Whence A Proverb
: MORDECAI SPEKTOR"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 not
been married a year before he became a widower. God's ways are not to be
understood. Such things will happen. But the young man was of the
opinion that the world
end; that, as there is one sun in heaven, so his wife had been the one
woman in the world. So he went and sold all the merchandise in his
little shop and all the furniture of his room, and gave the proceeds to
the head of the Safed Academy, the Rosh ha-Yeshiveh, on condition that
he should be taken into the Yeshiveh and fed with the other scholars,
and that he should have a room to himself, where he might sit and learn
Torah.
The Rosh ha-Yeshiveh took the money for the Academy, and they
partitioned off a little room for the young man with some boards, in a
corner of the attic of the house-of-study. They carried in a sack with
straw, and vessels for washing, and the young man sat himself down to
the Talmud. Except on Sabbaths and holidays, when the householders
invited him to dinner, he never set eyes on a living creature. Food
sufficient for the day, and a clean shirt in honor of Sabbaths and
festivals, were carried up to him by the beadle, and whenever he heard
steps on the stair, he used to turn away, and stand with his face to the
wall, till whoever it was had gone out again and shut the door.
In a word, he became a Porush, for he lived separate from the world.
At first people thought he wouldn't persevere long, because he was a
lively youth by nature; but as week after week went by, and the Porush
sat and studied, and the tearful voice in which he intoned the Gemoreh
was heard in the street half through the night, or else he was seen at
the attic window, his pale face raised towards the sky, then they began
to believe in him, and they hoped he might in time become a mighty man
in Israel, and perhaps even a wonderworker. They said so to the Rebbe,
Chayyim Vital, but he listened, shook his head, and replied, "God grant
it may last."
Meantime a little "wonder" really happened. The beadle's little
daughter, who used sometimes to carry up the Porush's food for her
father, took it into her head that she must have one look at the Porush.
What does she? Takes off her shoes and stockings, and carries the food
to him barefoot, so noiselessly that she heard her own heart beat. But
the beating of her heart frightened her so much that she fell down half
the stairs, and was laid up for more than a month in consequence. In her
fever she told the whole story, and people began to believe in the
Porush more firmly than ever and to wait with increasing impatience till
he should become famous.
They described the occurrence to Reb Chayyim Vital, and again he shook
his head, and even sighed, and answered, "God grant he may be
victorious!" And when they pressed him for an explanation of these
words, Reb Chayyim answered, that as the Porush had left the world, not
so much for the sake of Heaven as on account of his grief for his wife,
it was to be feared that he would be sorely beset and tempted by the
"Other Side," and God grant he might not stumble and fall.
* * * * *
And Reb Chayyim Vital never spoke without good reason!
One day the Porush was sitting deep in a book, when he heard something
tapping at the door, and fear came over him. But as the tapping went on,
he rose, forgetting to close his book, went and opened the door--and in
walks a turkey. He lets it in, for it occurs to him that it would be
nice to have a living thing in the room. The turkey walks past him, and
goes and settles down quietly in a corner. And the Porush wonders what
this may mean, and sits down again to his book. Sitting there, he
remembers that it is going on for Purim. Has someone sent him a turkey
out of regard for his study of the Torah? What shall he do with the
turkey? Should anyone, he reflects, ask him to dinner, supposing it were
to be a poor man, he would send him the turkey on the eve of Purim, and
then he would satisfy himself with it also. He has not once tasted
fowl-meat since he lost his wife. Thinking thus, he smacked his lips,
and his mouth watered. He threw a glance at the turkey, and saw it
looking at him in a friendly way, as though it had quite understood his
intention, and was very glad to think it should have the honor of being
eaten by a Porush. He could not restrain himself, but was continually
lifting his eyes from his book to look at the turkey, till at last he
began to fancy the turkey was smiling at him. This startled him a
little, but all the same it made him happy to be smiled at by a living
creature.
The same thing happened at Minchah and Maariv. In the middle of the
Eighteen Benedictions, he could not for the life of him help looking
round every minute at the turkey, who continued to smile and smile.
Suddenly it seemed to him, he knew that smile well--the Almighty, who
had taken back his wife, had now sent him her smile to comfort him in
his loneliness, and he began to love the turkey. He thought how much
better it would be, if a rich man were to invite him at Purim, so that
the turkey might live.
And he thought it in a propitious moment, as we shall presently see, but
meantime they brought him, as usual, a platter of groats with a piece of
bread, and he washed his hands, and prepared to eat.
No sooner, however, had he taken the bread into his hand, and was about
to bite into it, than the turkey moved out of its corner, and began
peck, peck, peck, towards the bread, by way of asking for some, and as
though to say it was hungry, too, and came and stood before him near the
table. The Porush thought, "He'd better have some, I don't want to be
unkind to him, to tease him," and he took the bread and the platter of
porridge, and set it down on the floor before the turkey, who pecked and
supped away to its heart's content.
Next day the Porush went over to the Rosh ha-Yeshiveh, and told him how
he had come to have a fellow-lodger; he used always to leave some
porridge over, and to-day he didn't seem to have had enough. The Rosh
ha-Yeshiveh saw a hungry face before him. He said he would tell this to
the Rebbe, Chayyim Vital, so that he might pray, and the evil spirit, if
such indeed it was, might depart. Meantime he would give orders for two
pieces of bread and two plates of porridge to be taken up to the attic,
so that there should be enough for both, the Porush and the turkey. Reb
Chayyim Vital, however, to whom the story was told in the name of the
Rosh ha-Yeshiveh, shook his head, and declared with a deep sigh that
this was only the beginning!
Meanwhile the Porush received a double portion and was satisfied, and
the turkey was satisfied, too. The turkey even grew fat. And in a couple
of weeks or so the Porush had become so much attached to the turkey that
he prayed every day to be invited for Purim by a rich man, so that he
might not be tempted to destroy it.
And, as we intimated, that temptation, anyhow, was spared him, for he
was invited to dinner by one of the principal householders in the place,
and there was not only turkey, but every kind of tasty dish, and wine
fit for a king. And the best Purim-players came to entertain the rich
man, his family, and the guests who had come to him after their feast at
home. And our Porush gave himself up to enjoyment, and ate and drank.
Perhaps he even drank rather more than he ate, for the wine was sweet
and grateful to the taste, and the warmth of it made its way into every
limb.
Then suddenly a change came over him.
The Ahasuerus-Esther play had begun. Vashti will not do the king's
pleasure and come in to the banquet as God made her. Esther soon finds
favor in her stead, she is given over to Hegai, the keeper of the women,
to be purified, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with other
sweet perfumes. And our Porush grew hot all over, and it was dark before
his eyes; then red streaks flew across his field of vision, like tongues
of fire, and he was overcome by a strange, wild longing to be back at
home, in the attic of the house-of-study--a longing for his own little
room, his quiet corner, a longing for the turkey, and he couldn't bear
it, and even before they had said grace he jumped up and ran away home.
He enters his room, looks into the corner habitually occupied by the
turkey, and stands amazed--the turkey has turned into a woman, a most
beautiful woman, such as the world never saw, and he begins to tremble
all over. And she comes up to him, and takes him around the neck with
her warm, white, naked arms, and the Porush trembles more and more, and
begs, "Not here, not here! It is a holy place, there are holy books
lying about." Then she whispers into his ear that she is the Queen of
Sheba, that she lives not far from the house-of-study, by the river,
among the tall reeds, in a palace of crystal, given her by King Solomon.
And she draws him along, she wants him to go with her to her palace.
And he hesitates and resists--and he goes.
Next day, there was no turkey, and no Porush, either!
They went to Reb Chayyim Vital, who told them to look for him along the
bank of the river, and they found him in a swamp among the tall reeds,
more dead than alive.
They rescued him and brought him round, but from that day he took to
drink.
And Reb Chayyim Vital said, it all came from his great longing for the
Queen of Sheba, that when he drank, he saw her; and they were to let him
drink, only not at Purim, because at that time she would have great
power over him.
Hence the proverb, "Drunk all the year round, sober at Purim."
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