Black Earth by Jens Mhling;

Author:Jens Mhling;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781909961616
Publisher: Chicago Distribution Center (CDC Presses)
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

The day before my departure from Uman I visited the lake again. Rosh Hashanah was over and the crowd had thinned. Only a few isolated Hasidim were praying on the banks. I sat down on a stone, took out my notebook and went through my notes.

Suddenly, I sensed that someone was looking at me. I raised my head. A short, fat Hasidic boy, ten, maybe twelve years old, was standing in front of me.

He stared at me and said something in Hebrew. First he twirled his sidelocks, then the threads of his prayer cloak between his fingers. Then he pointed at me questioningly.

Smiling, I pointed to my missing sidelocks and tallit, and shook my head.

Again he asked something in Hebrew, pointing with his index finger towards the lake. I assumed that he wanted to know if I came from Ukraine, and to avoid an unnecessarily complicated answer, I nodded.

He spat at my feet.

Before I could say anything, he ran away. After fifty metres, he turned and stared at me from a safe distance. He shouted something in Hebrew and tapped his forehead to indicate what he thought of me. I was too stunned to react.

It wasn’t until I noticed the cross behind him that I realised he hadn’t just been pointing generally at his surroundings when he’d spoken to me, but at the figure of Christ above the lake. He’d wanted to know if I was one of the lunatics who considered this bleeding impostor to be the Messiah.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.