by Shlomo Kalo
“It’s as if you’ve described to us a scene from Hell,” cried Hananiah – indignation, horror and revulsion blending in his voice.
“Hell is precisely what it is!” Gershon declared, adding: “In the evening they dole out a tiny portion of broth, broth made with rotten, foul-smelling rice or beans that don’t smell any better. And sometimes that’s the only ration. And then you sleep in straw booths on flimsy mats the colour of the ground, and just about indistinguishable from it, like garbage that’s been left uncollected, to fester.”
“It’s a nightmare you’ve described!” Adoniah exclaimed.
“What can we do to ease those dreadful conditions?” – Azariah tossed the question into the air and unconsciously turned towards him.
One after another Mishael, Hananiah and Gershon followed his example, as did Adoniah, whose quizzical look was tinged by a strange air of tolerance, of one who recognises his own weakness and makes no attempt to conceal it.
He answered them solemnly, in a quiet but resolute voice:
“God will show us what to do, and soon!”
“And why has this God of yours left it so long, and why is He still waiting?” – the mocking note returned to Adoniah’s voice.
“Because people don’t turn to Him!” he answered him in the same tone, controlled but vehement.
“And if they turned to Him, would they be delivered?” Adoniah persisted.
“It is written: The Lord is near to all who call upon him, all who call upon him in truth. Every appeal to God that is truthful is answered at once, and in full!”
“And how can this God of yours satisfy the ravenous hunger of those wretched slaves?” Adoniah demanded to know, his tone provocative.
“He will send down manna, manna from Heaven!” he declared calmly.
“I’ve been roaming about this strange world of ours for more than a year. My horse’s legs have covered vast distances, and it seems there is not a remote corner anywhere in which I haven’t set foot. I have travelled to regions that have no language and no name, I have seen upright and honest children of the Torah, and scoundrels and buffoons who call themselves saints, I have known people of indelible faith whose lot in life is far from lavish, but never have I seen with my own eyes manna descending from Heaven!” Adoniah concluded, grating notes of anger creeping into his voice.
“Our fathers saw it,” he answered him steadily, adding: “They ate of it and were satisfied.”
“And instead of praising and thanking God,” Gershon interjected hoarsely – “they began complaining and longed to return to the servitude of Egypt!”
“And these people that you happened to meet – honest and upright, people of faith and lovers of God,” – Hananiah turned to face Adoniah: “Were they in a state of distress or of abject misery?”
Adoniah gave the matter some thought, his eyes straying to the smooth white ceiling.
“I’m not altogether sure…” he faltered, his head lowered – “but if I’m doing my best not to offend against the truth, then I have to say that in all my life I have never seen people so happy in their lot, so hospitable, always prepared to sacrifice something of their own for another. And you have to take care not to express any kind of wish in their presence!” Adoniah laughed a bitter laugh.
“Why is that?” asked Azariah.
“Because they’ll move heaven and earth to make it come true! And if you’re foolish enough to admire your host’s shirt, you won’t be allowed to leave the house without it – even if it’s the only shirt he has and he’s left with just a loincloth!”
A broad, radiant smile spread over the faces of his audience.
“You’re not as unpleasant as you sometimes pretend to be!” – Hananiah approached Adoniah and slapped his shoulder.
“How do you make that out?”
“You’re telling the truth, and you have described those godly people just the way they are!”
“And perhaps you’re the gullible one, Hananiah, falling so easily into the traps that I set for you!”
“I don’t think so, my friend and brother!” Hananiah smiled a gentle and reassuring smile – “And I am sure that when the time of testing comes, you will pass it with honour, as befits a son of our holy race, this race of prophets and kings and saints.”
“Don’t be quite so confident!” Adoniah retorted and turned to him: “And you, do you share Hananiah’s child-like trust in me?”
“I do – and more!” he declared without hesitation.
Adoniah looked down again, and after a moment’s silence turned to him and said:
“It slipped my mind completely!” – and he raised his hand as if drawing up a memory – “When I was in Jerusalem a girl approached me, not the kind of girl one normally meets on one’s travels – and I’m talking about the purity in her face, the quiet courage in her dark-blue eyes, the seal of wisdom shining on her smooth forehead – and she asked me if I was going to Babylon and if I knew Daniel, son of Naimel, former minister of the royal household, and if so she wanted me to pass on her regards and best wishes, and if possible, this modest gift as well…” He thrust his hand into the pocket of his gown, pulled out a small packet and handed it to him.
With trembling fingers he unwrapped the bundle and found in it a parchment scroll and a tiny seven-branched candlestick made of silver – a real work of art.
His hand closed around the parchment scroll. He felt tears springing to his eyes, and made an effort to curb them, with some success. He took the candlestick and showed it to the assembled company. The skilfully beaten silver caught the flickering glimmer of the oil-lamps and grease-lamps in the room, shining with a pure radiance and reflecting the light back to those looking on, a gentle and conciliatory light.
“Did she ask about me?” – he turned to Adoniah, and the latter replied to him in a deliberately casual tone, in an effort to show complete indifference and the self-confidence which he so conspicuously lacked:
“She asked, oh yes – she asked!”
“And you told her?”
“I didn’t want to disappoint her, and superb raconteur that I am, I could have told her a great deal about you. There is plenty to tell after all! On the other hand, I didn’t want to confuse her either, and she was clearly preoccupied at the time, to say the least!”
He gave Adoniah a sharp, inquisitive, probing look until the latter flinched, recoiled involuntarily and fell silent.
“So what did you tell the girl?” asked Azariah, with a distinct edge of asperity to his voice.
“First of all,” Adoniah grinned – “Nejeen isn’t a girl any more, not the girl she once was. The years have passed and the girl has become a woman. A young woman of exceptional feminine beauty, whose equal is not to found anywhere on this earth, or possibly even in the Heavens above,” and to the astonishment of his audience he attempted to reinforce his words with the most bizarre of arguments: “If a thief happened to be in her presence, a habitual thief, and he glanced once at her face if only for a moment – he would turn from his evil ways and return everything he had stolen to the rightful owners, or donate it to charity, and go to the Temple of God, and bow down before the Holy Ark, and fall face down on the floor in the fullest repentance. Such is the beauty of Nejeen of the house of Gamliel, and this is its special nature! However, I am no thief and am therefore absolved from repentance!”
“You’re not answering the question, Adoniah!” – Azariah pressed him.
“Don’t be so hasty, dear friend! Everything in its time! Didn’t the wisest of men say, there is a time for everything? A time for peace and a time for war, a time to love and a time to hate? Well, I told the aristocratic young lady, Nejeen of the house of Gamliel, who it seems is also related to the royal family, about her sweetheart, who is doing great things in Babylon!” His sarcasm was venomous, and intended to hurt.
“Be careful what you say, Adoniah!” he warned, his voice icy.
“I haven’t accused you of worshipping the s
pirits of the night,” Adoniah retorted – “control your temper! It’s true that you’ve visited the shrine of Bel,” he continued with an air of secret, contemptuous pleasure, – “but you haven’t changed your religion yet! I, on the other hand, stand accused of contemplating a change of religion for the sake of a foreign lady, the diametrical opposite of your Jewess… Well, so it goes, we differ in nature and in taste, and in the kind of people who are drawn to us, differ fundamentally…” Adoniah sighed a bitter sigh and added as if in conclusion: “Such is the way of the world and there’s no remedy for it!
“‘I know him!’ I told her,” he resumed his account, “and I had the privilege of seeing her wondrous exaltation of spirit, the brightness coming to life in her eyes, the brightness of fearless nobility, fine breeding, and for this reason I was quick to stress: ‘I know him well! We both travelled to Babylon in the same convoy, and we studied in the same school. We even competed, at the behest of King Nebuchadnezzar, in horse-racing and steeplechasing, and as you can well imagine – he was the victor!’” Adoniah smiled a thin and calculated smile, was silent for a moment to deepen the impact of his words and add to the tension among his listeners, before continuing:
“Obviously, in this instance she needed to invest a lot of effort in the attempt to hide the surge of sublime emotion – and in my humble opinion, she’s not accustomed to feelings of any other kind – that took hold of her.
“For her part, she was sure she had succeeded in curbing and concealing her emotions before it was too late, and I was happy to pretend to be unaware of her state of mind, because at that time it was my wish and my firm intention to reassure her and if possible – to cheer her up as well. The fact is, it is inconceivable that any creature should try to injure and offend one such as she, and if ever such a strange creature were to be found, he would deserve the soundest of thrashings. And yes, this is what I tried to do, I suppressed my noble inclination to make her happy, I tried to grieve and injure her – and I was soundly thrashed! Utter failure! And how did I try?” – he asked and answered for himself: “I tried by telling her of the Chaldean beauty who seduced Beltezhazzar (I revealed to her the proud Chaldean name that he bears) and led him to the temple of idolatry, the shrine of Bel, the Babylonian deity, and how they stayed there much longer than would be reasonably expected, and I stressed the point that all this information came from first hand, since I personally followed them there and waited, and waited a long time for them to emerge from the temple, and in the end, when there was still no sign of them, I gave up and left the place.
“I was sure I had succeeded in plunging a poisoned arrow into that sensitive heart, most wondrous of hearts… but not a bit of it!
“She turned to me and asked me why I had acted this way, and why I had followed them. Had I been appointed their bodyguard? And here I can tell you for sure that in her voice there was a clear intention to hurt me and to teach me a lesson, and expose my shameful behaviour to public view – and a threat like that always throws me off balance and sometimes numbs all my senses too. And that is what happened in this instance, and I turned to her and told her in all sincerity:
“It’s because I’m jealous, my lady, I’m envious of him! Everywhere he outshines me and outclasses me, whether it’s horse-racing or landing the best jobs, or making an impression on well-connected Chaldean women, and I’m sure you can’t blame him for that! However, I shall fulfil my errand, if you still consider me suitable, if my conduct has not made you reconsider!’ And what do you think she said? Can you have the slightest inkling of her response?” And without waiting for a reply he continued: “She said, ‘Esteemed Sir, I trust you!’ And that was it! With those words she trampled my soul into the dust! For a moment, I wanted to jump off the wall, but I didn’t have the nerve!” Adoniah bowed his head, looked away and continued: “After we had parted company I thought of throwing the little package away, but then some instinct told me there might be something valuable in it and rather than discard it, I should take it to a silversmith and make some money from it. I opened the package and saw it was indeed a charming piece, but of little value. And I went further and read what was written on the parchment, I couldn’t resist the impulse! And you,” – he turned to him – “you can read it to us if you like, or shall I? Anyway, it says ‘Love is stronger than death’.”
He gave him a tolerant look, not particularly sympathetic but also devoid of hatred or abhorrence.
“You can pity me!” Adoniah resumed – “Pity me as much as you like. I’m more deserving of pity than any other creature in the world, and yet I don’t ask for your compassion, I despise it. You can call me a scoundrel and challenge me to a duel with swords or spears or bare hands, or with bows and arrows – and I won’t accept the challenge because I know perfectly well that you are superior to me in all these skills. But the day will come that I am longing for, when I shall tackle you in the way you least expect. Remember that. Remember it well!”
“You’re out of your mind!” Gershon cried – “Crazy!”
“Not crazy exactly, a little deranged perhaps!” Adoniah corrected him, with a hoot of raucous laughter. He poured the remainder of the wine into his cup, gulped it down thirstily and noisily to the very last drop, put the cup down and said:
“Jerusalem is going to rebel! Remember what I’m telling you! Zedekiah is leading the Jewish people to catastrophe. Jeremiah is saying this too, but he’s just repeating what his God is telling him, whereas I’m reporting to you what my eyes have seen and my ears have heard. If you want to save the lovely Nejeen,” he turned to him suddenly – “fetch her here and do it soon!” And saying this he rose from his seat, and swaying a little on his short legs, left Mishael’s lodging.
Adoniah’s departure seemed to clear the air for those remaining, and all breathed more easily.
“The man’s a fool, and he’s talking nonsense!” Gershon exclaimed.
He did not respond, although the others expected him to. In the equable stillness that reigned in the little room, he asked Mishael if he was enjoying his work in the legal department.
Mishael answered willingly, telling them of a new law which had been proposed by the council of sorcerers, wizards and astrologers and would soon be presented to the King for his approval. According to the new law, the death penalty was to be imposed on anyone expressing contempt for the government of Nebuchadnezzar, however mild or good-humoured it might be. Now they were having to draft the law with all its clauses, and the senior legal adviser was doing his best to tone down the more stringent provisions. What was needed was an agreed and precise legal definition of “contempt”.
Azariah described his work in the buildings inspectorate of the palatial complex, and the difficulty of finding enough assistants, or rather skilled artisans, for the work that needed doing. And since Babylon was not richly endowed with building labourers of the calibre required, he had suggested to his minister that skilled workers should be brought in from Judah. It seemed his suggestion had been accepted, and a convoy would soon be on its way, to recruit the Jewish artisans who were so sorely needed.
Hananiah was the assistant to the King’s senior adviser on educational matters, and the work in that office was most agreeable to him. An edict was soon to be issued in the name of the King, according to which every child of the common people who proved adept and knowledgeable, would receive a full education at the King’s expense. Preliminary surveys had shown that at least one out of every hundred plebeian children would benefit from this scheme, being educated free of charge by the best teachers in the land.
Later he returned to his own room, dismissed the slave who was preparing to serve his supper, turned to face Jerusalem, put his hands together and said softly:
“O my father in Heaven, my God, shining in the hearts of all men, bringer of peace, joy, truth and freedom, You are the one and the only true God, God the all-powerful, whose name is love!
“You are the God of the humble and the upright, the bra
ve and the pure, the undaunted, and anyone who is born of You, who reaches out to You – overcomes the world!”
He rose to his feet, undressed slowly and climbed into his bed with a clear sense that the self within him had faded away into nothing, and all that was left was that perfect happiness, that the language of humans cannot even begin to describe.
The Tanneries On The Euphrates
On the anniversary of the repeal of the stern edict imposed on that remote region, in the matter of the rice levy, the office of the King’s senior adviser, Nashdernach, was visited by a delegation representing the region. After the repeated bows and salutations, the delegation presented to the minister and his office clerks a gift of choice swine-meat, smoked in the traditional manner of that locality, and reels of coloured fabric of the finest quality.
Nashdernach was moved and he warmly thanked the members of the delegation, extolling for their benefit King Nebuchadnezzar the wise, the merciful and the valiant, conqueror of the world, and he expressed the emphatic hope that the people of this province not only would not disappoint His Majesty in any way, but would continue to demonstrate with signs and tokens their loyalty to him, and their appreciation of his beneficence and his generosity, this King who had dealt with them as a wise and loving father deals with his children.
The members of the delegation, twelve in number, were also moved, assuring Nashdernach there had been no need to raise the points that he had raised, and as proof of this they revealed to him that they themselves, of their own free will, and with a deep sense of gratitude that would never be erased from their hearts or the hearts of their children after them, had decided to do everything in their power to exceed the quota of rice imposed upon them, and also to treat the rice with special methods handed down among them since time immemorial, thus producing the finest-tasting rice to be found anywhere in the world, normally set aside for themselves and for their families.