I. L. Peretz Reader by Ruth R. Wisse

Author:Ruth R. Wisse [Wisse, Ruth R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-4078-4
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2013-09-16T22:32:00+00:00

THE MAGICIAN

A magician once came to a town in Volhynia.

Although he arrived in the hectic days before Passover, when a Jew has more worries than hairs on his head, the newcomer made a great impression. Indeed, he was a walking mystery: he was dressed in rags but wore a creased yet still serviceable top hat, and while God had given him a clearly Jewish nose, his face was as clean-shaven as a Christian’s. He had no travel papers either, and was never observed to touch food, whether kosher or treyf. It was anyone’s guess who he was. If you asked him where he was coming from, his answer was “Paris,” and if you inquired where he was going, it was “London.” What was he doing in Volhynia? “I lost my way.” And from the looks of it, he had come on foot! Nor did he ever go to synagogue, not even on the Sabbath before the holiday. If a crowd gathered around him, he would suddenly vanish as if swallowed by the earth and reappear on the far side of the marketplace.

Meanwhile, he rented a hall and began to put on magic shows.

And what magic! Before everyone’s eyes he swallowed burning coals as though they were egg noodles and pulled colorful ribbons from his mouth: red ones, green ones, any color you wanted—and as long as the exile of the Jews! Once he even pulled sixteen pairs of turkeys from his boots. Turkeys? Each was as big as a bear! They were still running around the stage when he lifted his shoe and started scraping gold rubles from the sole, and the audience was still shouting “Bravo!” when he let out a whistle and fresh khallahs and rolls flew through the air as if on wings, danced in a circle on the floor, and stamped angrily on the ceiling. Another whistle, and it all disappeared into thin air. Rolls, khallahs, turkeys, everything—gone!

Of course, it was no secret that the devil and his helpers could do such tricks too. Didn’t the Bible say that Pharaoh’s sorcerers worked even greater wonders in Egypt? The real riddle was: why was such a talent such a pauper? The man scraped rubles off his shoes and couldn’t afford to pay for his hotel room! He whistled up more rolls and khallahs than a baker could bake, pulled turkeys out of his boots, and had a face so pinched that a corpse’s was better-looking! Hunger burned in his eyes like two bonfires. Instead of the Four Questions, the townspeople said, this year at the seder there would be five.

But before we get to the Four Questions, let’s leave the magician and have a look at Chaim-Yona and his wife, Rivke-Beyle. Chaim-Yona was once a lumber merchant—that is, until he bought “at a good price” the rights to a forest in which the government quickly barred all lumbering, leaving him completely ruined. For a while he worked as a forestry clerk, but eventually he lost this job too, and in the months before the magician’s arrival he had been unemployed.

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