Festival Stories of Child Life in a Jewish Colony in Palestine. by Hannah Trager

Author:Hannah Trager [Trager, Hannah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138604292
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2018-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

While the clothes were drying and Chaim stood naked, the people gathered round him and asked how he managed to fall in.

Chaim said: "Dan pushed me in."

"It's a lie!" said Dan; "I never pushed him in. He may have slipped in, unknowingly, for Chaim was imitating the Chassidim, bending and shaking backwards and forwards, when saying his prayers, and he must have forgotten that he was so near the steep bank of the river, and, when bending a little too far forward must have slipped."

"No! no! again cried Chaim; Dan pushed me in," and, whimpering, added: "No one ever believes me; for the boys always make me out a liar, because they do not like me."

Abraham had a very kind heart and did not want the joy of the New Year to be spoilt by any ill-feeling, so he said: "Hear me, boys! I know who did it! Oh! how I wish it had been done to me!"

"Who? who?" all exclaimed. "Tell us! tell us!" they shouted.

His teacher, hearing what Abraham had said, came nearer and smilingly said: "Tell us, thou wise son of Israel!"

"Why! of course it was Chaim's good Angel that did it!" said Abraham. "Chaim is always doing wrong, he says, without knowing! His Angel knew we often call him a dullard, and we blame and pay him out for the wrong he does, even though he does do it in ignorance. So when Chaim came to be judged for his last year's sins, his good Angel pitied him and asked God to deal with him mercifully. For is it not written in Isaiah i.: 'Wash you, make you clean . . . though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.' Well, the Angel knew that Chaim was—like the hypocrite—not thinking as much about the prayers he was saying as of copying the Chassidim, so he pushed him into the river; and, as he had on his scarlet tunic, you see he went in as scarlet as his sins, and now he is white like snow! And this proves that all his sins have been forgiven him!"

While Abraham was speaking, Chaim began to feel quite pleased, for he felt he was really becoming a hero. Nothing else could have given him so much pleasure, for all his life long he had been snubbed for one thing or another and constantly called a dunce or a dullard. Even the boys who heard Abraham's idea believed for a minute that Chaim had been rewarded for never intentionally doing wrong, and that his had been a special sign of God's favour.

The next minute, however, they saw a twinkle in Abraham's eyes, for he had seen his teacher smiling at him as if he knew his intention of wanting to be kind to Chaim on New Year's Day. Then they all understood, and a giggle went round, and then there was a silence for a time. Then the teacher took advantage of it and said: "Come,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.