Scum by Bashevis Singer Isaac

Author:Bashevis Singer, Isaac
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Goodreads Press
Published: 2023-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

After Max had taken Tsirele home, he vowed he now had only one aim, to free himself from Rochelle and marry Tsirele. He made up his mind not to go to Reyzl Kork anymore and not to meet redheaded Basha on the Sabbath. He had kissed Tsirele in the booth at the restaurant and told her a little about himself, as much as he could. Tsirele spoke of her ideals, confessing that she was not devout even though she was steeped in Jewish observance. She had even read a pamphlet about Darwin, heard a lecturer say that Moses had not performed any miracles on Mount Sinai, and knew who Karl Marx, Kropotkin, and Kautsky were. However, she would never cat pork or light a fire on the Sabbath, not because she believed that God has forbidden it, but out of habit and respect for her parents. Tsirele had her own plans. After the wedding she didn't want to remain living with her parents or even near them. She had no intention of shaving or cutting her hair, wearing a wig, or going to the ritual bathhouse. Tsirele believed in socialism. The revolution would bring an end to exploitation, fanaticism, and war. If she were to have children, she would bring them up in modern fashion, send them to school, make them into useful people, not bench-sitters and parasites. Tsirele said she didn't want to remain in Russia unless there was a new order and the people were given true freedom. What would Max think of moving to Berlin, Paris, or even to London?

"Wherever you want, my dearest," Max replied, "there we will live. Even on the moon . . . " a n d he kissed her on the forehead, neck, and mouth. One thing he couldn't prevail upon her to do was to go back with him to his hotel.

"You yourself would lose your derekh erets for me," she said.

Max hadn't heard that word for respect in a long time. Living abroad, he had forgotten what it meant. It reminded him of Roszkow, zeyde-bobe and his teacher Fishele. Despite all her enlightenment, Tsirele's speech had something in it of her father the rabbi. Her words about revolution, the masses, and the proletariat were interspersed with verses from the Pentateuch. She even sang a song to him from the Yiddish theater which ended: "Throw away your aristocratic lineage and be a human being."

In the Lazienki Garden Max had found a restaurant where he ordered potatoes with sour milk. Tsirele wouldn't eat the potatoes because they were cooked in a non-kosher pot, but she drank the coffee and nibbled on a cookie. The two hours passed with extraordinary rapidity. On the way home, the gumka, a droshky with rubber wheels, stopped by a store that sold chocolates and Max bought Tsirele a box of candy. He wanted to give her a ten-ruble note but Tsirele wouldn't take it.

"With God's help, after the wedding," she said. Max shuddered. This young girl loved him, was ready to become his wife.

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