Women's Minyan

by Naomi Ragen

  BLUME, SHAINE RUTH are torn. To implicate their father, admit the disgrace…?

  FRUME: Don’t forget: I was there too. Didn’t I warn you, beg you, not to go? But you wouldn’t listen, as usual. You shook us off and ran!

  CHANA: [to daughters.] Bluma, Shaine Ruth, you heard my screams. You know it’s true!

  FRUME: Don’t answer her, girls! [to CHANA.] So maybe he raised his hand to you [shrugs.]. These things happen. You made him angry. A family quarrel you settle inside the family! You should have gone back to the Rav instead of running!

  ZEHAVA: [bitterly.] She did go back. I told her there was no point, but she insisted. She wanted to do everything respectably—for the children. For you, Mrs. Kashman.

  Surprised reactions.

  CHANA: The Rav saw the bruises. And this time I told him the rest—everything Yankele had done to me over the years. I asked him to help me get a divorce, to keep his word.

  ADINA: What was his answer?

  ZEHAVA: What they always say to us when they send us home to these men.

  CHANA: [ironically.] He rubbed his hands together, and smoothed down his beard. “We have ways of dealing with women who slander fine Torah scholars,” he warned me. “Stubborn women, women with chutzpah. There are doctors who commit them to insane asylums. Modesty Patrols who discipline them. There are two sides to every story. Go home and ask your husband to forgive you, woman.”

  ADINA: [incredulous.] Him to forgive you?! What did you do?

  CHANA: Zehava took me in off the street, endangering her own life. And then, after the holiday, I went to a divorce lawyer. I couldn’t go back. I would rather have died. It was the hardest decision of my life.

  TOVAH: And every one of us paid the price and continues to pay.

  FRUME: In our world there are rules. Women have to obey them. She never understood that!

  TOVAH: [to CHANA.] It’s true. You always tried to convince us that we could change things, but it’s impossible.

  ETA: As it is written: If the hand hits the rock or the rock hits the hand, Oy to the rock…. farshteyst?

  TOVAH: The opposite! Oy to the hand!!

  CHANA: It is possible to change things! If we stop hiding, stop pretending. We women are taught to wash away the dirt, and when the messes the men create cannot be bleached, we’re taught to take the stains on ourselves so that they can remain spotless. What was my great sin, I ask you? That I couldn’t cover up for my husband anymore? That I told the truth? I was the victim, but the community will never forgive me. The sacrificial lamb isn’t allowed to climb down off the altar, right? She has to stretch out her neck to the blade.

  Pause

  Remember the Torah your mothers taught you! Don’t let anyone frighten you into calling a sin a mitzvah and a mitzvah a sin. I’ve kept my oath; I’ve told the truth. Now you must keep yours. You must decide in justice and righteousness: May I see my children?

  The circle continues to turn, as the women ponder the question.

  ADINA: Chana’s life was in danger. She had no choice. She was treated unjustly, and now we have the chance to give her justice, all of us. I vote that she be allowed to see her children.

  ZEHAVA: [hurriedly.] I also vote yes. [joining ADINA.]

  ADINA: [to SHEINHOFF.] Ima?

  SHEINHOFF rebuffs her, adamant in her refusal. The others wait for FRUME’S reaction.

  FRUME: No. Rav Aaron was right. A woman who destroys her family on account of money? Your children were the victims, not you. Why do you have the right to see them?

  ADINA: But he…he stole from her!

  GITTE LEAH: That’s her story.

  ADINA: He choked her…threatened to kill her!

  SHEINHOFF: [furious.] How can you believe this? You, his own sister?!

  GITTE LEAH: What does it matter what happened between them? A woman has to remain at home. As it is written: “Your wife like a fruitful vine surrounding your house.” In absolutely no case do you break the sacred marriage bonds. The home is above everything. I vote “no.”

  FRUME: And I. Tovah? Eta?

  TOVAH and ETA hesitate. They move toward FRUME.

  Scene four

  The scales are weighted against CHANA. ZEHAVA enters the circle.

  ZEHAVA: NO! Wait! There’s no choice. You can’t hold back any more. Tell them!

  GITTE LEAH: [to ZEHAVA.] A degenerate helps a degenerate. The “dress store” was your idea, wasn’t it? And it wasn’t to make a living, was it? It was so you could come there at night and be with Chana. We all know what for!

  FRUME: And now she makes up stories about her husband to cover for you, unnatural woman!

  ZEHAVA: [pleading.] Tell them. Chana!

  CHANA: Please…. How can I speak of such things? [looking at her daughters.] My daughters are here, and his mother…. I can’t….

  ZEHAVA: You have to! Or you’ll lose your children!

  CHANA: Oh, God in Heaven! You have no idea—[clutching ZEHAVA.]

  ZEHAVA: Courage, Chana! Tell them everything.

  CHANA: The words won’t come…. they are stuck in my throat…please, you do it….

  ZEHAVA: The store was Chana’s refuge. She escaped there to save her body from the pollution of his unnatural acts, the sickening things he forced on her, things he learned from videos he brought home from Tel Aviv. [straightening as she faces them.] He forced her even when she was impure.

  TOVAH: [shocked.] During her period, her unclean days? Even to hand her a plate, to sit on the same couch is a terrible sin! To do the act, would sever your soul from God. You would lose your World to Come!

  ADINA: Did the store help?

  ZEHAVA: [shaking her head no.] He found others.

  FRUME: Others?

  GITTE LEAH: What do you mean? What “others”?

  ZEHAVA: Other women. There was a woman he touched in a taxi on the way to B’nai Brak. She was going to go to the police. He sent Chana to talk her out of it. And then there was his mistress…

  Total shock and disbelief.

  CHANA: It went on for years. I followed him once. They would meet in a library. She was young, with bare arms and a pony-tail…She led him to a corner of the room. And when he kissed her, she took off his black hat and ran her fingers through his hair. I saw her wedding ring…

  The circle stops. A bomb has fallen. SHEINHOFF groans and collapses. ADINA, FRUME, GITTE LEAH attend her.

  ETA and TOVAH: Adultery. With a married woman? A crime deserving of death. Gevalt!

  ZEHAVA: [to all.] Do you see now? Years she covered for him. For your sake, for the children’s…..

  GITTE LEAH: She’s desperate, and her Sephardi “friend” will say anything..

  ETA: [confused. Distancing herself from CHANA.] I don’t know what to believe anymore!

  TOVAH: [same. Piously.] Even if what she says is true, it’s a sin to listen to such evil talk.

  CHANA: When it was about me, you listened. But when it’s about my husband, a man, suddenly you don’t want to hear. This is what my husband did! Already at the beginning of our marriage he asked all kinds of things from me…. physical things…. I was so innocent, I didn’t understand I had a right to refuse. That my body belonged to me…. Every time I think of it, I want to die.

  SHEINHOFF takes out a prayer book with trembling hands. To lose herself in prayer, to stop the flow of information that is destroying her world.

  FRUME: How can you speak like this in front of your innocent daughters?

  CHANA: [with effort.] I was also innocent once…. Forgive me, Mameh Goldie. I never wanted to hurt you. [SHEINHOFF prays as if possessed. CHANA turns to her daughters.] Girls…

  BLUMA: [to CHANA.] I don’t believe a single word you say. Our father is a…a saint. Our father is pure!

  CHANA: Did I ever lie to you? Didn’t I teach you to lie was to go against God?

  SHAINE RUTH: But you say everything was a lie! Your whole life, your marriage!

  Beat. A moment of truth.

  CHANA: Yes,
I lived a lie. But as God is my witness, I’m telling you the truth now. Yankele Sheinhoff-–the saint, the diligent, modest God-fearing scholar—was my invention. I created him. Please, Bluma, Shaine Ruth. You were both there that day. You know I’m not lying….

  GITTE LEAH: [to CHANA.] Leave them be! It’s enough! Enough of your sick fantasies and inventions. Come girls, let’s go. Let’s leave the crazy woman alone here with her friend. We have husbands and homes to take care of.

  BLUME, SHAINE RUTH are torn. GITTE LEAH pushes them. SHEINHOFF, in her own world, continues to pray hoarsely, intensely.

  TOVAH: Come Eta, I have to prepare the ritual baths for the evening.

  ETA: And my husband will soon be home soon, and I haven’t even peeled the potatoes….

  CHANA: [shouting.] If you go, you will break your sacred oath!! You will forfeit your portion in the World to Come!

  A terrified silence descends. This is a real threat. The circle holds them all, except for SHEINHOFF, who gathers her strength and attempts to leave.

  ADINA: Mother! We swore! It’s forbidden for any of us to leave until we come to a decision.

  SHEINHOFF: I never took any oath, and I’m leaving. I’ve heard enough.

  CHANA: [surprised.] Mameh Goldie, you took the holy Bible…

  SHEINHOFF: I took nothing. What? Take an oath against my own child?!

  ADINA: Mother, don’t leave!

  SHEINHOFF: I know my son better than any of you! I raised him. He wouldn’t do such things…. My son is pure…my son is innocent…[the prayer book falls from her hands. She bends to lift it. Kisses it with piety. Her legs wobble beneath her.]

  ADINA: [in a whisper.] Mother, you know that isn’t true!

  SHEINHOFF: [denying.] My son is pure like his father before him.

  ADINA: [in growing anger.] It isn’t true, Mother. It’s a lie! Don’t you remember what happened in the yeshiva?

  SHEINHOFF: [equally angry.] What happened? Nothing happened! Child’s play. A game….

  ADINA: A game?! A child’s game!? May God forgive me, I have no choice. [loudly, to all.] Years ago when my brother was learning in the yeshiva the principal caught him with another boy in the bathroom…The boy’s parents threatened to call the police…

  Shock and surprise. SHEINHOFF continues to go, clutching her hair, her clothes.

  SHEINHOFF: Those parents misunderstood! They were fools. It was just a foolish game between youngsters.

  ADINA: [to all.] He was thrown out of the yeshiva.

  SHEINHOFF: [like a lioness.] It’s not true, Adina! Yankele himself asked to transfer to another yeshiva. No one threw him out!

  FRUME: What is Adina talking about?

  GITTE LEAH: She says Yankele was thrown out of the yeshiva….

  FRUME: How? When?!

  ETA: Oy, a disgrace! A scandal!

  TOVAH: What was that about the yeshiva? I didn’t understand….

  ADINA: If your family would have investigated, you would have found out. But who investigates such a well-connected bridegroom from such an honorable family. And our [with irony] honorable family did everything we could to hide it from the bride’s family…

  SHEINHOFF: Keep quiet!

  ADINA: You have to defend him, Mother, I understand that. But Chana is also family. Why should she have to continue sacrificing herself? Hasn’t she taken his black deeds on herself for enough years, so that he could play the saint? Admit it, Mother! The time has come for all of us to cleanse ourselves of his sins!

  SHEINHOFF: Don’t you dare say a bad word about him! He gave me grandchildren, and nachas (pride), and what have you done? Rejected one perfectly good marriage offer after another for no good reason. So it’s better for you to hold your tongue, Adina, the way I’ve held mine all these years. I’ve dragged your shame around with me like a disease, like a hump on my back, eating myself up alive. Crying and holding my tongue, guarding your honor because you are my daughter. So now you hold your tongue, Adina! For once in your life, do something for your family!

  Continues to leave, and is almost successful.

  ADINA: He did the same thing to me!

  Pause. SHEINHOFF stops. The circle freezes. The shock of revelation is unbearable.

  ADINA: He…did the same thing to me.

  SHEINHOFF: [beats her chest with a closed fist. Keening.] “For I have sinned, transgressed, perverted, been criminal…” [taken from the Yom Kippur prayer].

  ADINA: Haven’t you ever asked yourself why I don’t marry? Why I reject suitor after suitor? Because I don’t want to live with a lie in my soul, to deceive some decent young bridegroom, to pretend my whole life. Yes, I heard you crying at night Mother, but I choked back the words and held my tongue the way you always taught me women should…. But it’s not possible anymore. Too many lives have been destroyed. Chana’s, the children’s, mine…

  Heavy silence. SHEINHOFF keens silently.

  SHEINHOFF: [after a long silence.] Oy to me and to my life…

  ADINA: This is the truth about your son, my brother. This is my dowry…

  SHEINHOFF: Adina-leh. What have we done to you? My child. Mein Kinde, Mein Tireh (my child, my dearest). How is it I didn’t see? How did I let it happen? Why didn’t you tell me? My child…. my child.

  ADINA: Who would you have believed, Mother? Yankele or me? Look what happened to Chana when she told the truth.

  SHEINHOFF: With my own hands, I will strangle him…. Chana, what have we done to you? Oh, Frume, what are we doing to our daughters? [gathering strength.] I want to take my oath now.

  Waves off her daughter’s help, and finds the Bible herself, and turns with it to face CHANA.

  SHEINHOFF: I, Goldie Sheinhoff, widow of the saintly ADMOR of Lushiv, do swear to listen honestly and judge righteously. Chana Kashman was a wonderful mother. She is more than worthy to see her children. She is free of any blame. I vote yes. Let Chana see her children.

  BLUMA: Ima, I’m so sorry. You deserve to see the children. [they hug.]

  SHAINE RUTH: I also agree, Ima. I missed you so much. [runs into her arms and hugs her.]

  ETA: We’re sorry, Chana.

  TOVAH: We were so afraid. Everyone was against you.

  ETA, TOVAH: We also vote “yes”.

  Pause. Looking at FRUME .

  FRUME: [entrapped. In a small voice.] How can we? How can we go against Rav Aaron? I can’t do it! One word from him, and our family is destroyed in the community forever!

  SHEINHOFF: How can we go against the will of our just and righteous God, Frume Kashman?

  Pause. FRUME realizes her choice.

  FRUME: Chana, perhaps I too was mistaken. Perhaps I punished you for the sins of others. I didn’t understand. I didn’t know…. Forgive me. Grant me mechillah (atonement).

  CHANA: After I see my children.

  FRUME: Go then. And may God help us both.

  CHANA: Thank you, Mother.

  ADINA: Gitte Leah, it’s your turn.

  GITTE LEAH folds into herself in a corner.

  ADINA: Gitte Leah, for once in your life, say “yes” to the truth. There is no more room under the carpet. Give your little sister a chance to see her children.

  GITTE LEAH turns her back to CHANA, like a frightened child.

  FRUME: [going to her.] Come, Gitte Leah. I am asking you. Your sister is waiting.

  GITTE LEAH: My sister. My sister. What about me? How will I go home? You know the ADMOR will never forgive me for siding with her…

  FRUME: I will go with you. Together we will explain to him that we did our duty. That we made a judgment that was righteous and honest. Come, my child….

  GITTE LEAH: [last appeal.] You can’t forgive Chana. If you do, all my sacrifices, all I’ve suffered, was for nothing! You think I didn’t want to run away from my husband, my life? (in pain) Mother….

  FRUME: What hurts you? Is it your back again?

  GITTE LEAH: My heart, Mother. It’s my heart….

  CHANA: Gitte Leah, am I allowed to see m
y children?

  GITTE LEAH: [whisper.] You are allowed. Go in peace.