Women's Minyan

by Naomi Ragen

  The ACTORS begin to cover their hair.

  MAN’S VOICE: The head. A married woman is required to cover all the hair on her head, either with a head covering or a wig, according to the custom. When is a wig permissible? When one can clearly see that it is a wig. A modest head covering is the crowning glory of a woman, wife, and mother. It is forbidden that one should mistake her wig for her own hair, but it should be clearly a foreign body on her.

  CHANA starts. She leaves her chair and goes offstage. The Actors continue their transformation, ignoring her.

  MAN’S VOICE: [continues reading without interruption.] It is forbidden that a wig be styled in a disheveled manner, because the act of wearing disheveled hair is a sin, an imitation of the whoring ways of the dregs of humanity. And this is true also of all types of wigs styled in a way that is eye-catching or strange. Because, after all, the whole reason for hair covering is to discourage strangers from catching the eyes of strangers. And women must be vigilant in overseeing the quiet, modest style and length of their wigs.

  The ACTORS transformation into haredi women in haredi dress is complete.

  CHANA: [off. Screaming] ENOUGH!!

  A door slams. A male voice shouts angrily: “Chana!” The ACTORS freeze, looking up. Beat. CHANA reenters, fleeing. Her head covering is half off. Her face and neck are stained with red marks. She tries to run through the row of chairs. She trips on her own empty chair and falls. SHAINE RUTH and BLUMA rush to help her up. BLUMA touches CHANA’s bleeding cheek, looks in horror at her own hand, now tainted with her mother’s blood. SHAINE RUTH grabs her mother’s arm. CHANA breaks free. Like a frightened, trapped animal, she looks for escape, and heads toward the door at stage right. FRUME grabs her arm.

  FRUME: If you leave now, you will regret it until the end of your days!

  CHANA shakes off her mother’s restraining arm. Running, she circles the stage once, then disappears. SHAINE RUTH, BLUMA and FRUME return to their places in the row, and together with the rest, retreat with the chairs and disappear into the darkness.

  MAN’S VOICE: Compiled, with the grace of God, by Talmud scholars, under the supervision and guidance of the Gaonim, Rav Shalom Elyashiv, Shlita, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Shlita, Rav Ben Tziyon Aba Shaul, Shlita, Rav Shmuel HaLevi Vanzer, Shlita, Rav Sheinberg, Shlita, Rav Nissim Karlitz, Shlita. Rav Zilbershtein, Shlita, Rav Luria, Shlita….

  Black.

  Act I

  Scene one

  The living/dining room in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish home in a Jerusalem apartment building. The room is worn, but very clean. Large bookcases filled with Bibles, heavy Talmudic volumes, and ritual objects line the walls: Sabbath candlesticks, a silver menorah, wine cups, spice boxes, a citron holder. Pictures of revered, bearded rabbis peer down from the walls. Stage right, the front door. Stage left, a back entrance. Along the back wall, to the right and left of the window, there’s one exit to the other rooms and another to the kitchen.

  The furniture includes a large dining room table which, when lit to effect, resembles an altar. There are chairs and a telephone stand. Children’s toys are scattered over the floor and table. There is an empty baby stroller, a laundry basket filled with clean laundry, an ironing board. A room left hurriedly. Upstage center, a large window between the bookcases dominates the room, bringing in the outside world. Like an all seeing-eye, the unseen but powerful male presence outside intrudes constantly through the window. Alternatively, actors may look towards the audience through an imagined window.

  Off, a MALE VOICE reads Psalm 75, and a CHORUS OF MEN repeat after him, line by line, in a crescendo of threatening sound. Individual calls of “Pritza” (whore) and “Cherem” (excommunication) ring out.

  SHAINE RUTH enters from the right. She surveys the disorder with dismay. Off, a CHORUS OF MEN shout: “A shame and a disgrace! It’s shameful, it’s wantonness.”

  SHAINE RUTH hurries to look out the window. She is visibly horrified and confused. She turns her back on it, picking up the laundry basket. Enter BLUMA from the back entrance.

  SHAINE RUTH: [throwing laundry basket aside.] Bluma! I’m so glad you’ve come!

  BLUMA: I had to go all the way around. It’s just not modest for…a woman to press her body through such a crowd of men.

  SHAINE RUTH: [wiping away tears.] I thought you’d forgotten.

  BLUMA: How could I forget?! Granny Fruma called me twice yesterday, and Rav (Rabbi) Aaron even reminded my husband—

  SHAINE RUTH: So what took you so long?

  BLUMA: [evasively.] I’m sorry, I was feeling—[beat.] not well.

  SHAINE RUTH: Never mind. Thank God you’re here now. [indicating the window]. Just listen to what they’re saying about her! Oh, I wish this was over already!

  They embrace, listening to the threatening male voices filtering in through the window. Pause.

  BLUMA: Maybe she won’t come. I don’t believe even she’d have the chutzpah to face all those men.

  SHAINE RUTH: But what if she does? What if she brings the police? Oh, let’s get out of here, now!

  BLUMA: You know it’s forbidden. We’ve been told what we have to do. [suddenly taking in the disorder.] Shaine Ruth! How did you leave everything in such a mess?

  SHAINE RUTH: I ran after Shimmy with his tzitzis [holds them in her hand.]

  BLUMA: [appalled.] How could you forget such a thing?

  SHAINE RUTH: [hurt, defensive.] I dressed all the little ones myself. It’s the one thing I forgot.

  BLUMA: [beginning to straighten up.] You poor thing! When I was here they knew they’d better behave themselves. Come on, let’s clean this mess up!

  SHAINE RUTH: [with one ear cocked to the window, she picks up a holy book from the table.] Since you got married, everything is so much harder!

  BLUMA: You’re seventeen already, Shaine Ruth. You should be able to manage. Make the children do their share.

  SHAINE RUTH: They try. But they are still so young. And so am I. I don’t know how to be a mother to ten children.

  Off. VOICES call out: “Shun her! We won’t allow it! In the name of the Torah!” SHAINE RUTH drops the books and runs to the window.

  BLUMA: What are you doing, Shaine Ruth! Get away from that window. Come, finish with these books.

  SHAINE RUTH: [still peering out of the window, agitated.] Oy no! The older boys are still here in the yard!

  BLUMA: It can’t be!

  SHAINE RUTH: Yes! Yitzchak and Eliahu! They’re standing there with the rest of the men! [guilty and appalled.] Oy va’a voy!! Are they also going to scream insults at Ima (Mother)?

  BLUMA: [taking out her frustrations on the cleaning.] She’s brought it all on herself!

  SHAINE RUTH: What’s gotten into you? Honor thy father and mother. It’s the fifth commandment. [looking out the window, suddenly relaxing. She waves, sighs.] That’s it. They’re gone. Granny Frume just came back and took them. [Pause.] Let’s also run away, you and I! Ima will come and the place will be empty.

  BLUMA: I already told you. It’s forbidden. Someone has to be here to get rid of her.

  SHAINE RUTH: Why? If she doesn’t find anyone…?

  BLUMA: Rav Aaron said.

  SHAINE RUTH: But why us? Why not Granny or Father?

  BLUMA: Shaine Ruth!! Who are we to question the words of the holy Rav?

  SHAINE RUTH: All right, all right! [NOISES off bring back their attention to the window.] Look Bluma! More men are coming! Instead of spending their precious time learning the Torah, they’re here “protecting” us from her. It’s sinful.

  BLUMA: [arranging things, furious.] Another mark on her black soul.

  SHAINE RUTH: Oy! Bluma come look! They’ve brought clubs. [frightened.] You don’t think…you don’t think they’ll beat her up, do you? What a horror!

  BLUMA: What a mitzvah! [good deed].

  SHAINE RUTH: How can you say that?!! These are not your words, Bluma. [staring out the window longingly.] I wonder how she looks now.

  BLUMA: I couldn
’t care less. Come back here—stop staring and put away this laundry.

  SHAINE RUTH: [lost in thought.] Two years. Two whole years since she left. Such a long time. I’ve tried so hard to forget, the way everyone told us, but I just can’t. Last night, I dreamt about her. She was braiding my hair and—[NOISE off draws her to window.] Oh, look! It’s him!

  BLUMA: Who?

  SHAINE RUTH: Your…. [changes her mind, lies.] No. Nothing. I just thought…

  BLUMA: Please get away from that window. Do you want the entire neighborhood to see you?

  The room is in order, except for the table. BLUMA takes off the tablecloth and hands it to SHAINE RUTH.

  Go bring an ironed one. And fix your braid. We don’t want her to think that without her we’re falling apart at the seams.

  SHAINE RUTH looks toward her sister, toward the window. She hesitates a moment, then exits. VOICES off: “Excommunication! Never! Jezebel!”

  BLUMA: [to herself.] She won’t come. She won’t have the chutzpah to stand up against all of them. Even she couldn’t be that shameless.

  SHAINE RUTH returns with a tablecloth. She again glances toward the window, toward her sister. She begins to speak, thinks better of it, and remains silent. Facing each other on either side of the long table, they grasp the tablecloth and with a single movement let it drop over the table, which acquires the aura of ritual.

  BLUMA: [smiling ironically.] Shaine Ruth! You call this ironed?

  SHAINE RUTH: [laughingly, in sad agreement.] Nothing is the same as it was when Ima was here. She used to spend an hour ironing the Sabbath tablecloth until it was perfect. With her, everything was clean and shining and polished…. Remember?

  BLUMA: [hardening.] What I remember is that she ruined my chances for the marriage I dreamed about.

  Pause.

  SHAINE RUTH: I saw him just now. He was out there, with the others.

  BLUMA: [agitated.] Joseph Graetz? [she takes a step toward the window, then stops in pain.] It was her fault! Everything was her fault. She destroyed any chance I had with a man like him. And now she’s coming back to destroy your chances. All of a sudden she loves her children so much. All of a sudden she misses us so much….

  SHAINE RUTH: I miss her also. [beat.] So much.

  BLUMA: What a little fool you are, Shaine Ruth! Get this into your head once and for all: the fewer people who see her, the better your chances are for a decent match. Just imagine the mothers of all the yeshiva boys in Meah Shearim looking out the window as she marches to our door with the police…. Do you think any one of them would agree to be your mother-in-law after that?

  Off. SOUND OF POLICE SIREN.

  There, you see!? That’s your precious mother. She’s brought the Cossacks from the police!

  SHAINE RUTH: [frightened.] Oh, no! I can’t face her!

  BLUMA: Why should you be ashamed to face her? She is the one who ruined our family’s honor, poured filth over our good name. She is the one who abandoned a husband and twelve children and went to live with a woman! [SHAINE RUTH is shocked.] Yes, to live with her, like husband and wife! Why can’t you face her?!

  SHAINE RUTH: Because of all the lies we told to the children, to the Rabbis during the divorce trial!

  BLUMA: [stubbornly.] Everything we said at the trial was true!

  SHAINE RUTH: That she was a terrible mother, that we didn’t love her, that she didn’t keep a kosher kitchen?! Don’t you even remember that, once, she was the most wonderful mother in the world?

  BLUMA: [bitterly.] No. That’s not what I remember.

  SHANIE RUTH: [grabbing her sister’s shoulders.] She knew we were lying then. And she’ll know it now. You know it’s impossible to lie to Ima.

  BLUMA: [shaken, suddenly frightened and guilty.] We only did what they told us to do, Rav Aaron, Father…Granny. They said sometimes a lie can be a good deed, like the lie Jacob told to Isaac to get his blessing.

  Sharp knocks on the door.

  SHAINE RUTH: It’s her! She’s here! Are you going to open the door?

  BLUMA: [helplessly.] If she’d only just disappear! If the earth would just open up and swallow her, like it did to Korach!

  SHAINE RUTH: [running to the door and opening it.] Ima?

  Scene two

  The main door opens. A head sticks in. It’s ETA. After her, another head intrudes: TOVAH.

  TOVAH: Why are you pushing me?

  ETA: I’m not; I’m just faster.

  TOVAH: Er iz, zayt mir moykhl, a mentsh. (i.e. “Her entire personality says please forgive me.”)

  ETA: Keyner zet nisht zayn eygenem hoyker (i.e. “We are blind to our own defects.”)

  SHAINE RUTH: [relieved and let down.] Oh, it’s you. Shalom.

  TOVAH: [with false sweetness.] Shaine Ruth, sweetheart.

  I’m so sorry to bother you. Perhaps, maybe, you have a little cooking oil Eta could borrow?

  ETA: I was just in the middle of making a compote…

  TOVAH: [elbowing her out of the way.] What compote?

  ETA: Let me explain. I’m already explaining!

  TOVAH: You’re all mixed up. I’ll explain.

  ETA: I got mixed up because you’re interrupting me. [to SHAINE RUTH] Eta was in the middle of the compote—

  TOVAH: The potato kugel.

  ETA: Yes, right, when suddenly I realized I was running out of vinegar…[to TOVAH.] Why are you pinching me?

  SHAINE RUTH: Vinegar for potato kugel?

  BLUMA: Maybe tell us already what it is you want?

  TOVAH: Oil.

  ETA: Right. That’s what I wanted to say!

  SHAINE RUTH: I’ll go see. [she turns to go.]

  BLUMA: [stopping her.] There’s no need. We’re also out of vinegar.

  SHAINE RUTH: [laughing and whispering.] Oil.

  BLUMA: We’re out of that too.

  ETA: How do you know? You don’t even live here anymore. [turning with an ingratiating smile to SHAINE RUTH] Shaine-leh…

  BLUMA: [cutting her short.] Why don’t you try the Goldbergs?

  ETA: No one answers the door over there.

  SHAINE RUTH: (whispering to BLUMA.) Because everyone is too busy looking out of their windows…

  ETA: Right.

  TOVAH: Right what?

  ETA: Right this minute I wanted to go down to Weis in the grocery. My husband, Shlomo, God bless him, loves potato kugel so much—but it’s impossible to get out of the building because of all the men hanging around outside. Could it be, maybe, you might have an idea, why?

  SHAINE RUTH: They were sent by the Rabbi, Rav—

  BLUMA: [silencing her.] Please, excuse us. [as in “excuse me, I’ve got to get going…” ] We’re waiting for our Granny….

  SHAINE RUTH: [catching on.]—and we haven’t finished straightening up yet. So if you’ll excuse us….

  TOVAH: We can help you with something, maybe? [she picks something off the floor, her eyes roaming for new opportunities.]

  BLUMA: There’s no need, really. Thank you. [BLUMA takes the object out of TOVAH’S hand and finds a place for it.]

  ETA: It must be so hard for you without your Mother.

  TOVAH: [pretending to be casual, but intensely interested.] How is she, by the way? Have you heard from her?

  No answer. TOVAH clucks her tongue. ETA shakes her head.

  ETA: Outside they are saying—

  BLUMA: We don’t listen to gossip.

  TOVAH: Very good! It’s a terrible sin to listen to loose tongues.

  ETA: Just because all Meah Shearim is talking about her, doesn’t mean a thing.