The Orange Peel and Other Satires by S.Y. Agnon

Author:S.Y. Agnon [Agnon, S.Y.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Toby Press
Published: 2016-02-27T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

With Words of Jewish Law

My father said to me, “When you get to Pishevits, go see the rabbi and tell him from me that the new Torah interpretation that he told me about in Chortkov is actually attributed to Rabbi Yaakov Schorr, and it had already been formulated even earlier by the sage Rabbi Zalman Margolis. I am sure that the rabbi from Pishevits will be happy to learn that he was in agreement with important learned scholars. Do you want to hear, my son, or perhaps you are preoccupied with your trip and cannot pay attention to words of Torah? However, our sages bestowed good advice upon us when they said, ‘A person should only take leave of his fellow amidst a discussion of Jewish law.’ And I am telling you that there is deep meaning in this because a man is distracted from the perils of the journey by words of Torah and is thus not so anxious. So listen.”

My father then related the particular teaching found in the Jerusalem Talmud on which the Rabbi of Pishevits asked his purportedly insightful question. I wasn’t clever enough to suggest my own solution and said to father, “Truly this is an important question that the Pishevits rabbi posed. What is the answer?”

My father said to me, “You see, my son, you ask why but you don’t know how to resolve the problem, yet Rabbi Yankele Schorr at the age of fourteen could both pose difficult questions and provide answers, and here you are, praise God, a lad of eighteen years and you have to wait for others to come and render solutions. Are you familiar with Moshe Chaim? He used to say to his son Berish, ‘Berish my son, when Franz Joseph was your age he was already an emperor, and you, my son, what are you?’ But let’s get back to the issue at hand. You ask why Rabbi Hiyya didn’t go out and preach immediately. I remember when you used to ask harder questions than that within mere seconds. When I’m reminded of the new meaning you thought up regarding what Rabbi Samuel said, ‘If they would bring me mushrooms, or a pigeon to Abba, would we not go on eating?’ I derive so much pleasure and regret – pleasure that you came up with such an important new interpretation, and regret that you’ve separated yourself from the Torah. So do you wish to hear the solution?”

After father had lectured me about these things he said to me, “And what do you say about this solution, my son?” I said to him, “It sounds acceptable.” He said to me, “The solution is a solution. However, the question is not a question.” I said to him, “What do you mean the question is not a question?” He said, “I reviewed the entire Jerusalem Talmud and could not find any reference to this matter, and so it was for naught that all the sages deliberated to find a solution.”

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