by S. Y. Agnon
But they are not successful, for they behaved shamefully towards the works of our master, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon of blessed memory. For it happened on one occasion that the sages of Jerusalem had to take counsel in secret on account of impending evil decrees and events. So they gathered in the synagogue of the Karaites, whose synagogue lies lower than the other houses, so that no word said within it is heard outside. When they entered they saw that one step in the staircase differed from all the others. They investigated and found underneath that step a copy of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon’s book, ‘The Mighty Hand,’ which had been placed there by the Karaites to be trodden upon and belittled.
Now the Kabbalist Rabbi Hayyim ben Attar of Morocco, who is known as the ‘Light of Life’ after his book of that name, was present on that occasion and he cursed the Karaites, saying, May their settlement never increase and may they never be worthy to pray with a full quorum. Since then no new Karaite has ever arrived in Jerusalem without another Karaite being carried out dead. Once a great number of Karaites went up to the Land together and were all carried off by the pestilence, may the Merciful One deliver us.
Well, our comrades stayed in Stambul waiting for a ship. One day they went to the grave of Job, and another they went to the grave of the author of ‘The Ordination of the Sages,’ who died there on his way to the Land of Israel; and yet another day they went to the port to see if a ship had arrived bringing Hananiah, of whom they did not yet despair. Was it possible that this Hananiah who had wandered over half the world and had overcome so many trials could have given way to despair when his ship went off without him? Assuredly he must have possessed his soul in patience and waited for another ship.
During those days Rabbi Shmuel Yosef, the son of Rabbi Shalom Mordekhai ha-Levi, sat before the sages of Constantinople and read all those books, great and small, good and upright, which are full of the fear of Heaven and of wisdom; and he increased in reverence and wisdom of the revealed and secret Torah, in grammar and in style, in the ways of the holy language and its secrets. There has come unto our hands a letter which he wrote to the society of the comrades, the hasidim who dwell in the city of Buczacz, may it increase. It runs thus:
We hereby inform you that we have reached in peace that glorious city Kushta, which is hinted at in the mystical work, ‘The Additions to the Zohar’; and blessed be his Name, for the way before us was good. Rain did not detain us on land nor storm terrify us on sea. Indeed it were fit and proper to inscribe all our journeyings and all the good deeds done unto us on the way by our brethren, the Children of Israel, in respect to food, drink, and lodging, and in respect to good counsel and proper guidance, by our brethren in the country of the Turk no less than those in the Land of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Austria. However, by reason of our sorrow at heart, we are deprived of the strength to continue with this account at length, for the upright Rabbi Hananiah, who is known unto you, did vanish of a sudden on the way. We do not know what has happened to him; but pray you to give notice of this to the Rabbi, long life to him. Indeed, we are aware that Rabbi Hananiah did not leave any wife behind him. Yet it may be there is a woman who is waiting for him to marry or reject her, according to the Law. Pray inform us how goes it with the learned, pious, etc., Rabbi Abraham the circumciser, may he increase in strength, and all that has befallen him; and pray transmit our regards to all our friends and those beloved of our soul who are forever engraved on our hearts; and so on and so forth.
In the inn where the comrades lodged there was a certain Sephardic sage, who had gone forth from the Holy Land as an emissary to rouse the cities of the Exile to remember the distress of the men of Jerusalem. He was an understanding and scholarly man, a Kabbalist whose figure was kingly and whose eyes had grown dim on account of the tears he shed, mourning that every city stands firm on its foundations, but the city of God is abased to the nether Sheol.
This emissary asked our friends, Whither do you go and where do you wish to establish yourselves? In Jerusalem, or in Hebron, or in Safed, or in Tiberias? He told them the advantages and qualities of each of the cities and the virtues of its particular climate, also the holy places to be found in each.
As for Safed, he who dwells in Safed and is buried in its soil, since it is loftier and has pleasanter air than all the other cities of the Land of Israel, his soul soars off at once to the Cave of Machpelah, whence it passes to the Garden of Eden. In Safed, Israel are at peace with the Gentiles, so that even a woman can go about alone in the town and the field. There are many dwellings to be found in Safed, and everything can be bought cheaply. The synagogue of the Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria is in Safed, together with the platform to which he used to summon the Fathers of the World, of blessed memory, to the reading of the Torah; summoning Aaron first as Priest, then Moses as Levite, Abraham as third reader, and so on. Most of the men of Safed are observant of the Torah, and scholarly, and God-fearing, and merciful.
Two hours distant from Safed is a place called Meron, where the cave of Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai is to be found. From all the cities of the Land of Israel men come to Meron three times a year to prostrate themselves on his grave, where they spend a night and a day and study the holy book Zohar; these three times being in Elul, before the New Year, at the end of the month of Adar between Purim and Passover, and on the thirty-third day of the Counting of the Omer after Passover. Furthermore, on the thirty-third day of the Omer people come to Meron even from as far away as Damascus and Aram Zoba, which is Aleppo, as well as from Egypt; and in Meron they set beautiful silken kerchiefs on fire in barrels of olive oil and they make great feasts and banquets and dance to the drum and the pipe and utter all manner of song and praise. That is the day of the Rejoicing of Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai, when the Divine Presence comes to frolic with the saintly in the Holy Assembly.
Even greater is Hebron, whose dust the Patriarchs esteemed. They lie in the Cave of Machpelah, above which is a great building builded by King David, peace be upon him; although by reason of our sins Israel are not permitted to enter the Cave. But there is a small hole outside the gate which opens on the graves of the Fathers and the Mothers, and there candles are lit and prayers are said. Outside the Cave of Machpelah is the nearby grave of Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman of blessed memory; as he wrote at the end of his book, ‘The Law of Men,’ where he said that he was going to hew himself a grave there near the Fathers. Facing it is the grave of Jesse, the father of David, as well as the grave of the judge Othniel, the son of Kenaz. Below are caves where other pious men are buried.
The householders of Hebron are men of might with many fine qualities, above all hospitality, a virtue for which our Father Abraham, peace be upon him, was renowned. And the whole town is surrounded by vineyards and groves, and you can see the oaks of Mamre, and the bathing pool of our Mother Sarah, peace be upon her, and the tent of our Father Abraham, peace be upon him; the tent which is fenced about with blocks of hewn stone. There is a cistern of hewn stone within the tent, and fresh living water sweet as honey and very pleasant to drink flows within the cistern.
But how good it is to dwell in Tiberias, which is Rakkath— where even the most worthless are as full of fulfilled commandments as a pomegranate is of seeds, and where they are more nimble about their affairs than in any of the other cities of the Land of Israel. As our rabbis of blessed memory said: ‘May it be my lot to be among those who welcome the Sabbath in Tiberias.’
The four species of plants for the Sukkot lulav are plenteous in Tiberias, particularly the date palms, whose fronds are used to cover the booths for the Feast of Booths. And the Sea of Kinnereth, which the Holy One, blessed be he, loves more than every other sea surrounds Tiberias; and concealed in that sea is the well of Miriam, which is destined to be revealed in due course by the holy Rabbi Isaac Luria of blessed memory; for it heals the soul. Corresponding to the well of Miriam, the baths of Tiberias make the body hale and hearty and cure all manner of sickness. And in the future the revival of the dead will commence at Tiberias
, where the redemption will likewise begin, as is written in the tractate Rosh ha-Shanah.
Yet in spite of all this, who would exchange the sanctity of Jerusalem, the place of our Temple, for any of these? For Jerusalem faces towards the Gate of Heaven.
Chapter eleven
A Great Storm at Sea
In due course the time came for the ship to set sail on the sea. The comrades went aboard together with a vast congregation of Sephardic Jews from Stambul, Smyrna, and all the other cities belonging to the Turk, both men and women; not to mention uncircumcised Christians and circumcised Moslems of all nationalities; more than a thousand folk in all, apart from the servants of the ships and the servants of the servants.
They put down their goods and prayed that they might arrive in peace in the Land of Israel, and that they might not be injured on the way by earthquakes or convulsions or by any of the creatures that are in the sea. When they had ended their prayer, they split into two parties. One party went to see where the sweet water was drawn from and where wood was got for cooking, while the other went off to look at the ship and watch the sailors at work, standing high upon the masts or rolling up the ropes or spreading the sails. Meanwhile, our Sephardic brethren settled in their places, and calmly opened their sacks, and arranged their belongings, and took out fine volumes bound in red and green leather, covered with papers of many colors, like the picture tapestries hanging in the king’s palace. They sat down crossing their legs beneath them, and prayed that they might be worthy to walk before the Lord in the Land of Life and be buried in Jerusalem.
How pleasant it was to see them sitting in fine garments, with their measured movements and princely appearance, their beards resting on their books as they read in awe and fear and humility, their lips moving and their attention fixed, rejoicing in the study of those things that are befitting persons proceeding to the Land of Israel. Their wives sat facing them, holding in their mouths pipes which were fixed in round glass bottles through which they inhaled tobacco. Whenever they heard the name of Jerusalem uttered by their husbands, they would raise their hands to their eyes and joyously repeat the word aloud, kissing their fingertips as though the name of Jerusalem were there engraved.
Meanwhile, the sky threw the sun over its shoulder, and the water began to grow darker and darker. The ship’s officers examined the ropes and spars, lit lamps, sat down to eat and drink, and began to sing songs about wine and about the women of the sea who turn their eyes on human beings and steal their souls away with their singing. The Jews (mark the distinction) said the Evening Prayer and restored their souls with refreshments, reading the Song of Songs and the section in ‘The Book of Zohar’ concerning the Complete Unity which the Holy One, blessed be he, will achieve with the Congregation of Israel in days to come. Feiga and Tzirel, the housewives and stewardesses of the group, arranged pleasant sleeping places for themselves and their companions. They lay down to sleep and rested their bodies until they arose for the Midnight Mourning.
The stars gave light and then were hidden, but others came and took up their posts. Our men of good heart rose for the Midnight Mourning, while their Sephardic brethren ground beans and boiled kahava, a kind of drink which rouses the heart and causes sleep to depart, and which is not known in the Land of Poland, although it is mentioned in the Shulhan Arukh codes of law. They also behaved generously towards their Ashkenazic brethren, giving them likewise to drink; and they did the same with their wine and books. And when it became necessary, the Sephardic brethren spoke well of them to the ship’s officers and men, the sages of the Sephardim being well versed in the languages of the peoples, some among them even knowing the seventy tongues, like the members of the Sanhedrin in days of old.
Three weeks passed peacefully. The ship’s crew subdued the waters, the ship moved gently and our men of good heart sat studying Scripture and Talmud or else relating the praises of the Land of Israel. Rabbi Shmuel Yosef, the son of Rabbi Shalom Mordekhai ha-Levi, made the time pass sweetly with those praiseworthy legends wherein the Land of Israel is praised. As a king who spreads a curtain over the entrance to his palace for whoever is wise to roll back and enter, so did Rabbi Shmuel Yosef roll back the gates of Jerusalem before them and enter with them to discover all that lay innermost.
Facing them sat our Sephardic brethren, who are not versed in the Yiddish tongue of the men of Poland; but they saw the joy of their brethren and asked, Why are you so happy? and were answered in the Holy Tongue: Thus and thus did Rabbi Shmuel Yosef relate to us.
Then they also wanted to listen, and Rabbi Shmuel Yosef immediately opened his mouth and began to speak in the Holy Tongue like unto the ministering angels, relating the praises of Jerusalem and the joy with which the Divine Presence would rejoice in them. For ever since the day when the Temple was destroyed, there is no day without its vexation, the Holy One, blessed be He, having long sworn that He would not enter the Jerusalem on high until such time as Israel would enter the Jerusalem below. And our Sephardic brethren, listening, could have kissed him on the mouth for those words.
Three weeks passed peacefully. The ship sailed along quietly. The sun gave light by day and the moon by night. The sky was full of stars and the sea behaved after its fashion, while the waves went along as one who goes to a festivity. But on the bed of the sea the waters began grumbling, and the wind began slapping at the masts of the ship. At last a great storm arose and the ship rocked this way and that, sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left, sometimes sinking and sometimes rising and rearing up, the waves wrestling angrily with the ship, ready to swallow the ship and all who dwelt therein. The whole sea was covered with foam as though the Great Sea had been transformed into a Sea of Foam.
Happy is he who rests on such a night in the shadow of his own house, and the four walls of his house surround him and his roof protects him from the rain so that he can lie on his bed and cover himself with a warm blanket and listen to the sound of the footsteps of the night watchman passing in front of his house. Then in the morning he can put on his prayer shawl, and crown himself with tefillin, and say his prayers in the House of Prayer, and calmly eat his meal, and go out to the market place, and engage in business honestly, spending his days and his years honorably and passing away with a good name, worthy of burial with his fathers.
But on that night the eyes of the comrades were deprived of sleep and their body of rest. All their bedding was soaked with salt water. There were sixty myriads of waves spitting in their faces and roaring. Where was the river Strypa where they used to dip themselves on Sabbath eve on sunny days, and where they would cast away their sins on the New Year’s Day? Why, the river Strypa was hundreds of leagues away. Now they were in the midst of the sea, and waves as huge as mountains were rising to the sky, and the ship was being slung about like a stone from a sling. And the sailors were growing too weak to steer the rudder much longer and subdue the waters.
All those on board were thrown against the sides of the ship, and screamed and wept and wailed. A chill salt sweat appeared on their faces, drops of salt dripped from their hair and rolled down into their mouths. Some of the comrades brought up their mother’s milk, while others felt their bellies near bursting. I do not wish you such a passage, all ye seafarers!
At midnight the storm grew worse, and breached the walls of the ship. The ropes began to part and the noise grew ever greater. No one could be heard above the sound of the waters. There arose a great tumult among the people on board the ship. One man raised his hands and cried for aid, while another tore his hair. There was no one to subdue the waters and no one to aid a comrade in the hour of his distress. Yet mention must be made of the captain, who remained at his post and encouraged the sailors not to despair of mercy and not to slacken their labor.
In a little while the ship started and shook more than ever, as though it had struck a reef and were about to break. All the gear was tossed high into the air, and falling struck the people down. When our men of good heart saw that they w
ere indeed in danger, they said: When our holy rabbis of blessed memory went to the Land of Israel, namely, Rabbi Nahman of Horodanki and Rabbi Mendele of Primishlan and all the other pious men like them, they were in such distress as this on the sea. Then Rabbi Nahman took the Torah Scroll on his arm and said, Even if, God forbid, the Court on High has decreed that we must pass from this world, nevertheless, we, a court on earth, together with the Holy One, blessed be he, and his Divine Presence, do not concur in that decree. And all those present responded, Amen.
At that moment a sailor mounted to the masthead and said, Looking through my glass I espy the cities of the Land of Israel.
Those, said our men of good heart to themselves, were indeed great pious men, mighty heroes. May it be His will that we may be delivered from this distress, on account of their merits and the merits of the Land of Israel.
Their prayers achieved one half and the ship’s men achieved the other half, and the Holy One, blessed be he, in his blessed mercy achieved the whole. Within a few moments the fury of the Prince of the Sea died down, and the face of the waters changed for the better. That day passed without mishap, nor did any evil befall them at night. The moon came out and gave light, and the ship proceeded peacefully. The sick gradually regained their health.