The Book of Paradise by Itzik Manger

Author:Itzik Manger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Published: 2023-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

I stopped my recounting here. Day was breaking through the window. Across from me sat the rabbi. His white beard was quivering. His eyes were red from sleeplessness and astonishment.

“Will wonders never cease!” he said. “Our King David is quite the big-shot nobleman. And with such a fortune, no evil eye. May he always have such luck.”

The rabbi’s assistant was sitting speechless. His mouth hung so wide open that you could count all his teeth. He was unable to get a word out.

But the town magnate, Mr Michael Hurwitz, drummed his fingers on his belly, repeating the word “sonderbar” a good hundred times, if I’m not mistaken.

My mama smacked her hands together: “Oh it breaks a mother’s heart! It’s already daylight out there and my child hasn’t shut his eyes all night. A bunch of bullies you are, ganging up on a child!”

“I… I… What do you want from me, Zelda? Who’s ganging up on the child?”

My mama didn’t answer Pop. She merely gave him a look and he started trembling from head to toe. If he hadn’t stuck by the table, who knows what would have happened to him.

Mama took me by the hand. She nearly smothered me with kisses. “Come, my little kaddish, let’s go to sleep. It’s enough to break a mother’s heart!”

She laid me in the cradle and began to rock it. I was so tired, and the swaying of the cradle made me even more sleepy. A moment before I fell asleep, I sat up and told the honourable upstanding individuals not to come that evening since I was so very tired. I would, God willing, continue my stories of Paradise the following evening.

I lay back down in my cradle. I was still listening as the door creaked open and the upstanding individuals said their goodbyes to Pop. My eyelids grew heavy and I fell sound asleep.

In my dream, I relived the night on King David’s estate once more and saw my friend Little Pisser again and heard Louie the shepherd angel’s lovely songs. And in that same dream I recounted all the extraordinary experiences I had in Paradise to the rabbi, his assistant and the town magnate, Mr Michael Hurwitz.

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