Women's Minyan

by Naomi Ragen

  An extended pause: They have not seen each other for two years—her daughters, family, friends. They examine each other. The moment bristles with tension.

  CHANA: Bluma-leh, a married woman [approaches BLUMA.]

  BLUMA, who has stood frozen opposite her at a safe distance, instinctively moves back. Pause. She turns her back on her mother, and moves away.

  CHANA: [painfully.] Shaine-leh?

  SHAINE RUTH draws closer. They hug each other wordlessly, intensely. CHANA, who has dreamed of this reunion for two years—holds her and caresses her. The WOMEN are moved despite themselves. FRUME, trapped by circumstances, is furious.

  FRUME: [vindictive, every word a dagger.] So, this is what you think? That a hug will erase what you did to them? To all of us? Suddenly, she remembers her children! You abandon twelve angels and a saintly husband and imagine you won’t have to pay? One hug and everything will be fine again, what? How do you even have the chutzpah to walk in here—and with the Cossacks yet! Until now you at least respected the Rabbinical court order and left us in peace, but now even the Rabbis you mock! Get out of here, go! You’ll pay for everything you did; and pay and pay and pay and pay, until the end of time!

  With every bitter word, CHANA’s embrace around her daughter loosens. It is as if FRUME is physically tearing them apart. CHANA will not be drawn into confrontation. She burns to see her children. She turns toward the children’s bedrooms. FRUME blocks her way.

  CHANA: [restrained.] Please, let me through. [FRUME doesn’t move.] This is my house. These are my children. I want to see them. [to daughters.] You did well, girls, to leave the little ones in their rooms. My wise girls. Children shouldn’t have to see grownups behave like fools. [she maneuvers around FRUME, continues to the bedrooms, softly calling out her children’s names.] Ruchele, Faigele, your mother is home! Shifraleh, I brought you a baby doll—come see! Moishe! Shimmy! Eliahu! My boys. There are presents for you too. Your Ima is back. Malka-leh, where are you? [going from room to room.] Are you playing hide and seek with me? [she runs to the kitchen, encountering SHEINHOFF and ADINA.] Mameh Goldie! You’re here too. Adina! [she smoothes back a stray lock of ADINA’s hair.] You are still not—? [ADINA indicates “no.” A moment of shared sympathy.] Are the children with you? [CHANA returns to the living room, to the women.] Where are they? [no answer. With concern.] Bluma, Shaine Ruth, where are the children? [no one answers. She looks in panic from face to face around the room, as the truth begins to dawn on her. To FRUME.] What have you done with my children?

  SHAINE RUTH walks forward. BLUMA holds her back. SHEINHOFF enters with ADINA , sighing heavily.

  CHANA: [near panic.] Something happened to them?

  ADINA: God forbid! They are all alive and well, Chana. They’re fine. [to SHEINHOFF.] Don’t get upset, Mother. You know you’re not allowed.

  CHANA: [to FRUME.] What have you done with them!? [FRUME turns her back. Pleading.] Tovah, do you have my children? [TOVAH shakes her head no.] ETA? [no answer.] Have you swallowed your tongue?

  TOVAH: Her husband threatened to divorce her if she talked to you.

  ETA: And in the ritual baths, the women wouldn’t let Tovah touch them anymore.

  TOVAH: They suspected me too of being unnatural, because I was your friend.

  ETA: You have no idea how we’ve suffered, because of you.

  CHANA: So you have my children?

  ETA: No, I don’t!

  TOVAH: Leave the children in peace, Chana. You need help. You’re not well.

  CHANA: [restrained fury.] When you went into depression after your fourth child, was that the advice I gave you? Or did I come to your house, day after day, bathe your kids, take you shopping, cook your meals until you were back on your feet? (TOVAH turns away, ashamed)

  ETA: You helped everyone, Chana. But now the best thing you can do is leave. Remember what you told me when I came to talk to you about my Gershon? You said, “Don’t force things. The damage you do to a child’s tender soul can never be undone.”

  TOVAH: Let the children get on with their lives, Chana. Enough you’ve humiliated them!

  CHANA: [pleading.] I just want to talk to them.

  TOVAH wavers. FRUME gives her a withering look that says: Are you with us or against us?

  TOVAH: [to CHANA.] If only you had listened to me two years ago and committed yourself for treatment. Your soul is sick…. You need help.

  GITTE LEAH: She isn’t sick. She’s corrupt….

  SHAINE RUTH: Why do you have to insult her?

  ETA: [to GITTE LEAH.] The child is right! God watch over us, why? [to CHANA.] Chana, you yourself must know that the proper thing to do is for you to leave here quietly.

  GITTE LEAH: There’s nothing for you here, are you deaf? [imploringly.] Adina, Rebbitzen Sheinhoff, tell her!

  ADINA: Excuse me…. But I’ll talk when I have something to say.

  SHEINHOFF: Chanaleh, in the name of the love that I have always had for you, I’m asking you, please, go quietly….

  CHANA: [full of pain.] Mameh Goldie, please, where are my children?

  Pause. Music: TWO GIRLS, the ghost children, appear in the background, dressed in white. CHANA is startled, then understands.

  CHANA: [devastated.] You’ve hidden my children from me.

  Pause.

  GITTE LEAH: Finally, finally, she’s woken up! Yes, the house is empty. Yes, the children are gone. And you are not going to be able to find them.

  CHANA receives this like a blow to her stomach. She sits down heavily, hugging herself.

  FRUME: You’re in pain? You’re suffering? I also suffered. [looking at BLUMA.] I suffered when a beautiful young girl lost her chance to marry the best match. I suffered when everything I worked for all these years—to be respected and accepted in the community of Meah Shearim—was destroyed. I suffered when I heard people say that our family wasn’t worthy to marry into a Rabbinical family like the Sheinhoffs. I suffered when I watched my grandchildren crying themselves to sleep every night because they missed their mother! I warned you, Chana—I begged you—not to leave. If you’d only listened to me we could have settled everything! But you ran away. You always did exactly what was good for you.

  CHANA: [in pain.] They cried? My poor babies…. If only I could have stayed…. But I had no choice.

  FRUME: You had no choice? So now also you have no choice. Go!

  GITTE LEAH: With the Cossacks, or without the Cossacks, you will never get your children back. You are a Jezebel.

  TOVAH: [drawing closer.] Go, go, Chana, for your own good.

  ETA: [drawing closer, fearfully.] Go, before all of Meah Shearim sees you.

  TOVAH: Think about Shaine Ruth, and her chances for a good match! Do you want to do to her what you did to her sister? Who will want to marry the daughter of a woman who behaves like you?

  SHEINHOFF: Let her breathe! What is this, a stoning? She hears us. She understands by herself. She won’t hurt her children, isn’t that true, Chanaleh?

  CHANA: [still in shock. To herself.] A match for Shaine Ruth? Already?…. How time rushes by…when did I give birth to these children? When did I bring them up?…. Twelve children I raised, all by myself, without help from anyone. Twelve children I have….

  FRUME: You had. Now they are motherless.

  CHANA: [waking up. Quietly.] No. I am their mother. I am here for them.

  FRUME: They don’t want you.

  CHANA: [passionately.] What do you know? I wasn’t a mother like you. My children miss me. You yourself said so. I still feel them here, inside me. I am not budging from here until I see them. [she sits down and holds herself, as if her body will break.] My baby, my Shifraleh. How she must have grown…. [to ADINA.] She’s walking, talking?

  ADINA nods.

  SHAINE RUTH: And Shimmy is already learning in cheder!

  CHANA: Really? My little scholar. You must let me see them.

  GITTE LEAH: Me, me, me! All your life, that’s all you ever thought about. Yourself. You n
ever cared what you were doing to everyone else. Your husband, your children. Us. We can’t walk down the street because of you! So if you hope you’ll work on our pity, you are an even bigger fool than I thought.

  SHEINHOFF: How can you speak that way, Gitte Leah? What does our holy Torah teach us if not compassion and loving kindness?

  Music: Children’s motif. CHANA hears it in her imagination. It strengthens her determination. Stares at FRUME bitterly.

  CHANA: Even as a child I knew not to expect pity. And I don’t expect it now. [taking out papers from her purse.] Here. It’s a court order.

  FRUME: [shocked.] What?

  CHANA: You have to let me see them. It’s the law.

  Shaking with emotion, the court order falls from her hand. SHAINE RUTH picks it up, looking at her mother, who approves.

  SHAINE RUTH: [reading.] “The Court has decided to accept the recommendations of the social worker and, therefore, the Court nullifies all previous court orders forbidding visitation of Chana Sheinhoff with her minor children, and declares that the father, Yaakov Sheinhoff, shall in no way prevent or interfere with said visits. The mother shall be allowed to visit once a week…”

  ETA: Is this the law?

  TOVAH: There are laws, and then there are laws, farshteyst?

  FRUME: This is the law of the godless State. It’s not our law. It’s worth nothing in Meah Shearim.

  SHAINE RUTH: No, Granny. It’s a Rabbinical Court order.

  FRUME: That can’t be! [to CHANA.] The Rabbinical Court order forbids you to go near the children! [grabbing the order from SHAINE RUTH.]

  CHANA: This is a new one.

  FRUME: [cutting her off. Reading the words out loud, incredulous.] “And after a trial period, the Court will make its decision on the mother’s request to remove the children from the father’s custody…” What?! Out of the question. You fooled the Rabbis too. Rav Aaron warned us. [tearing the page to pieces.] Here, here, here is your court order.

  CHANA: [calmly taking more from her purse.] The police have copies. I made a thousand of them. Enough for all of you to tear.

  GITTE LEAH: [sticking her face into CHANA’s, belligerently.] It won’t help you. [with a malicious smile, crumpling up the paper.] All you have in your hands is paper. Your children are in our hands. And we will never give them back to you. Never!

  CHANA: [for first time, losing control. She shakes GITTE LEAH violently by the shoulders, grabbing off her hair covering.] God of the Universe! God of the Universe! God of the Universe! Give me back my children!!

  GITTE LEAH: [fighting back.] How dare you touch me! Criminal! Oy, my back! Meshuganah! Pritza! Mother!

  FRUME: [rushing to help GITTE LEAH.] My maideleh, my child! Leave her alone. Vilda Chaya (wild animal)!

  Pandemonium. The others try to pull the sisters apart, but get entangled themselves. Nevertheless, this never turns into a cat-fight or a brawl.

  SHAINE RUTH: [trying to hold her mother back.] Mother!

  BLUMA: Enough. Stop! Please!

  SHEINHOFF: Oy vey iz mere! (Oh, woe is me!) What is happening to us? Dear God. [in a great voice.] STOP IT, ALL OF YOU!

  Everything stops. The women are in disarray, modest head coverings, clothes awry.

  SHEINHOFF: Look at yourselves! It’s a disgrace. Is this how pious women behave? [pause.] Attack her, slander her—that’s what we did the minute she walked through the door. You’ve forgotten completely that she’s the one who built this house with so much hard work and so much love. A Jew, even if he sins, is still a Jew. Let me speak to her.

  All the women obey, getting ready to leave the room. Only GITTE LEAH, still busy picking up her headcovering, seems ready to pounce again.

  ADINA: [delicately blocking GITTE LEAH’S way, helping her re-cover her hair.] Come, Gitte Leah, let’s go to the kitchen. [GITTE LEAH shrugs her off belligerently.] Bluma, can you prepare some tea? Everyone is tired and thirsty. Let my mother talk to her….

  FRUME: [complaining to SHEINHOFF.] Narishkeit (foolishness). There’s no point.

  ADINA: Come, Mrs. Kashman. Have a little tea.

  SHAINE RUTH: Come, Granny, please.

  FRUME gathers GITTE LEAH. Everyone exits except CHANA and SHEINHOFF .

  SHEINHOFF: [in affection and pain.] Chana, I can’t believe this is you—!

  CHANA: That was nothing. Just the roar of a mother lion. But if you keep me away from my children even one more day, I will do much more than roar, I promise you that!

  SHEINHOFF: Chanaleh, Chanaleh…. Isn’t it written: “All His paths are pleasant, and all His ways are peaceful?” Is it right for you to hurt your own family? To bring the police? To make wars? Why does it have to be this way?

  CHANA: [pause.] What way would you like it to be, Mameh Goldie? What choice have any of you left me?

  SHEINHOFF: The children are fine, Chana. They’re taken care of. You have my word. What is it you want?

  CHANA: All I’ve ever wanted: to do the right thing. Please believe me, Mameh Goldie.

  Outside MALE VOICES threaten: “Pritza (whore), Sotah (pervert)!”

  SHEINHOFF: You hear? The right thing, Chana, is for you to leave here now, quietly. What was, was. The rift is too deep to heal, and the clock can’t be turned back. If you insist on continuing, who knows where you will drag us all…. Go Chana. That’s the best thing for you and for the children.

  CHANA stares at SHEINHOFF: What does she know? What is she afraid of? SHEINHOFF does not meet her eyes.

  CHANA: The best thing for my children is to see their mother. You can’t imagine…. Two years…standing outside the gates of their schools and kindergartens, like a leper, hoping to catch just a glimpse. Running between lawyers and courtrooms, and the money I spent, for a piece of paper….

  Music. Children’s motif. CHANA sees them in her imagination, the girls in white. They appear and disappear. They never reach out to her. They are not conscious of her at all.

  CHANA: I should have known Rav Aaron wouldn’t honor it, would send his thugs…If it hadn’t been for the police, they would have beaten me, too. (SHEINHOFF mumbles apologetically) I thought I’d learned to stand up for myself in the last two years. But when my mother and my sister trample over me…I feel like a squashed bug, like that same old doormat…They’ve even poisoned my daughters against me. It’s terrible to see how they’re torn….

  SHEINHOFF: [sorrowfully.] Go, Chanaleh, before the riot starts again.

  CHANA: It would be abandoning them again. I just can’t. Please!

  SHEINHOFF: Nothing you could say would outweigh the harm of doing it this way. Please, if you love them…

  CHANA: (worn down, beginning to give in.) With all my heart! (Beat) Promise me you’ll watch over them, that you won’t let my girls be crushed by her, the way she crushed me…And even more, watch over my little ones…

  SHEINHOFF: You have my word. Show consideration for us now, and who knows? Perhaps in the future something can be worked out.

  CHANA: [after a pause.] I’ll go. For now. But I am not giving up my children. I will never give up my children. I’ll think about what to do next and I’ll be back. [she takes her purse, shopping bag, and walks toward the door. Suddenly, with a heartbreaking cry, she turns back and kneels before SHEINHOFF.] Please, Mameh Goldie!

  SHEINHOFF: I can’t go against the family.

  CHANA: [heartbroken, she rises, opens her shopping bag. Tearfully.] This is the doll for Shifraleh, and these are the Chassidic music discs for Shimmy and Shmuel Zanvil, and these are the books for the older boys—[she drops the bag on the table, unable to speak, turns to leave.].

  SHEINHOFF: [also in tears. Taking her hand.] Chana, wait! We can say good-bye like human beings. At least sit a minute. Have a cup of tea before you go [toward the kitchen.] Bluma!

  BLUMA enters.

  SHEINHOFF: Bring a cup of tea for your mother.

  BLUMA exits. FRUME peeks into the room questioningly.

  [SHEINHOFF waving her away. In an angry whisper:
] She’s going in a minute! [FRUME disappears. SHEINHOFF gropes for a chair.] Sometimes, that woman makes my head spin…. [sits.]

  BLUMA returns with two cups of tea. She serves SHEINHOFF, and gives her a questioning look concerning CHANA’S cup.

  SHEINHOFF: [indicating a place at opposite end of table.] Sit in your place, Chana.

  CHANA sits. Pause. BLUMA places the cup in front of her.

  BLUMA: [standing.] With a teaspoon and a half of sugar.