206/ Like the early mystics In late antiquity, mystics would induce trances by putting their heads between their legs while meditating on the mysteries of the divine chariot.
208/ Kolel A communal organization in Jerusalem that distributed charitable funds collected in the Diaspora.
208/ Not to hold over the dead It is the custom in Jerusalem to bury the dead on the day of death rather than the next day.
The Lady and the Peddler
213/ She broiled the meat in butter Mixing meat and milk is forbidden according to Jewish dietary laws.
Tears
223/ Baal Shem Israel Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism (ca. 1700–1760).
Buczacz
235/ Sound of a dog The previous paragraph specified “horses”; the inconsistency is Agnon’s.
237/ Without the reading of the Torah and without communal prayer Reading the Torah from a scroll requires a quorum of ten, as does the recitation of certain prayers.
238/ Barekhu and Kedushah These two prayers must be omitted when praying in private.
238–239/ Disaster had overtaken the people of God In 1096, these three communities in the Rhine Valley were the scene of massacres against Jews by bands of Crusader zealots. See the story “On the Road” in this volume.
239/ Chmielnicki’s thugs In 1648 hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed in the Ukraine in an insurrection against Polish landowners led by Cossack bands under Bogdan Chmielnicki.
The Tale of the Menorah
241/ The Tale of the Menorah In the Hebrew title, “Ma’aseh Hamenorah,” ma’aseh denotes a historical occurrence, not a fictional story; menorah refers not to the Hanukkah lamp but to the candelabrum that originally stood before the tabernacle in the Temple courtyard.
242/ “Blessed be the Lord who has shared His wonderful counsel ” Isaiah 28:29.
242/ Words that Jacob our forefather spoke to Esau Genesis 32:11.
242/ Chmielnicki See note to “Buczacz,” above.
Notes
245/ The Twentieth of Sivan The date commemorating the Chmielnicki massacres.
247/ Blood libel The false allegation that Jews murder non-Jews, especially Christians, in order to use their blood for Passover and other rituals. From the early Middle Ages through modern times, accusations of blood libels led to trials and massacres of Jews.
248/ Related in my tale “My Sabbath.” The story is found in Eilu Ve’eilu pp. 341–42. In the story, Yisrael is imprisoned for counterfeiting seven copper pennies so that he can buy food for the Sabbath and not desecrate the holy day; during the time of his imprisonment, a mysterious stranger, who is later revealed to be the spirit of the Sabbath (and whose name is Shabbati, “My Sabbath”), surreptitiously brings his wife seven copper pennies every Friday for her to buy food for herself.
254/ “O Lord! Have pity on Your people” Joel 2:17.
254/ “How long shall they direct us” Proverb 21:1.
Pisces
256/ Eglon, the king of Moab Judges 3:17: “Eglon was a very fat man.”
257/ Leviathan and Wild Ox The term leviathan occurs in the Bible and Talmud and refers to a serpentine sea-creature. According to Jewish folklore, the flesh of the Leviathan and of the Wild Ox, a huge, mythical beast, are a delicacy to be consumed by the righteous in the afterlife.
261/ Delayed by saying prayers for divine mercy A petitionary prayer called Tahanun is omitted in the synagogue service when there is a celebration at hand.
261/ Purim and the Fast of Esther Purim falls on the 14th of Adar (the carnival month whose sign is Pisces); the celebration is preceded by the Fast of Esther, commemorating the fast Esther undertook before going to see the king. Those who prepare the delicacies for the celebration often have to do so while fasting.
261/ Sabbath during the nine days of mourning Although meat is not eaten during the nine days preceding the summer fast of the Ninth of Av, it is permitted on the Sabbath that falls during that period.
262/ A rooster…slaughtered for Yom Kippur In place of the penitential sacrifices once offered in the Jerusalem Temple, it was customary on the eve of Yom Kippur to wave a rooster over the head, which would later be slaughtered, and to declare that one’s sins were transferred to the animal.
263/ The place is too narrow for me Isaiah 49:20.
263–4/ Kedushah and Barekhu Parts of the service that cannot be said without a quorum of ten.
266/ Karpl Shleyen…Fishl Fisher…Fishl Hecht…Fishl Fishman These are names for fish in Yiddish.
267/ “And he prayed ” Jonah 2:2.
267/ “And Thou didst cast me into the deep” Jonah 2:4.
268/ “Who teaches us by the beasts of the earth” Job 35:11.
270/ 5423 or 5424 Corresponds to the years 1663 or 1664.
274/ Ascent That Is Descent Refers to the hasidic concept of the Tzaddik’s descent into impurity in order to raise himself up to a higher spiritual level.
277/ Someone who puts on two pair of tefillin There are two kinds of tefillin, resulting from a difference of opinion between two medieval sages; some pious Jews wear two pair of tefillin at the same time in order to practice both approaches.
Notes
277/ Hok Leyisrael, Hovot Halevavot, Reshit Hokhmah Popular moralistic manuals and commentaries.
278/ “I have deprived my soul of good ” Ecclesiastes 4:8.
279/ “And even the fish of the sea” Hoshea 4:3.
280/ “For the earth was full of knowledge” Isaiah 11:9.
283/ Just as Yitzhak Kummer drew on Balak’s skin A reference to characters in Agnon’s novel Temol Shilshom about the early years of Zionist settlement in Palestine.
290/ “As the birds fly” Isaiah 31:5.
296/ The Twelve Tribes are compared to animals The quotations are taken from Jacob’s blessing of his sons in Genesis 49.
297/ “And they drew water” 1 Samuel 7:6; the reference is to Pseudo-Jonathan, an Aramaic translation of the Bible with many midrashic additions.
297/ “Let them curse it” Job 3:7.
298/ “And they shall abound ” See Genesis 48:16. Agnon draws out a pun by finding the Hebrew word for fish — dag — in the verb vayidgu (“to abound”).
On the Road
338/ The day of the great slaughter…the blood of the martyrs who slaughtered themselves At the end of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth centuries, Jews in the Rhineland communities of Worms, Speyer, and Mainz were attacked by zealots assembling for the Crusades. Many Jews killed themselves and their families rather than convert to Christianity or be killed by the Crusaders.
339/ “The dead praise not the Lord ” Psalm 115:17.
339/ Until after the Day The Day is rabbinic parlance for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement; see the story “At the Outset of the Day” in this volume.