I too did something: I arranged that in my Beit Midrash they should say “Our Father, our King” at the Morning and Afternoon Services, verse by verse. When the rabbi heard this he objected. “Who is this who has come to institute new fashions?” He said, Today he tells you: Say ‘Our Father, our King’; and tomorrow he will tell you: Go and play football on the Sabbath!”
I regretted that I had not gone to pay my respects to the rabbi, for if I had visited him he would not have spoken in this way. I said to myself: Let a day go by and I shall get over my regret. When a day had passed and my regret had not, I went to the rabbi to appease him.
The rabbi is near seventy, but his age is not very apparent. His face is somewhat long and his beard gold in color, and the threads of silver in it gave him the kind look of a good-tempered man. His movements are measured and his speech is gentle; he does not raise his voice too much, but adds intonation to emphasize his words. He looks well fleshed, though in fact he is lean and tall; but because he sits at ease with his arms folded over his heart, he looks well fleshed. Although he is a poor man and his stipend is small, he is dressed in satin and is careful that his clothes should be clean. I have already mentioned in the story of Reb Hayim that at the beginning the present rabbi was accepted as an adjudicator and not as rabbi, and only when the war ended and his rivals disappeared and the town dwindled was he appointed rabbi. Apart from the great controversy with Reb Hayim and the troubles of the war and the troubles of the pogroms, which are common to all, he has not been particularly affected by the sorrows of the time. His sons follow in his footsteps, if not in their learning then at least in their ways. One is a prominent worker for Agudat Israel, the orthodox party, and a bit of a scribbler in their Yiddish newspapers; a second has a kind of factory for sausages; another is a son-in-law in a rich house, and there is reason to expect that he will find a rabbinical post, for his father-in-law is on good terms on the one hand with a famous zaddik and on the other with the authorities.
It is a rule stated in the Gemara that just as it is one’s duty to teach practices that will be followed, so it is one’s duty not to teach practices that will not be followed. This rule the rabbi has applied to himself, and it has saved him from various kinds of difficulty. But if someone comes to ask about a point of law, he is strict; not that this is the law, but that it is fitting to be strict. The rabbi often says, “The rules of the Torah were given to rejoice the hearts of those that learn them, and if a good deed comes to your hand, act so that your Maker should rejoice in you and be strict with yourself.” If the questioner resists him and asks, “Is the law really so?” he says to him, “If you know the law why do you ask me? And if you ask, it is because you do not rely on yourself, so you must rely on me.” Although his actions are measured and his speech balanced, he does not avoid idle conversation, and adorns his talk with things that put people in good humor. But he is careful not to tell two jokes one after the other, and not to tell a story that has nothing to do with what he is talking about.
When I came in he received me cordially, although it could be seen that he resented my not having come before, and he spoke to me in this wise in Aramaic: “If I am a king (for it is said, ‘Who are kings? The rabbis!’), why did you not come to see me until now?” But he immediately gave me a place at his right hand, and explained that the reason he had objected to the saying of “Our Father, our King” was that this prayer should not be recited for the troubles of an individual. Since I was silent, he thought I was annoyed because he had said, “Today he tells you: Say ‘Our Father, our King,’ and tomorrow he will say: Go and play football on the Sabbath,” and he began discussing why it is forbidden to play football on the Sabbath. Anyone who heard him might have imagined that people did nothing else in the Land of Israel but play football every day, especially on the Sabbath. More things, too, he said in condemnation of the people of the Land of Israel, which because of various preoccupations I took no notice of and did not answer. When he saw that I was silent, he changed his tone and looked at me more favorably. He raised his voice a little, not too much, adding intonation to emphasize what he was saying, and said, “And now, sir, will you honor me by saying a blessing in my house?” Then he raised his voice above the usual and called, “Rebetzin, bring refreshments. A Jew from the Land of Israel has come to visit us.”
A short while passed. From the kitchen I could hear footsteps and the clattering of dishes. Although the rabbi’s wife had made no reply, it was obvious that she had heard her husband and was now preparing refreshments. The rabbi looked at me affectionately and stroked his beard gently. Suddenly he shifted his eyes from me and looked at the door, rapping on the table with his fingers so as to hurry up his wife. I wanted to tell him that there was no need to trouble her, for I was neither hungry nor thirsty, but the door opened and in came the rabbi’s wife, carrying a tray with two glasses of tea and plates full of sweetmeats, as well as some sugar and slices of lemon. She bowed to me and said, “Welcome!” She seemed as old as he was, but more worn. In honor of this man who had come to her house she wore a kind of bonnet. Her husband looked at her approvingly, like a husband who is satisfied with his wife, for you must know that during the war they had come in contact with rabbis of the moderate Mizrachi party and had seen how the world behaves.
There was a bookcase in the room. The rabbi saw that I was looking at it and said, “These are my books, which God has given me. Some of them came to me by inheritance and some I have bought with my own money. Thank God that there is not a single book here that came to me as payment or pledge for loans. I also have books here of the modern authors, which my son has brought me, for the authors send him their books so that he should mention them favorably in the papers. I have heard that you, sir, too, have written books. I have never looked into them. For me the books of our holy rabbis are enough. But since we have mentioned the matter of books, I will show you a book that I have written. Perhaps you will take some time and look at it. I am certain that you will find pleasant things in it, based on the truth of the Torah.” He bent down and, opening a drawer in the table, took out a kind of account book; then he gave it to me and looked at me with affection, waiting for me to say, “Pure gold! Pure gold!”
While I was examining it, the door opened and in came three men. I got up to go, but the rabbi put his right hand on mine and said, “On the contrary, sir. Sit down and listen to what these Jews have to say.” Then he turned to the newcomers and said, “Sit down, gentlemen, sit down. What have you to say? On the contrary, speak. This Jew here is also a Jew; on the contrary, let him hear.”
All of them began speaking in confusion. “If you all speak at the same time,” said the rabbi, “I cannot hear.” Then they began shouting in confusion, crying, “Let Michael speak”—“Let Gabriel speak”—“Let Raphael speak.” The rabbi took his beard in his hand and said, “On the contrary, Reb Raphael, you tell me for what reason you have come.” Said Raphael, “You ask us why we have come? The rabbi should ask us why we did not come before.” Said the rabbi, “If you did not come to me, then there was no one to ask. Well, then, gentlemen, what have you come for?” “We have come to you on an evil day,” said Raphael. “Hanoch’s wife won’t let us be. ‘Gevald,’ she cries, ‘even the Gentiles have tried to find him, and here I live among Jews and they are doing nothing.’ We believe that something must be done.” “And have I not done something?” said the rabbi. “Have I not arranged for a quorum of ten men and assigned them what they should say? I did not, praise God, pick out the verses from the concordance; I myself, with my own hand, copied them out, with the vowels and the notes.” Said Gabriel, “And the rabbi has accomplished nothing.” “Be quiet, Gabriel, be quiet,” said Raphael. “Heaven forbid that we should put words into the devil’s mouth!” “And what did I say?” said Gabriel. “What you said should not have been said,” said Raphael, and went on: “Prayer does a half. In any case, we believe that the rabbi should declare a fast. Perhaps the Holy One, blessed be He, will see our trouble and reveal to us where Hanoch is.” The rabbi sighed and said, “A fast calls for repentance.” Said Michael, “Those that are able to repent, let them repent.” The rabbi sighed and said, “There is a man among us who is not able to repent. I have heard that that Hayim constantly visits the hotel, and it seems likely to me that he has stayed under one roof with his divorced wife without others being by.”