It Is Well
: ISAAC LOeB PEREZYou ask how it is that I remained a Jew? Whose merit it is?
Not through my own merits nor those of my ancestors. I was a
six-year-old Cheder boy, my father a countryman outside Wilna, a
householder in a small way.
No, I remained a Jew thanks to the Schpol Grandfather.
How do I come to mention the Schpol Grandfather? What has the Schpol
Grandfather to do with it, you ask?
The Schpol Grandfather was no Schpol Grandfather then. He was a young
man, suffering exile from home and kindred, wandering with a troop of
mendicants from congregation to congregation, from friendly inn to
friendly inn, in all respects one of them. What difference his heart may
have shown, who knows? And after these journeyman years, the time of
revelation had not come even yet. He presented himself to the Rabbinical
Board in Wilna, took out a certificate, and became a Shochet in a
village. He roamed no more, but remained in the neighborhood of Wilna.
The Misnagdim, however, have a wonderful flair, and they suspected
something, began to worry and calumniate him, and finally they denounced
him to the Rabbinical authorities as a transgressor of the Law, of the
whole Law! What Misnagdim are capable of, to be sure!
As I said, I was then six years old. He used to come to us to slaughter
small cattle, or just to spend the night, and I was very fond of him.
Whom else, except my father and mother, should I have loved? I had a
teacher, a passionate man, a destroyer of souls, and this other was a
kind and genial creature, who made you feel happy if he only looked at
you. The calumnies did their work, and they took away his certificate.
My teacher must have had a hand in it, because he heard of it before
anyone, and the next time the Shochet came, he exclaimed "Apostate!"
took him by the scruff of his coat, and bundled him out of the house. It
cut me to the heart like a knife, only I was frightened to death of the
teacher, and never stirred. But a little later, when the teacher was
looking away, I escaped and began to run after the Shochet across the
road, which, not far from the house, lost itself in a wood that
stretched all the way to Wilna. What exactly I proposed to do to help
him, I don't know, but something drove me after the poor Shochet. I
wanted to say good-by to him, to have one more look into his nice,
kindly eyes.
But I ran and ran, and hurt my feet against the stones in the road, and
saw no one. I went to the right, down into the wood, thinking I would
rest a little on the soft earth of the wood. I was about to sit down,
when I heard a voice (it sounded like his voice) farther on in the wood,
half speaking and half singing. I went softly towards the voice, and saw
him some way off, where he stood swaying to and fro under a tree. I went
up to him--he was reciting the Song of Songs. I look closer and see that
the tree under which he stands is different from the other trees. The
others are still bare of leaves, and this one is green and in full leaf,
it shines like the sun, and stretches its flowery branches over the
Shochet's head like a tent. And a quantity of birds hop among the twigs
and join in singing the Song of Songs. I am so astonished that I stand
there with open mouth and eyes, rooted like the trees.
He ends his chant, the tree is extinguished, the little birds are
silent, and he turns to me, and says affectionately:
"Listen, Yuedele,"--Yuedel is my name--"I have a request to make of you."
"Really?" I answer joyfully, and I suppose he wishes me to bring him out
some food, and I am ready to run and bring him our whole Sabbath dinner,
when he says to me:
"Listen, keep what you saw to yourself."
This sobers me, and I promise seriously and faithfully to hold my
tongue.
"Listen again. You are going far away, very far away, and the road is a
long road."
I wonder, however should I come to travel so far? And he goes on to say:
"They will knock the Rebbe's Torah out of your head, and you will forget
Father and Mother, but see you keep to your name! You are called
Yuedel--remain a Jew!"
I am frightened, but cry out from the bottom of my heart:
"Surely! As surely may I live!"
Then, because my own idea clung to me, I added:
"Don't you want something to eat?"
And before I finished speaking, he had vanished.
The second week after they fell upon us and led me away as a Cantonist,
to be brought up among the Gentiles and turned into a soldier.
* * * * *
Time passed, and I forgot everything, as he had foretold. They knocked
it all out of my head.
I served far away, deep in Russia, among snows and terrific frosts, and
never set eyes on a Jew. There may have been hidden Jews about, but I
knew nothing of them, I knew nothing of Sabbath and festival, nothing of
any fast. I forgot everything.
But I held fast to my name!
I did not change my coin.
The more I forgot, the more I was inclined to be quit of my torments and
trials--to make an end of them by agreeing to a Christian name, but
whenever the bad thought came into my head, he appeared before me, the
same Shochet, and I heard his voice say to me, "Keep your name, remain a
Jew!"
And I knew for certain that it was no empty dream, because every time I
saw him older and older, his beard and earlocks greyer, his face
paler. Only his eyes remained the same kind eyes, and his voice, which
sounded like a violin, never altered.
Once they flogged me, and he stood by and wiped the cold sweat off my
forehead, and stroked my face, and said softly: "Don't cry out! We ought
to suffer! Remain a Jew," and I bore it without a cry, without a moan,
as though they had been flogging not-me.
* * * * *
Once, during the last year, I had to go as a sentry to a public house
behind the town. It was evening, and there was a snow-storm. The wind
lifted patches of snow, and ground them to needles, rubbed them to dust,
and this snow-dust and these snow-needles were whirled through the air,
flew into one's face and pricked--you couldn't keep an eye open, you
couldn't draw your breath! Suddenly I saw some people walking past me,
not far away, and one of them said in Yiddish, "This is the first night
of Passover." Whether it was a voice from God, or whether some people
really passed me, to this day I don't know, but the words fell upon my
heart like lead, and I had hardly reached the tavern and begun to walk
up and down, when a longing came over me, a sort of heartache, that is
not to be described. I wanted to recite the Haggadah, and not a word of
it could I recall! Not even the Four Questions I used to ask my father.
I felt it all lay somewhere deep down in my heart. I used to know so
much of it, when I was only six years old. I felt, if only I could have
recalled one simple word, the rest would have followed and risen out of
my memory one after the other, like sleepy birds from beneath the snow.
But that one first word is just what I cannot remember! Lord of the
Universe, I cried fervently, one word, only one word! As it seems, I
made my prayer in a happy hour, for "we were slaves" came into my head
just as if it had been thrown down from Heaven. I was overjoyed! I was
so full of joy that I felt it brimming over. And then the rest all came
back to me, and as I paced up and down on my watch, with my musket on my
shoulder, I recited and sang the Haggadah to the snowy world around. I
drew it out of me, word after word, like a chain of golden links, like
a string of pearls. O, but you won't understand, you couldn't
understand, unless you had been taken away there, too!
The wind, meanwhile, had fallen, the snow-storm had come to an end, and
there appeared a clear, twinkling sky, and a shining world of diamonds.
It was silent all round, and ever so wide, and ever so white, with a
sweet, peaceful, endless whiteness. And over this calm, wide, whiteness,
there suddenly appeared something still whiter, and lighter, and
brighter, wrapped in a robe and a prayer-scarf, the prayer-scarf over
its shoulders, and over the prayer-scarf, in front, a silvery white
beard; and above the beard, two shining eyes, and above them, a
sparkling crown, a cap with gold and silver ornaments. And it came
nearer and nearer, and went past me, but as it passed me it said:
"It is well!"
It sounded like a violin, and then the figure vanished.
But it was the same eyes, the same voice.
I took Schpol on my way home, and went to see the Old Man, for the Rebbe
of Schpol was called by the people Der Alter, the "Schpol Grandfather."
And I recognized him again, and he recognized me!
More
-
A Gloomy Wedding
They handed Gittel a letter that had come by post, she put on her spectacles, sat down by the window, and began to read. She read, and her face began to shine, and the wrinkled skin took on a little color. It was plain that what she read delight... A Jewish Child
The mother came out of the bride's chamber, and cast a piercing look at her husband, who was sitting beside a finished meal, and was making pellets of bread crumbs previous to saying grace. "You go and talk to her! I haven't a bit of strength le... A Livelihood
The two young fellows Maxim Klopatzel and Israel Friedman were natives of the same town in New Bessarabia, and there was an old link existing between them: a mutual detestation inherited from their respective parents. Maxim's father was the chief ... A Picnic
Ask Shmuel, the capmaker, just for a joke, if he would like to come for a picnic! He'll fly out at you as if you had invited him to a swing on the gallows. The fact is, he and his Sarah once went for a picnic, and the poor man will remember it all... A Scholar's Mother
The market lies foursquare, surrounded on every side by low, whitewashed little houses. From the chimney of the one-storied house opposite the well and inhabited by the baker, issues thick smoke, which spreads low over the market-place. Beneath th... A Simple Story
Feigele, like all young girls, is fond of dressing and decking herself out. She has no time for these frivolities during the week, there is work in plenty, no evil eye! and sewing to do; rent is high, and times are bad. The father earns but lit... A Woman's Wrath
The small room is dingy as the poverty that clings to its walls. There is a hook fastened to the crumbling ceiling, relic of a departed hanging lamp. The old, peeling stove is girded about with a coarse sack, and leans sideways toward its gloomy n... Abraham Raisin
Born, 1876, in Kaidanov, Government of Minsk (Lithuania), White Russia; traditional Jewish education; self-taught in Russian language; teacher at fifteen, first in Kaidanov, then in Minsk; first poem published in Perez's Juedische Bibliothek, in 1... An Easy Fast
That which Doctor Tanner failed to accomplish, was effectually carried out by Chayyim Chaikin, a simple Jew in a small town in Poland. Doctor Tanner wished to show that a man can fast forty days, and he only managed to get through twenty-eight, ... An Original Strike
I was invited to a wedding. Not a wedding at which ladies wore low dress, and scattered powder as they walked, and the men were in frock-coats and white gloves, and had waxed moustaches. Not a wedding where you ate of dishes with outlandish n... As The Years Roll On
Rosalie laid down the cloth with which she had been dusting the furniture in her front parlor, and began tapping the velvet covering of the sofa with her fingers. The velvet had worn threadbare in places, and there was a great rent in the middle. ... At The Matzes
It was quite early in the morning, when Sossye, the scribe's daughter, a girl of seventeen, awoke laughing; a sunbeam had broken through the rusty window, made its way to her underneath the counterpane, and there opened her eyes. It woke her ou... Avrohom The Orchard-keeper
When he first came to the place, as a boy, and went straight to the house-of-study, and people, having greeted him, asked "Where do you come from?" and he answered, not without pride, "From the Government of Wilna"--from that day until the day he ... Bertzi Wasserfuehrer
I The first night of Passover. It is already about ten o'clock. Outside it is dark, wet, cold as the grave. A fine, close, sleety rain is driving down, a light, sharp, fitful wind blows, whistles, sighs, and whines, and wanders round on every s... Country Folk
Feivke was a wild little villager, about seven years old, who had tumbled up from babyhood among Gentile urchins, the only Jewish boy in the place, just as his father Mattes, the Kozlov smith, was the only Jewish householder there. Feivke had hard... David Frischmann
Born, 1863, in Lodz, Russian Poland, of a family of merchants; education, Jewish and secular, the latter with special attention to foreign languages and literatures; has spent most of his life in Warsaw; Hebrew critic, editor, poet, satirist, and ... David Pinski
Born, 1872, in Mohileff (Lithuania), White Russia; refused admission to Gymnasium in Moscow under percentage restrictions; 1889-1891, secretary to Bene Zion in Vitebsk; 1891-1893, student in Vienna; 1893, co-editor of Spektor's Hausfreund and Pere... Earth Of Palestine
As my readers know, I wanted to do a little stroke of business--to sell the world-to-come. I must tell you that I came out of it very badly, and might have fallen into some misfortune, if I had had the ware in stock. It fell on this wise: Nowadays... Eliezer David Rosenthal
Born, 1861, in Chotin, Bessarabia; went to Breslau, Germany, in 1880, and pursued studies at the University; returned to Bessarabia in 1882; co-editor of the Bibliothek Dos Leben, published at Odessa, 1904, and Kishineff, 1905; writer of stories. ... Ezrielk The Scribe
Forty days before Ezrielk descended upon this sinful world, his life-partner was proclaimed in Heaven, and the Heavenly Council decided that he was to transcribe the books of the Law, prayers, and Mezuzehs for the Kabtzonivke Jews, and thereby mak... Fishel The Teacher
Twice a year, as sure as the clock, on the first day of Nisan and the first of Ellul--for Passover and Tabernacles--Fishel the teacher travelled from Balta to Chaschtschevate, home to his wife and children. It was decreed that nearly all his life ... Forlorn And Forsaken
Forlorn and forsaken she was in her last years. Even when she lay on the bed of sickness where she died, not one of her relations or friends came to look after her; they did not even come to mourn for her or accompany her to the grave. There was n... Gymnasiye
A man's worst enemy, I tell you, will never do him the harm he does himself, especially when a woman interferes, that is, a wife. Whom do you think I have in mind when I say that? My own self! Look at me and think. What would you take me for? Just... Hirsh David Naumberg
Born, 1876, in Msczczonow, Government of Warsaw, Russian Poland, of Hasidic parentage; traditional Jewish education in the house of his grandfather; went to Warsaw in 1898; at present (1912) in America; first literary work appeared in 1900; writer... If It Was A Dream
Yes, it was a terrible dream! But when one is only nine years old, one soon forgets, and Meyerl was nine a few weeks before it came to pass. Yes, and things had happened in the house every now and then to remind one of it, but then Meyerl lived ... Isaac Dob Berkowitz
Born, 1885, in Slutzk, Government of Minsk (Lithuania), White Russia; was in America for a short time in 1908; contributor to Die Zukunft; co-editor of Ha-Olam, Wilna; Hebrew and Yiddish writer; collected works: Yiddish, Gesammelte Schriften, Wars... Isaac Loeb Perez
Born, 1851, in Samoscz, Government of Lublin, Russian Poland; Jewish, philosophical, and general literary education; practiced law in Samoscz, a Hasidic town; clerk to the Jewish congregation in Warsaw and as such collector of statistics on Jewish... Isaiah Berschadski
Pen name of Isaiah Domaschewitski; born, 1871, near Derechin, Government of Grodno (Lithuania), White Russia; died, 1909, in Warsaw; education, Jewish and secular; teacher of Hebrew in Ekaterinoslav, Southern Russia; in business, in Ekaterinoslav ... Isaiah Lerner
Born, 1861, in Zwoniec, Podolia, Southwestern Russia; co-editor of die Bibliothek Dos Leben, published at Odessa, 1904, and Kishineff, 1905. ... It Is Well
You ask how it is that I remained a Jew? Whose merit it is? Not through my own merits nor those of my ancestors. I was a six-year-old Cheder boy, my father a countryman outside Wilna, a householder in a small way. No, I remained a Jew thanks ... Jehalel
Pen name of Judah Loeb Lewin; born, 1845, in Minsk (Lithuania), White Russia; tutor; treasurer to the Brodski flour mills and their sugar refinery, at Tomaschpol, Podolia, later in Kieff; began to write in 1860; translator of Beaconsfield's Tancred ... Judah Steinberg
Born, 1863, in Lipkany, Bessarabia; died, 1907, in Odessa; education Hasidic; entered business in a small Roumanian village for a short time; teacher, from 1889 in Jedency and from 1896 in Leowo, Bessarabia; removed to Odessa, in 1905, to become c... Late
It was in sad and hopeless mood that Antosh watched the autumn making its way into his peasant's hut. The days began to shorten and the evenings to lengthen, and there was no more petroleum in the hut to fill his humble lamp; his wife complained t... Loeb Schapiro
Born, about 1880, in the Government of Kieff, Little Russia; came to Chicago in 1906, and to New York for a short time in 1907-1908; now (1912) in business in Switzerland; contributor to Die Zukunft, New York; collected works, Novellen, 1 vol., Wars... Lost His Voice
It was in the large synagogue in Klemenke. The week-day service had come to an end. The town cantor who sings all the prayers, even when he prays alone, and who is longer over them than other people, had already folded his prayer-scarf, and was hu... Manasseh
It was a stifling summer evening. I had just come home from work, taken off my coat, unbuttoned my waistcoat, and sat down panting by the window of my little room. There was a knock at the door, and without waiting for my reply, in came a woman... Meyer Blinkin
Born, 1879, in a village near Pereyaslav, Government of Poltava, Little Russia, of Hasidic parentage; educated in Kieff, where he acquired the trade of carpenter in order to win the right of residence; studied medicine; began to write in 1906; cam... Micha Joseph Berdyczewski
Born, 1865, in Berschad, Podolia, Southwestern Russia; educated in Yeshibah of Volozhin; studied also modern literatures in his youth; has been living alternately in Berlin and Breslau; Hebrew, Yiddish, and German writer, on philosophy, aesthetics... Military Service
"They look as if they'd enough of me!" So I think to myself, as I give a glance at my two great top-boots, my wide trousers, and my shabby green uniform, in which there is no whole part left. I take a bit of looking-glass out of my box, and l... Mordecai Spektor
Born, 1859, in Uman, Government of Kieff, Little Russia; education Hasidic; entered business in 1878; wrote first sketch, A Roman ohn Liebe, in 1882; contributor to Zedernbaum's Juedisches Volksblatt, 1884-1887; founded, in 1888, and edited Der Haus... Poverty
I was living in Mezkez at the time, and Seinwill Bookbinder lived there too. But Heaven only knows where he is now! Even then his continual pallor augured no long residence in Mezkez, and he was a Yadeschlever Jew with a wife and six small chil... Reb Shloimeh
The seventy-year-old Reb Shloimeh's son, whose home was in the country, sent his two boys to live with their grandfather and acquire town, that is, Gentile, learning. "Times have changed," considered Reb Shloimeh; "it can't be helped!" and he e... Reuben Asher Braudes
Born, 1851, in Wilna (Lithuania), White Russia; went to Roumania after the anti-Jewish riots of 1882, and published a Yiddish weekly, Yehudit, in the interest of Zionism; expelled from Roumania; published a Hebrew weekly, Ha-Zeman, in Cracow, in 189... S Libin
Pen name of Israel Hurewitz; born, 1872, in Gori-Gorki, Government of Mohileff (Lithuania), White Russia; assistant to a druggist at thirteen; went to London at twenty, and, after seven months there, to New York (1893); worked as capmaker; first s... Sabbath
Friday evening! The room has been tidied, the table laid. Two Sabbath loaves have been placed upon it, and covered with a red napkin. At the two ends are two metal candlesticks, and between them two more of earthenware, with candles in them rea... Shalom Asch
Born, 1881, in Kutno, Government of Warsaw, Russian Poland; Jewish education and Hasidic surroundings; began to write in 1900, earliest works being in Hebrew; Sippurim was published in 1903, and A Staedtel in 1904; wrote his first drama in 1905; d... Sholom-alechem
Pen name of Shalom Rabinovitz; born, 1859, in Pereyaslav, Government of Poltava, Little Russia; Government Rabbi, at twenty-one, in Lubni, near his native place; has spent the greater part of his life in Kieff; in Odessa from 1890 to 1893, and in ... Shut In
Lebele is a little boy ten years old, with pale cheeks, liquid, dreamy eyes, and black hair that falls in twisted ringlets, but, of course, the ringlets are only seen when his hat falls off, for Lebele is a pious little boy, who never uncovers his... Slack Times They Sleep
Despite the fact of the winter nights being long and dark as the Jewish exile, the Breklins go to bed at dusk. But you may as well know that when it is dusk outside in the street, the Breklins are already "way on" in the night, because they live... Tashrak
Pen name of Israel Joseph Zevin; born, 1872, in Gori-Gorki, Government of Mohileff (Lithuania), White Russia; came to New York in 1889; first Yiddish sketch published in Juedisches Tageblatt, 1893; first English story in The American Hebrew, 1906;... The Charitable Loan
The largest fair in Klemenke is "Ulas." The little town waits for Ulas with a beating heart and extravagant hopes. "Ulas," say the Klemenke shopkeepers and traders, "is a Heavenly blessing; were it not for Ulas, Klemenke would long ago have been '... The Clever Rabbi
A FOLK TALE The power of man's imagination, said my Grandmother, is very great. Hereby hangs a tale, which, to our sorrow, is a true one, and as clear as daylight. Listen attentively, my dear child, it will interest you very much. Not far from... The Clock
The clock struck thirteen! Don't imagine I am joking, I am telling you in all seriousness what happened in Mazepevke, in our house, and I myself was there at the time. We had a clock, a large clock, fastened to the wall, an old, old clock inh... The Hole In A Beigel
When I was a little Cheder-boy, my Rebbe, Bunem-Breine-Gite's, a learned man, who was always tormenting me with Talmudical questions and with riddles, once asked me, "What becomes of the hole in a Beigel, when one has eaten the Beigel?" This ri... The Kaddish
From behind the curtain came low moans, and low words of encouragement from the old and experienced Bobbe. In the room it was dismal to suffocation. The seven children, all girls, between twenty-three and four years old, sat quietly, each by herse... The Last Of Them
They had been Rabbonim for generations in the Misnagdic community of Mouravanke, old, poverty-stricken Mouravanke, crowned with hoary honor, hidden away in the thick woods. Generation on generation of them had been renowned far and near, wherever ... The Misfortune Or How The Rav Of Pumpian Tried To Solve A Social Problem
Pumpian is a little town in Lithuania, a Jewish town. It lies far away from the highway, among villages reached by the Polish Road. The inhabitants of Pumpian are poor people, who get a scanty living from the peasants that come into the town to ma... The Passover Guest
I "I have a Passover guest for you, Reb Yoneh, such a guest as you never had since you became a householder." "What sort is he?" "A real Oriental citron!" "What does that mean?" "It means a 'silken Jew,' a personage of distinction. Th... The Rav And The Rav's Son
The Sabbath midday meal is over, and the Saken Rav passes his hands across his serene and pious countenance, pulls out both earlocks, straightens his skull-cap, and prepares to expound a passage of the Torah as God shall enlighten him. There sit w... The Sinner
So that you should not suspect me of taking his part, I will write a short preface to my story. It is written: "A man never so much as moves his finger, but it has been so decreed from above," and whatsoever a man does, he fulfils God's will--e... The Treasure
To sleep, in summer time, in a room four yards square, together with a wife and eight children, is anything but a pleasure, even on a Friday night--and Shmerel the woodcutter rises from his bed, though only half through with the night, hot and gas... The Two Brothers
It is three months since Yainkele and Berele--two brothers, the first fourteen years old, the second sixteen--have been at the college that stands in the town of X--, five German miles from their birthplace Dalissovke, after which they are called ... Three Who Ate
Once upon a time three people ate. I recall the event as one recalls a dream. Black clouds obscure the men, because it happened long ago. Only sometimes it seems to me that there are no clouds, but a pillar of fire lighting up the men and their ... Whence A Proverb
"Drunk all the year round, sober at Purim," is a Jewish proverb, and people ought to know whence it comes. In the days of the famous scholar, Reb Chayyim Vital, there lived in Safed, in Palestine, a young man who (not of us be it spoken!) had no... Women A Prose Poem
Hedged round with tall, thick woods, as though designedly, so that no one should know what happens there, lies the long-drawn-out old town of Pereyaslav. To the right, connected with Pereyaslav by a wooden bridge, lies another bit of country, n...