A few days later Reb Shlomo came to my house to tell me the good news that Hannele his son’s daughter (this was Hannah, namely Aniela, otherwise Erela) had become betrothed to a certain doctor called Jacob Milch. I congratulated Reb Shlomo, we drank to their good health, and I told him what a fine man Kuba was. “I am certain,” I said to Reb Shlomo, “that the couple will soon come up to the Land of Israel, and it will be a good thing for you to have relatives in the Land. Sometimes they will come to visit you, and sometimes you will go to visit them, especially on festivals, when a man wishes to sit with his family.”
So we sat for some time and talked, until evening approached and the time came for the Afternoon Service. Reb Shlomo rose and asked, “Which side is the East?” I showed him from my window the direction of the Holy Temple. He sighed, washed his hands, and prayed. After he had completed his prayer I said to him, “ Perhaps you would leave the congregation in Ramat Rahel and pray with me.” “There is a quorum there without me, thank God,” said Reb Shlomo.
From this the talk turned to the old men in the kvutza, who kept quarreling with each other about every little thing, for each of them believed that the Torah had been given in his town alone, and every custom that he had not seen in his town did not seem to him to be a Jewish custom at all. “Perhaps you would like to go back,” I said to Reb Shlomo. “Where?” “To Szibucz,” I said. He looked at me like a deaf man who can neither hear nor speak. “If you hurry,” I said, “you will arrive in time for Erela’s wedding. And if you wish to sit and study there I will give you the key of our old Beit Midrash.” I rose, opened the box and showed him the key, telling him the whole story. “Here is the key before you,” I said. “You can take the key and go back to Szibucz.” Reb Shlomo smiled and said, “If the Almighty helps me I will sit and wait here for the footsteps of the Messiah.”
“If so,” I said to the key, “you stay here with me.” The key was silent and gave no answer, first, because it was an inanimate thing and could not speak, and second, because the people in the Beit Midrash had already discussed that matter on the day they gave it to me.
After some time the old man took his leave of me. I went with him to see him on his way. When we reached the crossroads we parted, he going to his home and I to mine. I turned my head and saw that the birds were flying above his head. The fowl of the heavens, who had returned to the Land of Israel, were flying to accompany the old man who was returning to his nest.
I went into my house, put away the key in the box, locked the box on the outside, and hung the key over my heart. I know that no one is enthusiastic about the key of our old Beit Midrash, but I said to myself: One day our old Beit Midrash is destined to be established in the Land of Israel; better, then, for the key to be in my possession.
Here endeth the story of that man of whom we have spoken in this work that is before us, since he has returned to his home and is no longer in the category of a guest.
Nevertheless, let us tell a little more about Yeruham and Rachel. They live in peace and their son is growing up and giving pleasure to them, to his grandfather and grandmother, and also to his aunt Babtchi, who consoles herself with her sister’s son. Kuba and Erela are preparing to settle in the Land of Israel, Schutzling asks me to send him an immigration certificate for his son, and Genendel asks for a handful of dust from the Land to give her contentment after her death. What Genendel wanted for her body, Leibtche Bodenhaus has done for his souclass="underline" he has sent a copy of his book to our National Library, so that he may be remembered in Jerusalem.
What else can we tell that we have not yet told? Daniel Bach strolls in the town or sits in front of his son Raphael, who lies on his bed and sees dreams the whole world over. When they have nothing to eat, they pin their hopes on those children that Sara Pearl as midwife will one day help bring into the world, those who in the future will build houses for themselves and buy beams for building and wood for their stoves.
What else can we tell? Every day letters come for me from Szibucz. Zippora has recovered and is firm on her feet. But what is the good of feet to one who has nothing to do with them? So long as her father was alive she used to go and visit him: now he is dead, she has nowhere to go, so she sits at home with her sister Hannah and weeps with her for Zvi, who was sent back from the Land of Israel, and between one time of tears and another they hope for divine mercy.
All Szibucz waits for the divine mercy, each in his own way; trade is bad and no one earns enough for food, and if a man earns a zloty the government comes and takes half for taxes and half for levies. On the other hand, Antos and Zwirn grow steadily richer, but I doubt whether that is any consolation.
There are other people in Szibucz with whom we have had to do and of whom we have not yet written, such as Reuben and Simon, Levi and Judah, or the tailor and his wife, or that old man who made a key for our old Beit Midrash, or the people of Gordonia, or all the other sons of Szibucz; but there is a covenant made for the Land of Israel that whoever does not settle in the Land is forgotten in the end, but everyone who has the privilege will be remembered and written of in the Land, as it is said (Isaiah, chapter 4), “Everyone who is written for life in Jerusalem.”
Now let us see what happened to that man who will live in Jerusalem and what he did in the Land; or rather — since he is settled in the Land and is only a tiny grain of its soil — who will deal with a single grain when the whole Land is before him?
The story of the guest is ended; his doings in Szibucz are done.
Glossary
ADAR: Hebrew month; February or March.
ADDITIONAL SERVICE (Musaf): prayer service on the Sabbath and holidays, recited after the general Morning Prayer.
AFIKOMEN (afikoman): piece of matzoh eaten at the conclusion of the Seder.
AGADA: portions of the Talmud dealing with non-legal materials.
AKDAMUT: hymn recited on the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) preceding the reading from the Torah.
RABBI AKIBA: leading Palestinian teacher of the second century c.e.
AL-FASI: Isaac Al-Fasi (eleventh century), author of a famous talmudic compilation.
ARBA TURIM: compendium of Jewish law by Jacob ben Asher (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries).
ASHKENAZI: pertaining to the Ashkenazim, Jews of the central European tradition, as opposed to Sephardim, Jews of the Spanish tradition, from whom they differ in ritual and in their pronunciation of Hebrew.
ASHREI (happy): the opening word in Psalms 84:5 and 144:15, recited in the Afternoon Prayer.
BAAL SHEM TOV (Master of the Good Name): founder of the hasidic movement (eighteenth century).
BEIT MIDRASH (pl. Batei Midrashot): House of Study, a place of learning and worship. Usually identical with the House of Prayer.
CHAJES, ZVI PEREZ (1876–1927): Chief Rabbi of Vienna, 1918–27.
CLOSING MEAL: meal preceding the fast on the Day of Atonement.
DAY OF ATONEMENT (Yom Kippur): the tenth of the Days of Awe, which start with the New Year’s Day; a day of prayer, fasting, and forgiveness of sin.
DAYAN: member of a Jewish religious court; authority in ritual questions.