Two Scholars Who Were in our Town and other Novellas

by S. Y. Agnon

  So Hananiah, seeing that he was indeed in distress, raised his eyes to the sky and said, Lord of the Universe, I have nothing on which to depend except on your many mercies.

  Thereupon the Holy One, blessed be he, gave Hananiah the idea of spreading out his kerchief on the sea and sitting upon it. So he spread his kerchief upon the sea and sat down upon it. The kerchief promptly floated off to sea, carrying him upon it all the way to the Land of Israel. Nor was that all. For he actually got there before his comrades, who were first delayed at Stambul waiting for a ship, and then found themselves in distress during the storm at sea; whereas he crossed the sea peacefully.

  Now let us return to all our other comrades. In brief, they reached the sea of Jaffa, that same sea of Jaffa which is kept in store for the pious in days to come. For at Jaffa the Great Sea brings up all the ships that are lost anywhere upon it, together with their gold, and silver, and jewels and pearls, and glassware, and valuable vessels, and in time to come the Messiah King will give each of the righteous his share of the wealth.

  They got off the ship and into a ramshackle Arab boat. The sailors took their oars and shouted, Yoho and Oho, and subdued the waters and made passage through the sea, and led the boat between sharp rocks which have been there ever since the Creation. For before any of the waves in any of the seas and rivers start out on their journey, they come to prostrate themselves before the sea of the Land of Israel; and if the sharp edges of the sea did not break their force, never a ship would be able to reach Jaffa on account of all the waves.

  They came safely forth from the sea and from its sharp teeth, and received all their goods intact, and came up on the shore at Jaffa, the threshold of the gate of the City of God. There they flung themselves on the ground, kissed the earth, wept over the ruin of the Land, and rejoiced that they had been worthy to arrive.

  Then came two wardens and led them to the Court of the Jews, which was a hostelry for the Exiles of Israel. This court was surrounded by a wall, and fine trees were planted in it, and it had its own well of water in the center of it. They stood and prayed according to the usage of their own land and restored their souls after the journey. There they stayed until they obtained animals for proceeding to Jerusalem. They went out knowing that all was good, on the day whereon God twice saw that his handiwork was good, namely the third day of the week; and they traveled until evening, when the air grew chill.

  Then they got down from their donkeys, opened their sacks, took out their cushions and pillows and covered themselves; but still they felt cold. So they got back on their animals and went on until they reached a certain spot called Ramleh, which is the city of Gath that David captured from the Philistines. There they descended from their donkeys and made themselves a resting place, arranging their sacks and lying down there all night long until the morning star arose.

  When the morning star arose, they said their prayers, and ate the morning meal, and mounted their donkeys and resumed their journey. At nightfall they reached a well. They got down from their donkeys, made themselves a resting place there, lay down to rest on their sacks, and slept until the morning star arose.

  When the morning star arose, they said their prayers, and ate the morning meal, and then got on their donkeys and journeyed until they reached a certain spot called Motza, from which in ancient times willow boughs were brought to the altar, as we learn: ‘There is a place below Jerusalem called Motza, to which people go down to gather willow boughs which they afterwards set up beside the altar.’ And willows are still to be found there.

  There they made a resting place and stopped over. All these ways are desolate because of robbers, and even the Ishmaelites themselves dare not pass on these ways unless they go out in a caravan together. But God took pity on our comrades, so that no mishap occurred to them on the road except that their sacks fell from the backs of the animals once or twice. There are chains of high and lofty mountains all along the way, with all manner of clouds covering them, clouds of blue and purple, clouds radiant and gently bright, with the radiance of the jewels and blossoms of the Garden of Eden.

  Every hour a new light made its appearance, and none of the lights resembled one another; and goodly odors there were on every side, issuing from all manner of fragrant plants. And castles, and palaces whose beauty was once the glory of the country now stand desolate, and there is no settled place, nothing but the black tents of Kedar dispersed and forsaken among the mountains, and goats trailing down the mountainsides, sustaining themselves on the thorns and thistles and brambles and briars mentioned in the Scriptures; and half-naked men sit there, wearing nothing but a shirt and girdle and a black kerchief bound by a woolen rope on their heads. And fine springs and streams of water run down into the valleys from the mountains, and they taste like the springs in the Garden of Eden. Our comrades drank of those waters, and in those waters washed their hands before the prayer, and rinsed their eyes because of their tears over the destruction of the Land, and hallowed their hands in honor of the Holy City.

  This they did for three days, until the Sabbath eve arrived, and the Holy City, the joy of the whole world, appeared before them in the distance. At once they descended from their asses and rent their garments, weeping bitterly, and proceeded on foot until they reached the gates of Jerusalem. They kissed the stones of her walls and rent their garments a second time in memory of the Temple. May it be His will that it shall be rebuilt speedily and in our own days. Amen.

  Chapter thirteen

  They Stand Within Jerusalem

  Within a very short while their arrival became known throughout the city. All Jerusalem came forth to meet them, both the pious and the devoted scholars; and they wished them peace, greatly rejoicing in them and offering them every manner of honor, and saying to them, Happy you are to have come hither without considering your bodies and your wealth, but thinking only of your souls; so that you have been found worthy to stand in the Temple of the King who is King over all kings, the Holy One, blessed be he.

  And the rabbi of the hasidim, the chief of the Seph-ardic sages in the Holy City, showed his great love for the men of ‘Turkey’ and brought them to his own House of Study, where every day and every night they held soul-satisfying gatherings.

  These they continued for four weeks corresponding to the four periods in a man’s life: the first week being for the week of birth, when the infant grows and is not yet completed, for which reason he is not subject to punishment in the Assembly on High, until he has reached the age of twenty years; then a second week corresponding to his best years which last until he is forty, these being the choice years of a man’s life when a man’s strength is on the increase; the third week corresponding to middle age, when he gradually grows weaker; and a last week corresponding to old age, when a man runs the course of his days and years to their completion until he passes away.

  But the dead of the Land of Israel are not thought of as dead, but are described as being stationed beneath the Seat of Glory, where they enjoy the light of the Messiah and see the happy state of Israel and all those fine things which the Holy One, blessed be he, will in time to come do for Israel. And on those occasions when the day grows dark, the dead do not become startled or cry out, for they know that the darkness is due to the clouds which go forth to carry Israel and bring them back to Jerusalem; as was expounded by our rabbis, who said that the time will come when Jerusalem will be like unto the Land of Israel and the Land of Israel will be like unto the whole wide world, and the clouds will carry Israel from the ends of the world and will bring them to Jerusalem; this being why the prophet praises them, saying, ‘Who are these that fly as a cloud?’ And every Sabbath they enter into the Assembly on High where they study the portion of the week as expounded by Adam, by Enoch, by Noah, by Shem and Eber, by Melchizedek, by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and by Moses, Aaron, and the seventy elders; in addition of course to the story of the Creation as far as the completion of Heaven and earth and the resting of God on the seventh day, and in
addition to the whole of Jacob’s blessing to his sons at the close of the Book of Genesis, which they learn from the very mouth of the Almighty. And at the Sabbath Afternoon Prayer, all the prophets come and teach them the section from the prophets, and Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, of blessed memory, interprets the difficult passages, since often when the prophets prophesied they themselves did not know what they were prophesying. Of all Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra’s interpretations the most highly thought of is the one of the verse beginning, ‘And he [Jacob] bought the parcel of land,’ which Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explains as indicating what a great virtue is in the Land of Israel, for a portion in the Land of Israel is reckoned as though it were a share in the world-to-come.

  But now let us return to our comrades. In brief, they were welcomed by the Holy Congregation of Jerusalem with every manner of honor and respect, and the people of the city showed their affection by taking our comrades to their homes, and fetching them food and drink, and preparing them beds with pillows and cushions. They refreshed themselves and rested their weary bones until noon, when they went to the bath to purify themselves in honor of the Sabbath and in honor of the city. And the bath of Jerusalem is the most praiseworthy of baths, because it has inner and outer rooms. In the outer rooms people take off their clothes, in the inner they wash naked. And there is a room in which attendants rub down the bathers after they have finished their baths. And they have an oven there under the ground, which is stoked with animal droppings and manure. All the rooms are hot, some hot and some hotter; there are reservoirs of water and a perennial pool of fresh water, which is neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. The bather pays two pennies to the bathing master and one to the attendant and receives a sheet for modesty’s sake.

  Well, they went down and dipped themselves in the ritual bath. Then they went up and sweated and afterwards proceeded to the room where the attendant rubbed them down and poured cold water over them. They went and dipped once again, came up and dried themselves, put on white garments, and came out like newborn creatures. And when they came out they gave the attendant a penny, and he wished them good health. Back they went to their homes, put on Sabbath garments, and proceeded to the Western Wall.

  Now the Western Wall is all we have left of our beloved Temple since ancient times. It has been left by the Holy One, blessed be he, by reason of his great pity for us, and is twelve times as tall as a man, corresponding to the Twelve Tribes, in order that each man in Israel should devote his heart and will to prayer in accordance with his height and his tribe. It is built of great stones, each stone being five ells by six, and their like is not to be found in any building in the world; and they stand without pitch or mortar or lime between them, in spite of which they are as firmly united as if they were one stone, like the Assembly of Israel which has not even the slightest sovereign power to hold it together, yet is, nonetheless, one unit throughout the world. Facing the Wall on both sides are courtyards belonging to Arabs, who dwell there with their beasts and do not disturb Israel in their prayers.

  Our men of good heart kneeled, and prostrated themselves, and kneeled, and took off their shoes, and washed their hands, and walked with bowed head until they reached the Wall, and weeping kissed each and every stone. Then they opened their prayer books and recited the Song of Songs with great passion and devotion, their souls being aroused more and more with every verse. Rabbi Moshe rested his head against the Wall and remembered that he was standing at a spot from which the Divine Presence itself had never moved. He began reciting the Song of Songs with awesome fervor and with the very chant with which his brother, Rabbi Gershon, may he rest in peace, had recited it at the time his soul departed from him, until he reached the verse beginning, ‘The King hath brought me into his chambers,’ saying which Rabbi Gershon, his brother, had departed from the world. But here Rabbi Moshe managed to complete the entire verse, the joy of the Land of Israel entered into him, together with a fresh vitality.

  After they had completed the Song of Songs, they recited a number of psalms and said the Afternoon Prayer. And they added a special prayer for their brethren in exile, and for Hananiah who had vanished. Much had they wept for him upon the sea and much had they wept for him upon the dry land; yet all those tears together were but as a single drop in the sea against the tears they shed for his sake before the Western Wall; for they felt the sanctity of the Place, and he was not there with them.

  This can be compared to a story about a king’s friends who came to visit him and the king showed them his treasures. While they were standing before the king, they remembered that a certain person whom the king loved above all others had not come with them. So they began to grieve on his account, because he was not there to see what the king was showing them; they grieved all the more as he had been far more zealous on the journey than all of them, and the king would assuredly have been pleased and contented with him. Hananiah was worthy of standing at their head, and now at the end he had to be far away from all this beneficence!

  Finally they ushered in the Sabbath with song and praise and then proceeded to their homes, said the prayer of Sanctification, broke the Sabbath loaf, ate the Sabbath feast, and drew the sanctity of the Sabbath into their very limbs. And many of the most precious folk of Jerusalem came to visit them, as people go to the Sabbath eve feast before a circumcision; since each person who goes up to the Land of Israel is like a new-born child, having taken upon himself the Covenant of the Land. So they sat all night long, reciting tales and legends and uttering song and praise, until the sun rose and they proceeded to the synagogue.

  Having come to the synagogue, they prayed sweetly with full hearts. Who shall describe the great virtue of prayer in the Land of Israel, and all the more in Jerusalem, where once the Temple rose of which it is written, ‘Mine eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.’ Rabbi Shelomo went up twice to recite the priestly blessing, since in Jerusalem the priests raise their hands in blessing every day and not merely at festivals as is the practice throughout by far the greater part of the Exile; and on days when the Additional Prayer is said, they raise their hands in blessing both at the Morning and Additional Prayers. And Rabbi Shmuel Yosef, the son of Rabbi Shalom Mordekhai ha-Levi, poured water on the hands of the priests from a silver pitcher which Rabbi Moshe had brought from the home of his grandfather, Rabbi Avigdor. Rabbi Shmuel Yosef used to fulfill with fervor every injunction which came his way and all the more so those which served as a commemoration of the Temple. While pouring the water, his hands trembled so for joy that the pitcher beat against the basin and it gave forth a sound like the musical instruments of the Levites of old. The Priests went up to their platform, turned their faces to the people, parted their bent fingers on which the blessings are engraved, raised their hands on high, blessed the congregation in a voice like the voice of the wings of the cherubim in the Garden of Eden, and prolonged the blessings until the congregation had said the Thanksgiving, which they then closed with Amen. Great was the joy of Rabbi Shelomo, and great indeed the love with which he chanted his blessing when he first had the merit of going up to the priest’s stage, to recite the blessing in Jerusalem, the Holy City. The blessings fairly tripped over themselves in their haste.

  To the reading of the Torah they summoned Rabbi Shelomo first as Priest, after him Rabbi Shmuel Yosef as Levite, then Rabbi Pesach as third reader, followed by Rabbi Yosef Meir as fourth, by Rabbi Alter the teacher as fifth, Rabbi Alter the slaughterer as sixth, then Rabbi Yehudah Mendel as seventh, and Rabbi Moshe for the closing passage and the reading from the Prophets. Leibush the butcher was honored with the raising of the Torah on high for all the congregation to see, and the man whose name we have forgotten was honored with the rolling up of the Torah Scroll. They recited the blessings before and after the reading and also the blessing of thanks to God as befits seafarers who have come up from the sea. The congregation responded Amen after them, and wished them to be worthy to remain in the Palace of the King until such time as the Messiah King is revealed,
may it be speedily and in our days. Amen.

  All of a sudden a fine voice was heard, finer than all the voices there and like to that voice which we heard upon the sea. Our comrades looked up and saw Hana-niah before them, his face bright with joy and radiant as the waves of the sea when the moon shines upon them. He was taller than he had been and wore shoes upon his feet. He greeted them and rejoiced with them exceedingly, saying, Sons of the living God, happy are you that you have come hither.

  But who brought you up here? they asked him.

  I spread my kerchief out upon the sea, he answered, and I sat upon it until I reached the Land of Israel.

  Then they knew that the figure they had seen floating upon the sea had been Hananiah.

  And they uttered praise and thanksgiving to the One who is worthy of all praise, yet unto whom all praise is as nothing, and in whom all those who hope need never be shamed; as it is written, ‘I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me,’ and they said, ‘The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him.’ And of Hananiah they said, ‘But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy compasseth him about.’

  After the prayer the Holy Congregation of Jerusalem celebrated with a fine repast in their honor, with grape wine and brandy wine, which each man makes for himself at the time of the vintage shortly before the Sukkot holiday. Householders from all over town sent them preserves of citron, of figs, and of other fine fruits for which the Land of Israel is famous; and they showed them every manner of affection. But above all they showed their affection for Hananiah, who had accepted the covenant of suffering and the Covenant of the Land. Indeed, they wished to place him at their head, but he belittled himself and took the lowest place next to the door. When our righteous Messiah comes, said he, we shall not be able to push too close to him, and then he will have to invite me higher up if he wants me. And then I shall know that I have some slight degree of importance as far as he is concerned. And if I have not, then who am I anyway to be seated at the head?