138/ Rabbi Samuel Kolin…Mahazit Hashekel Samuel Kolin (1720–1806) wrote Mahazit Hashekel as a commentary on the Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim. The section of Kolin’s book on Orah Hayyim is actually a commentary on the Magen Avraham that simplifies its difficult language. The Mahazit Hashekel was widely used as a source for decisions in Jewish law.
139/ Tartars who came to wage war on the town A reference to invasions that occurred between 1655 and 1667.
139/ Hamizpeh “The Watchtower,” a Hebrew weekly newspaper with a religious Zionist orientation, published in Cracow by Simon Menahem Laser. Laser was one of the first to publish Agnon (still known at that time as Czaczkes).
Notes
139/ Ginzei Yosef Library and the Jewish National and University Library The Ginzei Yosef Library is the collection established by Dr. Joseph Chasanowitsch (see note below) that formed the basis for the Jewish National and University Library at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
140/ Those little books that God does not deign to look upon Books that belong to secular culture rather than Jewish learning.
143/ Dr. Joseph Chasanowitsch (1844–1919) Russian Zionist who studied medicine in Konigsberg and settled in Bialystok. He collected ancient and rare books for a national Jewish library in Jerusalem. His collection, Ginzei Yosef, consisted of 63,000 books, of which 20,000 were in Hebrew, and formed the basis of the Jewish National and University Library, first at Mount Scopus and then at the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University.
On One Stone
145/ Rabbi Adam Baal Shem A legendary kabbalist whose miraculous deeds gave rise to many tales during the seventeenth century. The nineteenth-century compiler of the Shivehi Habesht, the collection of stories about the founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, took these stories of Rabbi Adam Baal Shem and transformed them to show him as an esoteric kabbalist who was close in time and place to the Baal Shem Tov.
147/ The permitted domain According to Jewish law, this is the permitted distance (2,000 cubits) that one may walk beyond an established community on the Sabbath.
The Sense of Smell
149/ “Behold thou art beautiful ” Song of Songs 1:15.
149/ “Let me hear your voice” Song of Songs 2:14.
149/ “The Lord builds Jerusalem” Psalm 147:2–3.
150/ Balaam the Wicked Chapters 22–25 of Numbers describe how Balak, the king of Moab, commissioned the prophet Balaam to curse the Israelites, who were about to travel through his territory. Balaam praised them instead; a section of his poetic prophecy (“How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob!” [Numbers 24:5])is included at the beginning of daily morning liturgy.
151/ Edom An epithet for Christendom.
151/ Like one exiled from his father’s palace Based on a midrashic theme.
152/ The book called Perfect Treatise Ketav Tamim, by the thirteenth-century German sage Moses Taku.
153/ Rabbi Jacob of Lissa R. Jacob Lorbeerbaum (ca. 1760–1832), rabbi of Leszno (Lissa) from 1809, commentator on the Shulhan Arukh and author of Derekh Ha-hayyim, a frequently reprinted digest of ritual law often printed with the prayer book.
154/ Javetz Jacob Emden (1697–1776), rabbi of Hamburg and well-known author in many fields of Jewish learning. Javetz was his pen name. (See “Knots upon Knots” in this volume.)
155/ Psalm for the Chief Musician upon Lilies Psalm 45.
From Lodging to Lodging
161/ “A man should never change his quarters” Arakhin 10b.
164/ Followers of Korah Numbers 16.
Notes
The Tale of the Scribe
178/ Fashioning crowns for his Creator In addition to the figurative sense, the reference is also to ornamental calligraphic crowns that the scribe places at the top of certain Hebrew letters.
179/ Path of Life The Orah Hayyim, one of the four orders of the Shulhan Arukh, the great sixteenth-century code of Jewish law.
179/ Book of Splendor The Zohar, the classic text of Jewish mysticism, written in the thirteenth century in Spain by Moses de Leon.
181/ Reb Gadiel, the infant A tiny scholar, a creation of Agnon’s who also appears in another story; the character is based on medieval Jewish mystical legend.
181/ “The earth is the Lord’s ” Psalm 24:1.
181/ “I have set the Lord always before me” Psalm 16:8.
182/ A bundle of twigs On Hoshana Rabbah, which is the last day of Sukkot and the eve of Shemini Atzeret, seven circuits are made in the synagogue and willow branches are beaten against the reader’s lectern.
182/ The Seer of Lublin Jacob Isaac Ha-Hozeh Mi-Lublin (1748–1815), a founder of the hasidic movement in Poland and Galicia.
183/ The Torah portion Ki tavo Chapters 26–29:8 of the Book of Deuteronomy, read in the synagogue as part of the yearly cycle around the month of September.
184/ When Miriam visits the bathhouse Immersion in a ritual bath (mikvah) is required after a woman’s menstrual flow so that she may resume relations with her husband.
188/ “And Aaron did so” Numbers 8:3.
189/ “And now ye shall write down” Deuteronomy 31:24.
191/ The seventh round of the procession On the eve of Simhat Torah, the Torah scrolls are carried around the pulpit seven times.
191/ Rabbi Akiba of whom it is told Berakhot 31a.
That Tzaddik’s Etrog
195/ Reb Mikheleh the Holy Preacher of Zloczow The founder of Hasidism in eastern Galicia and a contemporary of the Baal Shem Tov.
196/ A beautiful etrog and…kosher In addition to the numerous laws about the ritual fitness of the citron, there is great store set on its physical beauty.
Fable of the Goat
200/ “Until the day breathe and the shadows flee away” Song of Songs 2:17.
200/ Men like angels, wrapped in white shawls The kabbalists in sixteenth-century Safed, who created the Kabbalat Shabbat service, would welcome the Sabbath by going out into the fields dressed in white.
201/ Not be able to return Travel is forbidden after sunset on Friday.
201/ “An evil beast has devoured him.”…“I will go down to the grave in mourning for my son” The words of Jacob in Genesis 37:33–35 when informed of Joseph’s fate.
Notes
Paths of Righteousness,
or the Vinegar Maker
204/ Mondays and Thursdays he would fast These are the two weekdays on which part of the weekly portion is read from the Torah in synagogue; it is the custom of the especially pious to fast on these days.
204/ That man The euphemistic locution used in rabbinic literature to refer to Jesus of Nazareth.
206/ An unworthy son born of a worthy father Translation of hometz ben yayin, literally, vinegar made from wine.