How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish by Ilan Stavans

How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish by Ilan Stavans

Author:Ilan Stavans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: nonfiction;anthology;cartoons;yiddish;Jewish;New York;Isaac Bashevis Singer;Grace Paley;Cynthia Ozick;Chaim Grade;Michael Chabon;Abraham Cahan;Sophie Tucker;Blume Lempel;Irving Howe;Paula Vogel;Liana Finck;Der mentsh trakht un got lakht;Man plans and God laughs
Publisher: Restless Books
Published: 2020-01-15T10:46:53+00:00


When the first pains impinged on her consciousness, Sylvia opened her eyes and looked around in surprise, as if she had no idea what could be causing them.

It was the middle of the night. The house was pitch black. She rose from her bed. Barefoot, wearing only her nightgown, she went out into the street.

A low sky hung over the sea. The Milky Way parted the darkness in two. From time to time a star slipped and fell into the ocean. The sea accepted everything. In the same stoical manner as always, it continued to sing its intrinsic song, just as it had day in and day out, year in and year out, all through the ages.

Sylvia walked far out along the water’s edge toward the seawall where she and Danny had often sat. She liked to dabble her feet in the cool water and watch the sea crabs hurrying in and out of nooks and crannies.

Once she had picked up one of these crabs and laid it in Danny’s hand. Danny had played with the crab, had asked how many feet it had and what it looked like. Was it a male or a female?

“Hard to know,” Sylvia answered.

“Maybe it doesn’t know either,” Danny said. “Why should it? It’s only a pawn on the evolutionary chessboard. We are, too—toys in the hands of fortune, nature’s experiment with something new. I know, Sylvia, I can feel it, I can see what other people can’t. Look at this crab; it’s as blind as I am, but blindness tells it where to go. It never gets lost. It never has doubts. It knows what’s a dream and what’s reality.”

“What is reality?” Sylvia asked.

Danny didn’t answer right away. He took off his dark glasses and polished them with care. Only when they were perched on his nose once again did he reply with a flourish.

“You want to know what is real? Why do you need to? Do you think if you know you’ll be worth more than a crab? Well, you’re wrong.”

“A crab doesn’t have to pay for its sins,” Sylvia interrupted him. “A person does.”

Danny’s face reddened with anger. “What’s the matter with you? How do you think you’ve sinned? Anyway, there’s no such thing as sin. Only Man suffers from such a disease. When it comes time to pay, I’ll get in line ahead of you. And I’ll have some questions, too—if there’s anyone to ask.”

Now Sylvia ran to the seawall where they often sat. The pains resumed, sharper and more frequent than before. She ran along the white foam at the water’s edge and tried to scramble up onto the rock where she had once scratched her name. But her bare feet slipped and she stumbled and fell headfirst into the water. For a while she struggled against the morning tide. She tried to cry out, but the incoming water filled her mouth. A high wave rushed in. It lifted up her velvet-smooth body, battered it from side to side, threw it on its back and pulled it deeper into the sea.



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