The Passover Anthology by Philip Goodman

Author:Philip Goodman [Goodman, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8276-1390-4
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 2018-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Passover Celebrants*5

S. J. AGNON

There are many who have heard the tale of Reb Meche!, the beadle, and the wealthy Sarah Leah. At the same time there are as many who have not heard it; and for those who have not heard it, it is worth the telling.

This is the tale of Meche! the beadle. When Meche! the beadle left the House of Study on the first night of Passover, his mood was cheerful. Blest be The Name, said he to himself, that the eve of Passover is over and done with so that I too can rejoice this night like other folk. But when he had locked the doors and found himself proceeding homeward his good mood left him. He knew that he went to no royal feasting hall but to a tumbledown dwelling; that he would be sitting not on a fine handsome couch but on a torn cushion unmended of woman’s hand; and that he must trouble himself a deal to warm his food.

For at the time, Mechel the beadle was a widower; there was no woman in his home to prepare his table, make his bed or cook his meals. Truth to tell, many of the householders had wished to invite him to celebrate the Passover feast with them. Reb Mechel, they had said, tonight the whole world is rejoicing and all Israel feasts with their households, so why should you celebrate on your own? Be happy, Reb Mechel, that the demons have no power on this night; but even so there is a peril of sad-ness, which is as much prohibited on the Passover as leaven, the Merciful One deliver us. Yet Mechel refused all offers of hospitality, for he did not wish to burden another’s table at the festival.

The streets had emptied, and all the houses of the town shone with Passover light. The moon was bright and gracious, and a spring breeze blew. Mechel began to turn his mind away from himself and enjoy the wonders of the Creation, jingling the keys of the synagogue like a bell. But hearing the sound of the keys he grew sorrowful and began to remind himself bitterly how he was the beadle of the House of Study, toiling hard and doing all sorts of work; and how, when he had completed his work and returned home, he remained cramped and lonely between the walls, never even tasting cooked food; since if he put food on to warm he would be asleep before it was cooked. So he would stay his hunger with an onion roll or some bread and radish, or the potato a woman might bring to the House of Study so that he should pray for the souls of her near ones to rest in peace. But what you may do all the year round, and rest satisfied, you may not do on a festival when we are bidden to rejoice.

On the way home he noticed that one house had a win-dow open; looking again, he saw that it was a window in the house of Sarah Leah, the widow.

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