Mrs. Bach has already told us what Yeruham did in Vienna: he studied Hebrew at the school with Erela and Yeruham Bach. Now let us tell what he did after the war. After the war he and Yeruham Bach went to the Land of Israel. Yeruham Bach went like a normal person, traveling by train and boat, while the other, Yeruham Freeman, did not go like all the rest, because they did not give him a passport, for his name was not correctly registered. So he took his staff and his bundle and went on foot. On he went, heel and toe, over several countries, hills and mountains, forests and lakes. Often he was in danger from violent men, who had returned from the war and were terrorizing the roads, as well as from the frontier guards, who beat and killed anyone who tried to pass without permission. By day he would hide in the forests, among the rocks, or in tunnels and caves, and at night he would lift himself from the dust and go on. Because he did not know the roads, he sometimes found himself back in the place from which he had come.
Yeruham said to me, “You told me the story of Hanania, who found goodhearted people and went up with them; I found only one man with whom I went. It happened that once I saw a man from a distance. I was afraid he might be a murderer or a frontier guard. I wanted to hide, but I saw that he too was trying to hide. So I took my heart in my hands and went up to him. I asked him, ‘What are you doing here?’ ‘And what are you looking for here?’ he asked me. I told him that I was going to the Land of Israel but did not have a passport, and he told me that he was going to the Land of Israel and did not have a passport. So we went on together. After several days we reached a certain port. We found a broken-down smugglers’ boat and paid them to take us to some port in the Land of Israel. So we sailed on with them over the sea without food or water. After several days they put us off near a desolate place and said, ‘From here onward let God help you.’ After several days we found another boat belonging to hashish smugglers and sailed with them to a port in the Land of Israel. When we landed, we thought the Land of Salvation had been opened to us. We kissed the soil and wanted to forget our trials. And indeed we did forget the trials of the journey because of the disturbances that were raging all over the country. Then some of our comrades, who had been privileged to arrive first, were killed. After the Land became tranquil, we went out to work.”
There was work in the Land but the employers — heaven forgive them — were not of Yeruham’s kind, And here Yeruham told me many things. Those that are known to us there is no need to mention, and those that are not known to us we shall pass over in silence, so as not to arouse divine justice. Said Yeruham, “It is not enough for a people that it has been given a land, if the land does not behave aright.” So Yeruham cast out his love from his heart and became hardened against it. He joined up with certain people and did a number of things that were not right, or perhaps he did behave aright, for if a wolf tries to devour you, you do not have to stroke its fur. Finally, the authorities came and expelled him, with some of his comrades, from the Land.
Rachel looked at her husband and suddenly her face grew alive again. All the weariness in her body left her. She sat and listened to all that Yeruham was saying. Many things Yeruham had already told her, but the main things he was telling now. Yeruham perceived what was in Rachel’s heart and said, “You shall yet hear greater things.”
“One thing I find difficult to understand,” said I to Yeruham. “By your nature, Yeruham, you did not go up to the Land of Israel in the same way as I and my comrades of the second wave of immigration did. We of the second wave went up because of the voice in our hearts. The tales and stories we had heard in the Hebrew school; the Torah, Prophets, and Writings we had learned in our childhood; the Gemara and Midrash we had studied in our youth; and perhaps also the songs we had read — all these stirred our spirits; so we went up to the Promised Land. But you and your comrades — forgive me for saying this — you who had transgressed against all these things, why did you say that it was through me that you went up to the Land? Is a man like you inspired by rhymes about ‘Jerusalem my love’ and ‘heaven above’? Give your consideration to this, my dear friend, and answer me. I do not ask you to reply at once, but in any case we ought to clear this up.”
Said Rachel, “I thought all your accounts were already settled, but now you come along again with a new account!” Yeruham pushed his curls from right to left and said, “Don’t worry, Rachel. I can pay.” “On the contrary, my friend,” said I, “let us hear what you have to answer me. Or perhaps we should defer the payment to another time, for it is near midnight, and you and Rachel are tired.”
I took out my watch. Good heavens, five and a half hours I had been sitting in Yeruham and Rachel’s house. I rose, put on my coat, said goodbye to them, and went off. Yeruham came after me to accompany me, but I sent him back so that his wife should not sit alone. So Yeruham went home, and I went on my way.
Chapter nine and thirty. In the Light of the Moon
What shall we think about now? Perhaps about Rachel and Yeruham? Yeruham and Rachel have gone to bed; let us not confuse them with our thoughts. If so, let us think about Reb Hayim, to whom I gave the key; he is no doubt sitting in the Beit Midrash counting his journeys from Szibucz to the land of his captivity and from the land of his captivity to Szibucz. Or perhaps we should think about Szibucz itself, which casts out its sons and takes them in again. If so, then even Elimelech Kaiser will return and close his mother’s eyes, for if strangers close the eyes of a dead man he feels pain in his eyes, since a stranger’s hand comes down without mercy. Or perhaps we should not think at all, but go back to the hotel and go to sleep. It is already midnight. The moon and the stars and the planets are evidence of this, and, if you like, so is my watch. True, the watch has stopped, but my heart tells me that it stopped at the moment when I took it out to look at it.
The moon lights up everything: the snow, and the ruined castle, and the stones that surround the castle, which the snow has covered like a flock of sheep.
The moon walked silently in the sky, lighting my path. I listened to the sound of my feet and the gurgling of the spring that welled up from the hill. This is the hill to which I used to go with my father, of blessed memory, to drink of its waters at the setting of the Sabbath in the summer, for at the setting of the Sabbath, Miriam’s Well runs into all the wells in the world, and whoever succeeds in divining just that moment will have many of his wishes fulfilled.
The spring gurgled as was its way; its clear waters flowed into the washerwoman’s pool, and from there to the river Stripa, which was covered with ice. The moon was full, and the snow crouched on the hill and its slopes like a flock of sheep. Meanwhile the snow seemed to disappear, and the face of the hill was covered with sheep. And that was strange, for this is not the Land of Israel, where even in winter the sheep will wander over the hills.