by Naomi Ragen
TOVAH: By me in my ritual baths, I never allow idle gossip.
ETA: God forbid! But maybe its best for them to be prepared, farshteyst (understand)?
TOVAH: I, for one, do not believe that Chana is going to come here dressed like a slut—
SHAINE RUTH: What!!!
TOVAH:—even though it wouldn’t be the first time. She’s already been seen that way.
SHAINE RUTH: By whom?!
TOVAH: People.
SHAINE RUTH: When?
ETA: She’s been seen. Walking around in a red mini skirt—and cleavage between her toes in open sandals.
TOVAH:—with her hair uncovered.
ETA:—on Ben Yehuda Street.
Pause.
SHAINE RUTH: [shocked.] Who told you such a thing?
TOVAH: [with the pretense of sorrow.] Rebbitzen Fishbein.
SHAINE RUTH: And you believe her? You, who had to get mother’s approval on what kind of knot to make in your headscarf? You asked her advice on everything.
TOVAH: What do you want from me? It’s not me who’s spreading these stories.
BLUMA: [aside, sarcastically.] Of course not.
TOVAH: [indicating ETA.] She said her husband heard it from Rav Aaron himself!
SHAINE RUTH: That just can’t be…. We know our mother….
BLUMA: She wouldn’t dare come here dressed like that!
SHAINE RUTH: What? You believe them? That mother, our mother, paraded herself down the street dressed like they say?!
BLUMA doesn’t answer.
TOVAH: [triumphant.] If Rebbitzen Fishbein told Rebbitzen Klein, who is Rivkeleh’s—Eta’s daughter’s—Torah teacher, that her husband, Rav Fishbein, heard it in synagogue from a yeshiva boy who is very close to Rav Aaron himself, and he heard it from the assistant beadle who saw her with his own eyes walking down Ben Yehuda street in a red mini skirt, then who are we to doubt it?!
SHAINE RUTH: The assistant beadle told it to Rebbitzen Fishbein?
TOVAH: To the yeshiva boy.
ETA: His friend…
SHAINE RUTH: The yeshiva boy told it to Rebbitzen Fishbein?
TOVAH: To the Rav.
ETA: Fishbein.
TOVAH: Right.
ETA: What’s right?
TOVAH: That’s right,—
SHAINE RUTH: [interrupting.] No! None of it’s right. It’s all wrong, all lies, stories, idle gossip. [to BLUMA.] Don’t you remember how strict Ima was with us? How she checked that our elbows were always covered, and our blouses buttoned up to our chins? It just can’t be!
BLUMA: It can’t be? They are telling you that it came from Rav Aaron himself! Would you accuse Moses of lying? Eliahu the Prophet of lying? We are just women. There are things we can’t understand. We’re just not on their level.
ETA: Wise like her mother.
TOVAH: [to BLUMA, commiserating.] What mazal that he stopped her from coming to your wedding.
BLUMA: [angry.] Mrs. Klein!!
ETA: After she ruined your match with—[indicating window.]
BLUMA: How do you know about that?!
SHAINE RUTH: [surprised.] Ima wanted to come to your wedding? But Rav Aaron and Father told us that she didn’t want to see us!
BLUMA: [glowering angrily at TOVAH, to SHAINE RUTH.] What she wanted was to ruin it, Shaine Ruth. What she wanted was to put on her festive wig and dance at my wedding like nothing happened.
ETA: [to SHAINE RUTH.] So Rav Aaron advised your father to take out a restraining order against her, farshteyst?
BLUMA: Mrs. Klein! The wise know what they say; fools say what they know.
SHAINE RUTH: [confused, broken.] So she did want to come to your wedding…
ETA: Avaadah (of course).
SHAINE RUTH: She wanted to see us…
Outside the men’s VOICES call out threateningly: “Pritza! Cherem! Nedui! (Whore! Banish her! Shun her!). The women listen, intimidated.
TOVAH: What a racket those men make! You should close the windows. It will frighten the children.
The girls become visibly tense. Pause.
TOVAH: [noticing their discomfort.] Where are the children?
ETA: Shimmy wasn’t in kindergarten with my Yaakov this morning. Is he sick?
Without waiting for an invitation, ETA and TOVAH exit to search through the rooms. BLUMA and SHAINE RUTH hold a consultation.
BLUMA: Don’t say a word about the children! Unless you want all Meah Shearim to know!
SHAINE RUTH: [nods her agreement, in a whispered complaint.] Why didn’t you tell me about the wedding?
BLUMA: Rav Aaron said it would be better for you not to know….
They exit, in search of the neighbors.
Scene three
FRUME: [off.] Shaineleh, there’s a reason you left the door open?
Enter FRUME from the back door, smiling. Dragging tiredly behind her is GITTE LEAH, heavy and ill-humored.
SHAINE RUTH: [running to FRUME.] Granny. It’s so good you’re here!
FRUME: What did you think? That I’d leave you here on your own? Come bring a chair for your Auntie, Shaineleh. She came specially all the way from B’nai Brak [warmly.] Gitte Leah: Come. Sit. Rest. You deserve it.
SHAINE RUTH brings a chair for GITTE LEAH, then goes into the kitchen.
GITTE LEAH: Good maideleh. I’m fainting from hunger, and my back is killing me.
BLUMA: [comes in and runs to FRUME.] Granny!
FRUME: Bluma-leh! How pale you look! You stopped eating?
BLUMA: [embarrassed, eager to change the subject.] I’m fine, really, God be blessed. [whisper.] Granny, where are the children?
FRUME: This is not for you to worry about, my sweet granddaughter. Everything is arranged as it should be. Such a relief! If she has the nerve to show up now, we’ll show her a thing or two!
In the middle of FRUME’s speech, enter GOLDIE SHEINHOFF.
SHEINHOFF, WITH HER DAUGHTER, ADINA: [sitting. To herself.] Poor children! It’s so terrible!
FRUME: [surprised.] What’s so terrible? To save your son’s children from more damage and pain?
ETA and TOVAH peek into the room, eager for the latest gossip.
SHAINE RUTH: [noticing them. Warningly.]—Granny…
SHEINHOFF: [to FRUME.] God watch over us! Aren’t they Chana’s children also? Your own daughter’s children? Don’t you have any pity for her at all?
FRUME: No! I’m ashamed to be her mother.
SHEINHOFF God help us!
GITTE LEAH: If God had seen fit to bless me with twelve children instead of her…
FRUME: Say a blessing for the three you do have, Gitte. Your health is so delicate.
SHAINE RUTH: [more forcefully.] Granny…
GITTE LEAH: What is it already Shaine Ruth? [discovering the intruding ETA and TOVAH . Warningly.] Oh, Mother, we have visitors.
FRUME turns and sees ETA and TOVAH.
ETA: [jumping out first.] We came to borrow a little—? [looks enquiringly at TOVAH .]
TOVAH: Excuse me Eta. Let me…. Eta was just in the middle of making a potato kugel when she ran out of—
ETA: Oil?
TOVAH: [relieved.] Right.
ETA: As it is written: Better fine oil than a fine neighbor…
TOVAH: The opposite! “Better a fine neighb—”
FRUME: [interrupting.] So, in the children’s bedrooms you were drilling for oil?
TOVAH: We made a wrong turn.
FRUME: Take our fine guests to the kitchen, girls, and find them anything they need. [to herself.] So they can find their way out! [out loud.] Don’t you see they are in a terrible rush to go home?
The four walk toward the kitchen, ETA and TOVAH dragging reluctantly behind the girls, pausing for greetings. They are overwhelmed at meeting the important Rabbi’s widow and his daughter.
TOVAH: Shalom, Rebbitzen Sheinhoff.
ETA: Shalom Adina.
BLUMA and SHAINE RUTH hurry them off.
FRUME: Yenta-kvetches! (gossiping compla
iners). They came to sniff out the latest gossip!
GITTE LEAH: Tovah will soon go running off to announce it in the ritual baths, and Eta, that Red Heifer, will share it with every neighbor in the building.
FRUME: We have to get rid of them before she shows up!
SHEINHOFF: My poor grandchildren. The twins cried all the way. Malka had to carry them, in turns. She’s just a child herself.
FRUME: [whispering.] Sssssh. It’s all their mother’s fault!
During this dialogue, ETA and TOVAH reenter carrying a large bottle of oil, which they will drag around with them from now on. SHAINE RUTH and BLUMA follow.
ADINA: [with a slight stutter, apologetically.] Excuse me but…but not to let her see her children two whole years…? How can this be right? How can it be just?
GITTE LEAH: As my husband the scholar says—“the belly of the wicked shall suffer want.”
SHEINHOFF: We didn’t have a choice, Adina. Her children were suffering. Until we were finally able to restore a little order in the house—[painfully, delicately, yet with a touch of criticism.] When you’ll have children of your own, you’ll understand.
GITTE LEAH: [cruelly.] After we merit to rejoice with you under the marriage canopy, with God’s help!
Disturbance. TOVAH manages to brush by a pile of books and sends them flying. She hurries to pick them up and arrange them.
FRUME: [examining arrangement of books.] What’s this, Mrs. Klein? The Code of Jewish Law on top of the Bible? This is a God-fearing house!
TOVAH: Of course. I knew that…[hurriedly rearranges them.]
GITTE LEAH: Everything has to be in its place. The holiest on top, the less holy beneath it. Whoever doesn’t understand that, will wind up on the bottom, in hell!
TOVAH: God protect us!
FRUME: I see that you’ve struck oil, so…
They look at each other in confusion, whispering, consulting, pushing each other in different directions. They pick up the bottle of oil.
TOVAH: Yes.
ETA: No.
TOVAH: [probing.] So, the children are all right?
ETA: Where are they?
TOVAH: I didn’t know what to think this morning when Shimmy didn’t go to school with her Yaakov….
GITTE LEAH: Excuse me, but this is a family matter.
TOVAH: We’re all one big family here.
ETA: Not like you over there in B’nai Brak.
TOVAH: [offended.] We saw they’re not here!
GITTE LEAH: This is private!
ETA: [incredulous.] Private? In Meah Shearim?
[She laughs, indicating the window. To FRUME, confidentially.] Outside, they are saying she’s bringing the television.
FRUME: The television!? [to SHEINHOFF.] And you want me to feel sorry for her!
The universal horror over the possibility of television film crews turning up, unifies the women to the extent that even TOVAH and ETA are allowed to join in.
SHAINE RUTH: Granny, what are we going to do?!
FRUME: I must call Rav Aaron at once!
FRUME marches to the telephone, and the group parades behind her.
BLUMA: Yes! Call him, Granny. Rav Aaron will tell us what to do.
SHEINHOFF: She’s calling Rav Aaron? I also want to hear…. [moves in closer to phone.]
TOVAH: [aside.] Oh God—watch over us…. Eta! Why didn’t you tell me that they were going to put me on the television? Come, let’s go….
ETA: [righteously.] We’re not going anywhere! You yourself said we were one big family…This involves all of Meah Shearim, every God-fearing woman in Israel…. [she fixes her wig. Whispers.] How do I look?
TOVAH: [with irony.] Like the Rose of Sharon….
FRUME: Shhh! [into phone.] Hello? Rav Aaron? Shalom, shalom. Yes, it’s Frume Kashman speaking. Yes, Rav. Yes, we did exactly what you told us. Yes, your boys are here outside chanting Psalms. But Rav Aaron, what if she brings the pork-eaters from the television? [listens.] May God bless you, and every blessing to your wife, the Rebbitzen. [she hangs up.]
GITTE LEAH: What did he say?
FRUME: He said [she pauses, striking a saintly pose, palms together, pointing upward.] that if she only tries, this time they’ll break also her arms and legs.
SHAINE RUTH: [appalled, whispers to BLUMA.] We have to warn her….
BLUMA: Keep out of it.
SHEINHOFF: [emotionally.] It’s forbidden for them to touch her! You hear? To harm a hair on my Chanaleh’s head!
FRUME: Tell it to Rav Aaron. He’s your relative.
SHEINHOFF attempts to go back to the phone but hasn’t the strength. ADINA catches her before she falls, helping her back into her chair.
FRUME: [to BLUMA and SHAINE RUTH.] Go. Bring your Savta a cup of mint tea.
The girls exit. FRUME goes to SHEINHOFF.
FRUME: I tell you—and don’t think it’s not hard for me to say this, I’m her mother after all—she’s brought this all on herself! She saw the pit in front of her and jumped in with both feet. Would she listen to reason? Did she take pity on the little ones? Why should I pity her now?
SHEINHOFF: [to FRUME.] What’s the matter with you? [to the others.] With all of you? Have you forgotten everything? [she leans on ADINA.]
ADINA: Please Mother, don’t excite yourself.
SHEINHOFF: Have you forgotten—who Chanaleh was? [to ETA and TOVAH.] How all the Rabbis in Meah Shearim sent women to her for counseling? How you yourselves wouldn’t put one foot in front of the other without hearing her opinion? [she rises, walking around the dining room table, as if willing the past to come back.] Have you forgotten Chana’s Sabbath table? [remembering with joy.] How everything shone! The children, all twelve of them, smiling, clean from their baths. The boys in their ironed starched white shirts, the girls in their pretty dresses…. and Chana, like a queen. [goes to the head of the table, touches the chair.] And my son, my Yankele, a king at the head…[covers her face and weeps.] Have we no pity for Chanaleh? She was the joy of my life!
In the middle of the monologue, SHAINE RUTH enters with the tea. She pauses, listening. When SHEINHOFF finishes, the sound of a police siren and then a megaphone is heard from outside: “Stand back. Don’t block the way!” SHAINE RUTH drops the cup.
GITTE LEAH: I told you! She’s bringing the Cossacks!
SHEINHOFF grows faint.
ADINA: Mother, are you all right?
SHEINHOFF: [shakes head “no.” ] Take me to the kitchen Adinaleh. I don’t want to be here.
ADINA: Come Mother, come. I’ll make you another cup.
Harsh knocks on the door.
MAN’S VOICE: Police! Open up!
GITTE LEAH: What a disgrace!
SHAINE RUTH: [to BLUMA.] I can’t face her. I can’t!
BLUMA: Calm down!
ETA: [to TOVAH , whispering in delight.] In a minute, there’s going to be a huge scandal….
TOVAH: [warningly.] Oy-va-Voy if your husband finds out you were with her….
ETA: [threateningly.] As it is written: “Who tells his friend’s secret sheds blood.” Farshteyst?
TOVAH: Ah- vaadah!
TOVAH and ETA prepare themselves for the TV cameras. Another knock on the door.
MAN’S VOICE: Police! Open up!
FRUME: Gitte Leah, go open!
GITTE LEAH: I can’t. I’m plotzing (collapsing). My back….
Pause. No one moves.
FRUME: [in a trembling voice, without moving from her place.] What are you all so terrified of? Outside, the police helped her. But here, inside, no one will help her. Bluma-leh, go open the door….
BLUMA approaches the door. Stops. Backtracks.
Scene four
The front door opens. ENTER CHANA , carrying a purse and a shopping bag.
CHANA: [to the police behind her.] Thank you, officer. I’ll be all right now. There’s no need for you to come in.