Only Yesterday (75 page)
And here I shall tell you an original reading. When I went to repair Eruvs, I went into the home of one of the notables of Jerusalem to drink some water. That week was the Torah portion that begins with the verse “If ye walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and do them,” and I explained to him that I had found new meaning in the two reproofs in the Bible, that is the reproof in Leviticus 26 and the reproof in Deuteronomy 26, in the Torah portion that be-gins with the verse “And it shall be when thou art come in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and pos-sessest it, and dwellest therein,” for on the face of it, it is a difficulty that reproofs of the Holy-One-Blessed-Be-He are less than the reproofs of our Teacher Moses. Is the Lord’s hand waxed short? Finally, to conclude with a happy ending, I told him the words of
A Bundle of Myrrh
about rains. The dignitary took out one of his books and showed me that in the time of the exile from Germany, the Jews were received in Poland with great honor and the king stipulated a condition with them that they would beseech HASHEM to bring down the rain in due season, for the king knew that that was the power of the Children of Israel to bring down the rains with their prayers. And it is still a custom among the uncircumcised in those places, to sow their fields at the time of Shmini Atseret, when the Children of Is-rael recite the prayer for rain. Hence, gentlemen, the conundrum still stands, if the enemies of Israel have merited destruction, why should the Children of Israel be sorry for them? Don’t we have enough troubles and all the harsh decrees and all the destructions, Heaven Forfend, that the Gentiles bring down on us, that we should also be sorry when the rain is withheld? For do we have fields that need a downpour, or do we have gardens and orchards, isn’t our
whole need for rain just to fulfill a Commandment to immerse our hands, etcetera, and so on? For it was proper for the Holy-One- Blessed-Be-He that He should see to our needs so that we can keep His Commandments, and He will bring down rain for us. But in the end He includes us with the Goyim, quite to the contrary, whose whole need is simply material. But in another place, the Sages of blessed memory say, What trouble do the Gentiles and the Children of Israel share? The trouble of the withholding of rain. That was in the days of the Temple when the Children of Israel were living on their own land and needed rains to make their fields produce to bring sheaves and the two breads and to give contributions and tithes and to pour water on the altar. But now, gentlemen, now alas that we have lost everything, how much does a Jew need as a Jew, especially in this time, alas, in these hard times, when through our many transgressions the words of Lamentations, We have drunken our water for money, have been realized in us.
But, gentlemen, what the Talmud means by the
enemies of Israel
is the Children of Israel themselves because, for the honor of the Children of Israel, our Holy Sages spoke in euphemisms, as we know, and so there are a lot of passages like that in the Talmud. And so, gentlemen, we have an enormous conundrum. Can it be that the Sages of the Talmud, who are all holy and pure, can it be that in their generation there were people who merited destruction that they said in the Talmud that the heavens withhold rain because they merited destruction? And should that generation not have learned a bit from the virtues of our holy sages and performed Commandments and good deeds and not merit destruction?
Another, greater conundrum we must pose, Can it be that the great Sages, the Sages of the Talmud, who taught all the generations Torah that protects us in all seasons and in all times, can it be that they didn’t teach their own generation Torah and didn’t defend them so that they wouldn’t merit destruction?
But, gentlemen, those two conundrums are solved with one answer, that everything according to the generation, and according to their measure of greatness and holiness. And always those the Tal-mud called the enemies of Israel were enemies according to their
generation, for they lived in a holy generation and didn’t learn from their deeds and didn’t become holy and pure too, and hence the Tal-mud accused them and called them enemies of Israel, for they had teachers and they didn’t learn, but if they lived in our generation they were considered Saints, as they say, If you want to find a Saint go and search for him among the wicked of the past generations. Oh, gentlemen! How great is our descent for our many transgressions that the wicked of the past generations who merited destruction were considered complete Saints in our generation. Gentlemen, I am not so old, and yet I can tell you what I saw with my own eyes in Jerusalem our Holy City. I remember that there were people here who went from dawn to dusk to the synagogues and to the study houses and prayed and studied and did great works of charity and yet they were slandered because that generation was such a righteous generation that human beings like them were considered heretics and atheists. And now, gentlemen, what shall we say and what shall we claim, for we see the face of the generation as the face of a dog. And not just an ordinary dog, but a mad dog, and they are even worse than a mad dog, for they think that they are great sages, logical philosophers, and want to spread their net over all the Children of Israel, especially over the children who haven’t sinned, and make secular schools for them to divert them from their religion, Heaven Forfend. While the mad dog, gentlemen, is better than them, for he declares that he is mad, as we found in that dog that tormented Jerusalem who had Crazy Dog written on his skin to warn folks to stay away from him. This is what I say, the face of the generation is like the face of a dog. And not just an ordinary dog, but a crazy dog.
I
As Rabbi Grunam stood and preached, his face suddenly turned pale, and even his beard seemed to turn pale. He opened his mouth in panic and wanted to shout. His jaw contorted and he lost the power of speech. And both his eyes bulged like two bullets coming out of a rifle toward the crowd. He glared at all the people. All the people thought Reb Grunam had become so excited from the transgression of the generation and they became excited too. Anyone who could
groaned, anyone who couldn’t rolled his eyes upward. And they didn’t yet know that that proverb, the face of the generation is the face of a dog, had donned skin and bones and put on flesh.
Reb Grunam shut his eyes and started striking the air and shouting, The crazy dog, the crazy dog. His eyes recovered their force and opened by themselves, and stood like two bulging boils, and looked in panic at the dog. And Reb Grunam still wasn’t sure if the dog was a dog or a phantom. The dog raised himself and showed him his skin, as if he were saying, If you’re not sure, Rabbi Grunam, read what is written here. Reb Grunam put his hands on his eyes and shouted in a loud shout, The crazy dog, the crazy dog.
Everybody thought he was shouting that to shock the heart, as he was accustomed to do in his sermons, when he took a word and repeated it at the top of his voice. They waited until his shout would die out and he would come back to the subject. He took his hands off his eyes to see if the dog was standing there. The dog saw that Reb Grunam’s eyes were full of panic and fear and dread. The dog was frightened and shocked and shouted, Arf Arf, and Reb Grunam shouted at him, and the shout of the former blended with the shout of the latter, and the shout burst out until the crowd recognized that the dog was standing among them.
Panic descended on the crowd, a panic as never before and never after. They clung to one another and stood nailed to the spot, and hid their head one on the breast of the other and one on the back of the other, until they took off and started running. They ran here, there, and everywhere. From the place where they had come they returned. And when they returned, they were pressed and they pressed, pushed and were pushed, until they all stood as one and didn’t move again, but only their eyes still ran back and forth, with a panic of dread hacking from them. Suddenly that dread in their eyes con-gealed, and their eyes didn’t move either. Balak was scared and stunned. So much that he forgot to bark.
When Balak saw that they didn’t do anything to him, he was amazed. Can it be that this big crowd is scared of me? How many feet are here, how many sticks are here, if they lifted their feet to me and kicked me or if they raised their sticks to me to hit me, I would
run away. And since they didn’t lift their feet to him and didn’t raise their stick to him, his opinion was reinforced that everyone was scared of him. He raised his head and stretched his tail and looked with arrogant eyes. Finally he raised his voice. When the voice of Balak was heard, all the feet were shocked and all the sticks were dropped and everyone took off and started running away. Balak be-came haughty and said, If their feet are strong, I am stronger, and if their sticks are strong, my voice brings them all down.
He became proud and started bragging, like the scholars who brag about their research, for since they are so proud of it, they don’t accept anything literally, unless they heap piles of vain research on it, and in the end they think the world behaves according to their research. His put his tail down wherever he put it down, as thinkers deep in thought put their hand on their forehead. And thus he stood and questioned, Where do the sticks get their power to hit if not from the dog who attracts the stick to him. The proof of this is that, as long as the stick doesn’t see the dog it doesn’t hit him. And not only the stick, but also human feet, as long as they don’t see the face of a dog they pass by or creep by. If so, why should I be scared? And if the stick is strong, my voice makes it droop, and if the human feet are strong, my teeth terrify them. And when Balak came to that conclusion, he didn’t bury his voice in his mouth. Strange was Balak’s voice at that moment. Even fetuses in their mothers’ wombs were shocked.
I
At that moment, Isaac stood and didn’t see anything, for his soul clung to his wife like a bridegroom in the wedding week. His thoughts wandered off to Sonya and Rabinovitch and he was amazed, like someone who recalled things that he was afraid of, and in the end he sees he doesn’t have to be afraid. Isaac was suddenly jostled aside and jostled aside again, and didn’t know why he was jostled or why they were jostling him. Someone grabbed him, shouting in his face, The dog, the dog. And still shouting, he let go of Isaac and ran away. Others did the same thing. Isaac, who was used to dogs, wondered, Why is everybody scaring him with a dog?
Isaac was dragged here and pushed there. Somebody came to him and shrieked at him, Don’t you see what’s written on the dog? Isaac saw the dog and didn’t worry about what they said. They thought Isaac was mad, and a mad person doesn’t notice anything. They yanked him away and shouted, Don’t you see the crazy dog. Isaac looked at him in amazement, and fi replied calmly, Who says he’s crazy? Said they, Isn’t that what’s written explicitly? Said Isaac, And if it is written, so what? Are we obligated to believe everything that’s written? But I’ll tell you, I myself wrote on his skin, and I know that he’s a healthy dog, for if he were mad, would I have bothered with him at all. Some of them believed Isaac and some of them didn’t believe him. Those who did believe him calmed down, like someone who gets a spark in his beard and in the end it’s nothing but an ember that dies out at night. But they stood amazed and wondered, What does it mean that he himself wrote on the dog’s skin, and if he did write, why did he write?
On reflection, we can only wonder. When Isaac saw all that panic, why didn’t he panic, and furthermore, why did he announce that he himself had done that deed? But when he saw that everybody was scared of the dog, he revealed the matter only so they wouldn’t be scared, for Isaac our comrade was honest and decent and didn’t cover up his deeds, even if they redounded to his disgrace, especially in a matter concerning the general good.
A spirit of peace and consolation descended. And even those who weren’t sure if it was Isaac who had written on the dog’s skin, even they lost some of their fear and weren’t so scared. And the curious approached Isaac and peeped at him and studied him, and some of them clicked their tongue, Good work, good work. They asked Isaac, What made you write that? Said Isaac, Once upon a time, I had to paint a marble tablet. A dog came and pestered me. I pushed him with the brush in my hand and he didn’t budge. One, twice, three times. I dipped my brush and wrote on the dog’s skin D O G, that is dog. When I saw that he wasn’t satisfied with that, I added C R A Z Y, that is crazy.
If Isaac had stayed in Jerusalem all summer and heard all the troubles the dog had caused, he would have lowered his face to the
ground. But he had gone to Sonya in Jaffa and stayed there as long as he stayed there and didn’t hear anything about the dog, and after he had done that deed, he hadn’t thought about the dog or what he had written on his skin.
When the fear of the dog was removed and the whole peo-ple were relieved of their grief, they lifted their eyes and looked at Isaac. Some looked at him with eyes of grief and some looked at him with anger. The plasterer Efraim came to him and said, Isaac, how could you, Isaac, what did you do? Isaac dropped his eyes and said, If I had known, I wouldn’t have done it. And thus Isaac stood, full of shame and disgrace, grief and torments, like a person who has sinned and is waiting for his sentence.
And now there wasn’t a person who feared the dog. And since the fear of the dog was removed, they wondered how they could have feared him. They became arrogant and started making fun of timid people, who if they see a dog, they run away. And even the cowards donned boldness and cast all the blame on the newspapers, which made them afraid of a dog. Those newspapers have nothing to write, so they write whatever it is they write. Yesterday they scared us with dogs and tomorrow they’ll scare us with flies.
And thus there wasn’t a person who was afraid of the dog, not to mention Isaac, who had done the deed and forgotten it as soon as he did it. But the dog didn’t forget Isaac, for Balak recognized that all the tribulations that had come to him had come from the man with the brush. Balak ran after the man with the brush. Whenever he encountered him he barked at him, and if he didn’t encounter him, the man’s image went before him and he barked. Everyone who heard his voice or saw his shadow was afraid. When they heard that story, their fear of the dog was removed. Lo and behold, as long as Balak was sane, they were afraid of him as of a mad dog, when Balak began to doubt if he was sane, no one was afraid of him.