A Journey to the End of the Millennium by A.B. Yehoshua

Author:A.B. Yehoshua [A. B. Yehoshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781905559503
Publisher: Halban
Published: 2012-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

5.

While Abulafia was bowing excitedly to his uncle, the same unseen hand that was gently wiping away the painful rift in his soul was transferring it slowly to that of Ben Attar. Although he knew well that the rabbi’s astounding suggestion was connected to an irresistible temptation to repeat the wonderful speech he had made to the court of the wine casks before the sages in the blue-eyed woman’s native town, Ben Attar also understood well that the rabbi was trying to open up a new avenue, so as to avoid a renewed breach between him and Abulafia that was liable to frustrate the whole purpose of their epic voyage. But he shot an anxious glance at his two wives, who were sitting at the other end of the table, their faces beaming with joy at the sight of all the empty dishes, still not suspecting what the little rabbi was cooking up for them. Again, as when a storm whips up the sea, his heart was anxious for his two wives, who would have to journey even farther. Even if he did not fear, like his nephew, that a rebellion might break out in his household, he did fear that the sorrow of homesickness might age them all.

Thus he turned cautiously to Master Levitas and questioned him about the road to the Rhine, the river where he and his sister had been born and bred. And Master Levitas, who had been sitting contentedly stroking his little beard and sniffing the smell of the Moroccan meal clinging to his fingers while trying to discern what was taking place in his guts, was very careful not to let slip a single ill-considered word of discouragement, for although he saw the suggestion of a contest with the sages of Ashkenaz as a dangerous gamble, he also knew that this was the only way of ridding himself of these swarthy visitors, whose presence in his home was becoming more rooted by the hour, and of giving himself a lull, however temporary, from the feverish complications of his sister’s marriage, which he realized now he had been only too right to warn her against.

Thus Master Levitas attempted to depict the route from Francia to Lotharingia, from Paris to Worms, in clear, gentle colors, according to his memories from long ago. Although Ben Attar was disappointed at first to discover that the Creator had not managed in the six days of the creation to link the Seine to the Rhine, so that Abd el-Shafi could be asked to hoist the triangular sail and simply sail the ship to Mistress Esther-Minna’s childhood home, Master Levitas’s reassuring descriptions of villages and small towns on the way led him to hope and believe that this additional journey by land would not put to shame the voyage that had preceded it. Excitedly he heard about the small town of Meaux, which led to the town of Chalons, and about the River Marne, and the Meuse, where Verdun could be

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