans.

  Once, continued Hananiah, the new robber chief wished to lead me to the Land of Israel through a certain cave. But the idea entered my heart that maybe it would not be His blessed will for a robber to be my groomsman. And since I was possessed by this idea, I did not go with him, for if it had been His blessed will that I should go with him, would He ever have let such a thought enter my mind? But I felt ashamed because I did not accept his favor, and so I went on to another country.

  Now in this other country all their days are toil, so that they have neither Sabbath nor festivals; so that at last I forgot when it was the Sabbath. So whenever I went from one place to another, I never went farther than a Sabbath journey of two thousand ells for fear that that day might be a Sabbath or festival.

  Once a gentleman met me on the way and said, Where are you going?

  To town, I answered.

  He invited me up into his carriage. When he saw that I was not getting up, he raised his voice and shouted, Shadai. Now he was speaking Polish and in Polish shadai means sit down, but I did not know it and thought that he was using the Holy Name of Shaddai; so up I jumped into his carriage.

  It was the Yom Kippur; but I never knew it until we reached town at the time they were praying the Closing Prayer. At once I flung myself off the carriage, and took off my shoes, and entered the synagogue, and lay outstretched, and wept all that night and all of the day following. There I heard the Land of Israel being mentioned. So I gave ear and heard people telling one another how the men of Buczacz had decided to go up to the Land. At once I started off and came here to you; and since I went barefoot, my legs became swollen and it took a long time.

  They went and fetched him boots, but he would not accept them. Rabbi Akiva, they reminded him, ordained seven things, and one of them was to be careful to wear shoes. To which Hananiah replied, These feet did not feel the sanctity of Yom Kippur; let them remain bare.

  After Hananiah had told all this, he untied his kerchief, took out a Book of Psalms, and read until the time arrived for the Afternoon Prayer. Following the prayer, he took a candle and went on reading. Seeing that the lamp had grown rusty, he took his kerchief and made a knot in it. Next morning, when he took out his tallit and tefillin from that kerchief, he said to himself, What is this knot for? To remember that rusty lamp.

  So he took the lamp and all the other vessels for light in the House of Study, and mixed sand and water, and went and sat him down behind the stove, and rubbed them and polished them until they shone like new. That day people said, the lamps in our House of Study are worthy of lighting before Him who hath light in Zion.

  And Hananiah did something else; he made little hollow dishes for the lamps; for in the lands of Edom tallow candles are lit and thrust upright into the candlestick, but in the Land of Beauty it is the custom to light oil lamps, a dish being filled with oil and the wick placed within it. Therefore Hananiah went and set dishes under the candlesticks, that they might fill them with oil.

  But it was not only the illuminating vessels that Hananiah rubbed and polished. He also took the washing basin and the pitcher and the holy vessels and all those vessels and implements within which the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, conceals herself; and made them all shine. He likewise repaired the torn books, setting them in fresh boards and wrapping them up in fine skins. The day before, they had been torn and sooty, but that day they rejoiced as on the day they had been given to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.

  Are you a coppersmith? Hananiah was asked.

  No coppersmith am I, said he to those who asked, nor yet a bookbinder; but when I see a defective vessel, I feel pity for it and I say, This vessel seeks its completion. Then the Holy One, blessed be he, says to me, Do this or do that, and I do it.

  Here is a simple man, said the comrades. Yet every word he utters teaches a virtue. Wherever such a man may wander, God will be with him.

  Perhaps, one of them asked Hananiah, you know how to make a box for carrying goods?

  Perhaps I do, answered he.

  After all, said this man, we are going a long way and we require things for the journey. Perhaps you can make me a box or trunk.

  I can try, said he.

  How do you try? said the other to him.

  Hananiah went out to the forest and brought lumber, and sawed it into planks which he squared and planed and joined, and made into a box and painted red, which is a good color for utensils to be.

  The other men who were going up to the Land saw how fine the box was and asked Hananiah to make boxes for them as well. So out he went to the forest, brought lumber and made the same sort of boxes for them. He also made a Holy Ark for the Torah Scroll which they were going to take up to the Land of Israel. He used iron nails to join all the boxes except the Holy Ark, which he joined with wooden pegs; so that if, God forbid, they should come to magnetic mountains which draw iron from vessels, this Ark would not fall apart.

  Hananiah made boxes for all the travelers, but as for himself he remained satisfied with his kerchief.

  Chapter two

  Those Who Prepared

  The greater part of Adar had already passed. The clouds which had been obscuring the sun’s course began to shrink, while the sun grew gradually larger. What only yesterday had been the time for the Evening Prayer became the time for Afternoon Prayer today; while yesterday’s getting-up time became the time to start saying the Morning Prayer today.

  The snow warmed up and began to melt, and the trees of the field grew black. One day they were black as earth; the next, they would be putting forth leaves and blossoming like the Lebanon. The pools and marshes were covered by a film, and the birds began to chirp. Every day a different kind of bird would come around and there began a cheeping on every roof. Our men of good heart started going out and asking when the road would be fit for travel; they meant the month, of course, when the road would be fit for wayfarers.

  Never in all their lives had these good folk so feared death as at that particular period. How great is the sanctity of the Land of Israel though it be in ruins! And what is the body’s strength even at its height? For after all, suppose a man wishes to go up to the Land of Israel and does not go up, what if his soul should suddenly depart from his body and he be left lying like a dumb stone without having gone up; what would become of all his hopes?

  Those who knew enough to study the Bible sat and studied the Bible; those who knew enough to study the Mishnah sat and studied the Mishnah in order to strengthen their hearts with the study of the Torah. Throughout those days neither the sun nor the moon ever saw a single one of them sitting idle. Although they were busy selling their houses and casting up their money accounts, they nevertheless crowned their days with Torah and prayer.

  The Passover festival came to an end. The sun pitched its camp in the sky, and all the water in the swamps and marshes dried up. Even the big swamps had no water in them. The roads fairly asked to be put to use, and the wagoners set out on their ways. Horses began posting from one end of the world to the other, their bells jingling as they went; and the wagoners tugged at the reins and shouted, Geeup! Whoa there!

  Those who were to go up to the Land gathered t
ogether at their House of Study. In came old Rabbi Shelomo, a well-disposed kohen who had dealt in commerce all his life, but had finally given up the estates of this world and set his heart on going up to the Land of Israel. Rabbi Shelomo used to say, If a king is angry with his servants they ought never to go far away from him. Instead, let them stand at the king’s gate and lament their misfortune until he sees their distress and takes pity on them.

  And then in came Rabbi Alter, the slaughterer-and-inspector, who had handed over his butcher’s knife to his son-in-law; and together with him came Rabbi Alter the teacher, who was his brother-in-law’s son and who had spent all his days in the tent of the Torah, studying keenly and casuistically with his students. Once while he sat studying in the tractate Ketuvot about marriage contracts, it occurred to him that after all the Land of Israel is a marriage contract between Israel and the Holy One, blessed be he; and it is an accepted principle that a man must never be without his marriage contract. Whereupon he felt that as long as he continued to dwell outside the Land he would have no rest. So he ceased his studies, and dispersed his students, and sold his house and his set of the Talmud and the commentary of Alfasi, and went and inscribed himself in the list of those who were going up to the Land.

  And in came Rabbi Pesach, the warden of the House of Study, who was going to the Land with his wife Tzirel, for their benefit and advantage in the hope that the merits of the Land of Israel might give them the merit of children.

  And in came Rabbi Yosef Meir, who had divorced his wife because she refused to go up to the Land of Israel. Her father had sent to him, saying, If you wish to take back my daughter and dwell with her in Buczacz as before, I shall double her dowry.

  Said Rabbi Yosef Meir, I have already contracted with another bride and I cannot shame her.

  And in came Rabbi Moshe, the brother of Rabbi Gershon, may he rest in peace, the same Rabbi Gershon whose soul departed while he was reciting the verse, ‘The King hath brought me into his chambers,’ as is told elsewhere in my story, ‘The Rejected One.’ For love of the Land of Israel Rabbi Moshe was leaving his two daughters behind and had inscribed his name and that of his wife in the register among those who were going up to the Land.