Yiddish Tales Part 75

Let us go into a room where we two shall be alone."

So the Rabbi went with him into an empty room, shut the door, and said:

"Dear friend, what is your wish? Do not be abashed, but speak freely, and tell me what I can do for you."

"Dear Rabbi, I am, you must know, already acquainted with the fact that Jews require blood at Pa.s.sover. I know also that it is a secret belonging only to the Rabbis, to very pious Jews, and to the wealthy who give much alms. And I, who am, as you know, a very charitable and good Jew, wish also to comply, if only once in my life, with this great observance.

"You need not be alarmed, dear Rabbi! I will never betray the secret, but will make you happy forever, if you will enable me to fulfil so great a command.

"If, however, you deny its existence, and declare that Jews do not require blood, from that moment I become your bitter enemy.

"And why should I be treated worse than any other pious Jew? I, too, want to try to perform the great commandment which G.o.d gave in secret. I am not learned in the Law, but a great and wealthy Jew, and one given to good works, that am I in very truth!"

You can fancy--said my Grandmother--the Rabbi's horror on hearing such words from a Jew, a simple countryman. They pierced him to the quick, like sharp arrows.

He saw that the Jew believed in all sincerity that his coreligionists used blood at Pa.s.sover.

How was he to uproot out of such a simple heart the weeds sown there by evil men?

The Rabbi saw that words would just then be useless.

A beautiful thought came to him, and he said: "So be it, dear friend!

Come into the synagogue to-morrow at this time, and I will grant your request. But till then you must fast, and you must not sleep all night, but watch in prayer, for this is a very grave and dreadful thing."

The Jew went away full of gladness, and did as the Rabbi had told him.

Next day, at the appointed time, he came again, wan with hunger and lack of sleep.

The Rabbi took the key of the synagogue, and they went in there together. In the synagogue all was quiet.

The Rabbi put on a prayer-scarf and a robe, lighted some black candles, threw off his shoes, took the Jew by the hand, and led him up to the ark.

The Rabbi opened the ark, took out a scroll of the Law, and said:

"You know that for us Jews the scroll of the Law is the most sacred of all things, and that the list of denunciations occurs in it twice.

"I swear to you by the scroll of the Law: If any Jew, whosoever he be, requires blood at Pa.s.sover, may all the curses contained in the two lists of denunciations be on my head, and on the head of my whole family!"

The Jew was greatly startled.

He knew that the Rabbi had never before sworn an oath, and now, for his sake, he had sworn an oath so dreadful!

The Jew wept much, and said:

"Dear Rabbi, I have sinned before G.o.d and before you. I pray you, pardon me and give me a hard penance, as hard as you please. I will perform it willingly, and may G.o.d forgive me likewise!"

The Rabbi comforted him, and told no one what had happened, he only told a few very near relations, just to show them how people can be talked into believing the greatest foolishness and the most wicked lies.

May G.o.d--said my Grandmother--open the eyes of all who accuse us falsely, that they may see how useless it is to trump up against us things that never were seen or heard.

Jews will be Jews while the world lasts, and they will become, through suffering, better Jews with more Jewish hearts.

GLOSSARY AND NOTES

[Abbreviations: Dimin. = diminutive; Ger. = German, corrupt German, and Yiddish; Heb. = Hebrew, and Aramaic; pl. = plural; Russ. = Russian; Slav. = Slavic; trl. = translation.

p.r.o.nunciation: The transliteration of the Hebrew words attempts to reproduce the colloquial "German" (Ashken.a.z.ic) p.r.o.nunciation. _Ch_ is p.r.o.nounced as in the German _Dach_.]

ADDITIONAL SERVICE. _See_ EIGHTEEN BENEDICTIONS.

AL-CHET (Heb.). "For the sin"; the first two words of each line of an Atonement Day prayer, at every mention of which the worshipper beats the left side of his breast with his right fist.

ALEF-BES (Heb.). The Hebrew alphabet.

ASHRe (Heb.). The first word of a Psalm verse used repeatedly in the liturgy.

aUS KLEMENKE! (Ger.). Klemenke is done for!

AZOI (= Ger. also). That's the way it is!

BADCHEN (Heb.). A wedding minstrel, whose quips often convey a moral lesson to the bridal couple, each of whom he addresses separately.

BAR-MITZVEH (Heb.). A boy of thirteen, the age of religious majority.

BAS-KOL (Heb.). "The Daughter of the Voice"; an echo; a voice from Heaven.

BEIGEL (Ger.). Ring-shaped roll.

BES HA-MIDRASH (Heb.). House-of-study, used for prayers, too.

BITTUL-TORAH (Heb.). Interference with religious study.

BOBBE (Slav.). Grandmother; midwife.

BORSHTSH (Russ.). Sour soup made of beet-root.

CANTONIST (Ger.). Jewish soldier under Czar Nicholas I, torn from his parents as a child, and forcibly estranged from Judaism.

CHALLEH (Heb.). Loaves of bread prepared for the Sabbath, over which the blessing is said; always made of wheat flour, and sometimes yellowed with saffron.

CHARIF (Heb.). A Talmudic scholar and dialectician.

CHa.s.sIDIM (sing. Chossid) (Heb.). "Pious ones"; followers of Israel Baal Shem, who opposed the sophisticated intellectualism of the Talmudists, and laid stress on emotionalism in prayer and in the performance of other religious ceremonies. The Cha.s.sidic leader is called Tzaddik ("righteous one"), or Rebbe. _See_ art. "Hasidim," in the Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. vi.

CHAYYe ODOM. A manual of religious practice used extensively by the common people.