There was a storm in Sudminster, not on the waters which washed its leading Jews their living, but in the breasts of these same marine storekeepers. For a competitor had appeared in their hive of industry—an alien immigrant, without roots or even relatives at Sudminster. And Simeon Samuels was equipped not only with capital and enterprise—the showy plate-glass front of his shop revealed an enticing miscellany—but with blasphemy and bravado. For he did not close on Friday eve, and he opened on Saturday morning as usual.
The rumour did not get round all Sudminster the first Friday night, but by the Sabbath morning the synagogue hummed with it. It set a clammy horror in the breasts of the congregants, distracted their prayers, gave an unreal tone to the cantor's roulades, brought a tremor of insecurity into the very foundations of their universe. For nearly three generations a congregation had been established in Sudminster—like every Jewish congregation, a camp in not friendly country—struggling at every sacrifice to keep the Holy Day despite the supplementary burden of Sunday closing, and the God of their fathers had not leftunperformed His part of the contract. For 'the harvests' of profit were abundant, and if 'the latter and the former rain' of their unchanging supplication were mere dried metaphors to a people divorced from Palestine and the soil for eighteen centuries, the wine and the oil came in casks, and the corn in cakes. The poor were few and well provided for; even the mortgage on the synagogue was paid off. And now this Epicurean was come to trouble the snug security, to break the long chain of Sabbath observance which stretched from Sinai. What wonder if some of the worshippers, especially such as had passed his blatant shop-window on their return from synagogue on Friday evening, were literally surprised that the earth had not opened beneath him as it had opened beneath Korah.
'Even the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath was stoned to death,' whispered the squat Solomon Barzinsky to the lanky Ephraim Mendel, marine-dealers both.
'Alas! that would not be permitted in this heathen country,' sighed Ephraim Mendel, hitching his praying-shawl more over his left shoulder. 'But at least his windows should be stoned.'
Solomon Barzinsky smiled, with a gleeful imagining of the shattering of the shameless plate-glass. 'Yes, and that wax-dummy of a sailor should be hung as an atonement for his—Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.' The last phrase Solomon suddenly shouted in Hebrew, in antiphonal response to the cantor, and he rose three times on his toes, bowing his head piously. 'No wonder he can offer gold lace for the price of silver,' he concluded bitterly.
'He sells shoddy new reach-me-downs as pawned old clo,' complained Lazarus Levy, who had taken over S. Cohn's business, together with his daughter Deborah, 'and he charges the Sudminster donkey-heads more than the price we ask for 'em as new.'
Talk of the devil——! At this point Simeon Samuels stalked into the synagogue, late but serene.
Had the real horned Asmodeus walked in, the agitation could not have been greater. The first appearance in synagogue of a new settler was an event in itself; but that this Sabbath-breaker should appear at all was startling to a primitive community. Escorted by the obsequious and unruffled beadle to the seat he seemed already to have engaged—that high-priced seat facing the presidential pew that had remained vacant since the death of Tevele the pawnbroker—Simeon Samuels wrapped himself reverently in his praying-shawl, and became absorbed in the service. His glossy high hat bespoke an immaculate orthodoxy, his long black beard had a Rabbinic religiousness, his devotion was a rebuke to his gossiping neighbours.
A wave of uneasiness passed over the synagogue. Had he been the victim of a jealous libel? Even those whose own eyes had seen him behind his counter when he should have been consecrating the Sabbath-wine at his supper-table, wondered if they had been the dupe of some hallucination.
When, in accordance with hospitable etiquette, the new-comer was summoned canorously to the reading of the Law—'Shall stand Simeon, the son of Nehemiah'—and he arose and solemnly mounted the central platform, his familiarity with the due obeisances and osculations and benedictions seemed a withering replyto the libel. When he descended, and theParnassproffered his presidential hand in pious congratulation upon the holy privilege, all the congregants who found themselves upon his line of return shot forth their arms with remorseful eagerness, and thus was Simeon Samuels switched on to the brotherhood of Sudminsterian Israel. Yet as his now trusting co-religionists passed his shop on their homeward walk—and many a pair of legs went considerably out of its way to do so—their eyes became again saucers of horror and amaze. The broad plate-glass glittered nakedly, unveiled by a single shutter; the waxen dummy of the sailor hitched devil-may-care breeches; the gold lace, ticketed with layers of erased figures, boasted brazenly of its cheapness; the procession of customers came and went, and the pavement, splashed with sunshine, remained imperturbably, perturbingly acquiescent.
On the Sunday night Solomon Barzinsky and Ephraim Mendel in pious black velvet caps, and their stout spouses in gold chains and diamond earrings, found themselves playing solo whist in theParnass'sparlour, and their religious grievance weighed upon the game. TheParnass, though at heart as outraged as they by the new departure, felt it always incumbent upon him to display his presidential impartiality and his dry humour. His authority, mainly based on his being the only retired shopkeeper in the community, was greatly strengthened by his slow mannerof taking snuff at a crisis. 'My dear Mendel,' observed the wizened senior, flicking away the spilth with a blue handkerchief, 'Simeon Samuels has already paid his annual subscription—and you haven't!'
'My money is good,' Mendel replied, reddening.
'No wonder he can pay so quickly!' said Solomon Barzinsky, shuffling the cards savagely.
'How he makes his money is not the question,' said theParnassweightily. 'He has paid it, and therefore if I were to expel him, as you suggest, he might go to Law.'
'Law!' retorted Solomon. 'Can't we prove he has broken the Law of Moses?'
'And suppose?' said theParnass, picking up his cards placidly. 'Do we want to wash our dirtyTalysim(praying-shawls) in public?'
'He is right, Solomon,' said Mrs. Barzinsky. 'We should become a laughing-stock among the heathen.'
'I don't believe he'd drag us to the Christian courts,' the little man persisted. 'I pass.'
The rubber continued cheerlessly. 'A man who keeps his shop open on Sabbath is capable of anything,' said the lanky Mendel, gloomily sweeping in his winnings.
TheParnasstook snuff judicially. 'Besides, he may have a Christian partner who keeps all the Saturday profits,' he suggested.
'That would be just as forbidden,' said Barzinsky, as he dealt the cards.
'But your cousin David,' his wife reminded him, 'sells his groceries to a Christian at Passover.'
'That is permitted. It would not be reasonable todestroy hundreds of pounds of leaven. But Sabbath partnerships are not permitted.'
'Perhaps the question has never been raised,' said theParnass.
'I am enough of aLamdan(pundit) to answer it,' retorted Barzinsky.
'I prefer going to a specialist,' rejoined theParnass.
Barzinsky threw down his cards. 'You can go to the devil!' he cried.
'For shame, Solomon!' said his wife. 'Don't disturb the game.'
'To Gehenna with the game! The shame is on aParnassto talk like anEpikouros(Epicurean).'
TheParnassblew his nose elaborately. 'It stands in the Talmud: "For vain swearing noxious beasts came into the world." And if——'
'It stands in the Psalmist,' Barzinsky interrupted: '"The Law of Thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver."'
'It stands in the Perek,' theParnassrejoined severely, 'that the wise man does not break in upon the speech of his fellow.'
'It stands in the Shulchan Aruch,' Barzinsky shrieked, 'that for the sanctification of the Sabbath——'
'It stands in the Talmud,' interposed Mendel, with unwonted animation in his long figure, 'that one must not even offer a nut to allure customers. From light to heavy, therefore, it may be deduced that——'
A still small voice broke in upon the storm. 'But Simeon Samuels hasn't a Christian partner,' said Mrs. Mendel.
There was an embarrassed pause.
'He has only his wife to help him,' she went on. 'I know, because I went to the shop Friday morning on pretence of asking for a cuckoo-clock.'
'But a marine-dealer doesn't sell clocks,' put in theParnass'swife timidly. It was her first contribution to the conversation, for she was overpowered by her husband's greatness.
'Don't be silly, Hannah!' said theParnass. 'That was just why Mrs. Mendel asked for it.'
'Yes, but unfortunately Simeon Samuels did have one,' Mrs. Mendel confessed; 'and I couldn't get out of buying it.'
There was a general laugh.
'Cut-throat competition, I call it,' snarled Solomon Barzinsky, recovering from his merriment.
'Butyoudon't sell clocks,' said theParnass.
'That's just it; he gets hold of our customers on pretence of selling them something else. The Talmudical prohibition cited by Mendel applies to that too.'
'So I wasn't so silly,' put in theParnass'swife, feeling vaguely vindicated.
'Well, you saw his wife,' said theParnassto Mendel's wife, disregarding his own. 'More than I've done, for she wasn't in synagogue. Perhapssheis the Christian partner.' His suggestion brought a new and holier horror over the card-table.
'No, no,' replied Mrs. Mendel reassuringly. 'I caught sight of her frying fish in the kitchen.'
This proof of her Jewishness passed unquestioned, and the new-born horror subsided.
'But in spite of the fish,' said Mr. Mendel, 'she served in the shop while he was at synagogue.'
'Yes,' hissed Barzinsky; 'and in spite of thesynagogueheserved in the shop. A greater mockery was never known!'
'Not at all, not at all,' said theParnassjudicially. 'If a man breaks one commandment, that's no reason he should break two.'
'But he does break two,' Solomon thundered, smiting the green cloth with his fist; 'for he steals my custom by opening when I'm closed.'
'Take care—you will break my plates,' said theParnass. 'Take a sandwich.'
'Thank you—you've taken away my appetite.'
'I'm sorry—but the sandwiches would have done the same. I really can't expel a respectable seat-holder before I know that he is truly a sinner in Israel. As it is written, "Thou shalt inquire and make search and ask diligently." He may have only opened this once by way of a send-off. Every dog is allowed one bite.'
'At that rate, it would be permitted to eat a ham-sandwich—just for once,' said Solomon scathingly.
'Don't sayIcalled you a dog,' theParnasslaughed.
'A mezaire!' announced the hostess hurriedly. 'After all, it's the Almighty's business, not ours.'
'No, it's our business,' Solomon insisted.
'Yes,' agreed theParnassdrily; 'itisyour business.'
The week went by, with no lull in the storm, though the plate-glass window was unshaken by the gusts. It maintained its flaunting seductiveness, assisted, people observed, by Simeon Samuels' habit oflounging at his shop-door and sucking in the hesitating spectator. And it did not shutter itself on the Sabbath that succeeded.
The horror was tinged with consternation. The strange apathy of the pavement and the sky, the remissness of the volcanic fires and the celestial thunderbolts in face of this staring profanity, lent the cosmos an air almost of accessory after the fact. Never had the congregation seen Heaven so openly defied, and the consequences did not at all correspond with their deep if undefined forebodings. It is true a horse and carriage dashed into Peleg, the pawnbroker's, window down the street, frightened, Peleg maintained, by the oilskins fluttering outside Simeon Samuels' shop; but as the suffering was entirely limited to the nerves of Mrs. Peleg, who was pious, and to the innocent nose of the horse, this catastrophe was not quite what was expected. Solomon Barzinsky made himself the spokesman of the general dissatisfaction, and his remarks to the minister after the Sabbath service almost insinuated that the reverend gentleman had connived at a breach of contract.
The Rev. Elkan Gabriel quoted Scripture. 'The Lord is merciful and long-suffering, and will not at once awaken all His wrath.'
'But meantime the sinner makes a pretty penny!' quoth Solomon, unappeased. 'Saturday is pay-day, and the heathen haven't patience to wait till the three stars are out and our shops can open. It is your duty, Mr. Gabriel, to put a stop to this profanation.'
The minister hummed and ha'd. He was middle-aged, and shabby, with a German diploma and accent and a large family. It was the first time in his five yearsof office that one of his congregants had suggested such authoritativeness on his part. Elected by their vote, he was treated as their servant, his duties rigidly prescribed, his religious ideas curbed and corrected by theirs. What wonder if he could not suddenly rise to dictatorship? Even at home Mrs. Gabriel was a congregation in herself. But as the week went by he found Barzinsky was not the only man to egg him on to prophetic denunciation; the congregation at large treated him as responsible for the scandal, and if the seven marine-dealers were the bitterest, the pawnbrokers and the linen-drapers were none the less outraged.
'It is a profanation of the Name,' they said unanimously, 'and such a bad example to our poor!'
'He would not listen to me,' the poor minister would protest. 'You had much better talk to him yourself.'
'Me!' the button-holer would ejaculate. 'I would not lower myself. He'd think I was jealous of his success.'
Simeon Samuels seemed, indeed, a formidable person to tackle. Bland and aloof, he pursued his own affairs, meeting the congregation only in synagogue, and then more bland and aloof than ever.
At last the Minister received a presidential command to preach upon the subject forthwith.
'But there's no text suitable just yet,' he pleaded. 'We are still in Genesis.'
'Bah!' replied theParnassimpatiently, 'any text can be twisted to point any moral. You must preach next Sabbath.'
'But we are reading theSedrah(weekly portion)about Joseph. How are you going to work Sabbath-keeping into that?'
'It is not my profession. I am a mere man-of-the-earth. But what's the use of a preacher if he can't make any text mean something else?'
'Well, of course, every text usually does,' said the preacher defensively. 'There is the hidden meaning and the plain meaning. But Joseph is merely historical narrative. The Sabbath, although mentioned in Genesis, chapter two, wasn't even formally ordained yet.'
'And what about Potiphar's wife?'
'That's the Seventh Commandment, not the Fourth.'
'Thank you for the information. Do you mean to say you can't jump from one Commandment to another?'
'Oh, well——' The minister meditated.
'And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured. And it came to pass that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph....'
The congregation looked startled. Really this was not a text which they wished their pastor to enlarge upon. There were things in the Bible that should be left in the obscurity of the Hebrew, especially when one's womenkind were within earshot. Uneasily their eyes lifted towards the bonnets behind the balcony-grating.
'But Joseph refused.'
Solomon Barzinsky coughed. Peleg the pawnbroker blew his nose like a protesting trumpet. The congregation's eyes returned from the balcony and converged upon theParnass. He was taking snuff as usual.
'My brethren,' began the preacher impressively, 'temptation comes to us all——'
A sniff of indignant repudiation proceeded from many nostrils. A blush overspread many cheeks.
'But not always in the shape it came to Joseph. In this congregation, where, by the blessing of the Almighty, we are free from almost every form of wrong-doing, there is yet one temptation which has power to touch us—the temptation of unholy profit, the seduction of Sabbath-breaking.'
A great sigh of dual relief went up to the balcony, and Simeon Samuels became now the focus of every eye. His face was turned towards the preacher, wearing its wonted synagogue expression of reverential dignity.
'Oh, my brethren, that it could always be said of us: "And Joseph refused"!'
A genial warmth came back to every breast. Ah, now the cosmos was righting itself; Heaven was speaking through the mouth of its minister.
The Rev. Elkan Gabriel expanded under this warmth which radiated back to him. His stature grew, his eloquence poured forth, polysyllabic. As he ended, the congregation burst into a heartfelt 'Yosher Koach' ('May thy strength increase!').
The minister descended the Ark-steps, and stalked back solemnly to his seat. As he passed SimeonSamuels, that gentleman whipped out his hand and grasped the man of God's, and his neighbours testified that there was a look of contrite exaltation upon his goodly features.
The Sabbath came round again, but, alas! it brought no balm to the congregation; rather, was it a day of unrest. The plate-glass window still flashed in iniquitous effrontery; still the ungodly proprietor allured the stream of custom.
'He does not even refuse to take money,' Solomon Barzinsky exclaimed to Peleg the pawnbroker, as they passed the blasphemous window on their way from the Friday-evening service.
'Why, what would be the good of keeping open if you didn't take money?' naïvely inquired Peleg.
'Behemah(animal)!' replied Solomon impatiently. 'Don't you know it's forbidden to touch money on the Sabbath?'
'Of course, I know that. But if you open your shop——!'
'All the same, you might compromise. You might give the customers the things they need, as it is written, "Open thy hand to the needy!" but they could pay on Saturday night.'
'And if they didn't pay? If they drank their money away?' said the pawnbroker.
'True, but why couldn't they pay in advance?'
'How in advance?'
'They could deposit a sum of money with you, and draw against it.'
'Not with me!' Peleg made a grimace. 'All very well for your line, but in mine I should have to deposit a sum of money withthem. I don't suppose they'd bring their pledges on Friday night, and wait till Saturday night for the money. Besides, how could one remember? One would have to profane the Sabbath by writing!'
'Write! Heaven forbid!' ejaculated Solomon Barzinsky. 'But you could have a system of marking the amounts against their names in your register. A pin could be stuck in to represent a pound, or a stamp stuck on to indicate a crown. There are lots of ways. One could always give one's self a device,' he concluded in Yiddish.
'But it is written in Job, "He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise." Have a little of Job's patience, and trust the Lord to confound the sinner. We shall yet see Simeon Samuels in the Bankruptcy Court.'
'I hope not, the rogue! I'd like to see him ruined!'
'That's what I mean. Leave him to the Lord.'
'The Lord is too long-suffering,' said Solomon. 'Ah, ourParnasshas caught us up. GoodShabbos(Sabbath),Parnass. This is a fine scandal for a God-fearing congregation. I congratulate you.'
'Is he open again?' gasped theParnass, hurled from his judicial calm.
'Is my eye open?' witheringly retorted Barzinsky. 'A fat lot of good your preacher does.'
'It was you who would elect him instead ofRochinsky,' theParnassreminded him. Barzinsky was taken aback.
'Well, we don't want foreigners, do we?' he murmured.
'And you caught an Englishman in Simeon Samuels,' chuckled theParnass, in whose breast the defeat of his candidate had never ceased to rankle.
'Not he. An Englishman plays fair,' retorted Barzinsky. He seriously considered himself a Briton, regarding his naturalization papers as retrospective. 'We are just passing the Reverend Gabriel's house,' he went on. 'Let us wait a moment; he'll come along, and we'll give him a piece of our minds.'
'I can't keep my family waiting forKiddush'(home service), said Peleg.
'Come home, father; I'm hungry,' put in Peleg junior, who with various Barzinsky boys had been trailing in the parental wake.
'Silence, impudent face!' snapped Barzinsky. 'If I was your father—— Ah, here comes the minister. GoodShabbos(Sabbath), Mr. Gabriel. I congratulate you on the effect of your last sermon.'
An exultant light leapt into the minister's eye. 'Is he shut?'
'Is your mouth shut?' Solomon replied scathingly. 'I doubt if he'll even come toShool(synagogue) to-morrow.'
The ministerial mouth remained open in a fishy gasp, but no words came from it.
'I'm afraid you'll have to use stronger language, Mr. Gabriel,' said theParnasssoothingly.
'But if he is not there to hear it.'
'Oh, don't listen to Barzinsky. He'll be there right enough. Just give it to him hot!'
'Your sermon was too general,' added Peleg, who had lingered, though his son had not. 'You might have meant any of us.'
'But we must not shame our brother in public,' urged the minister. 'It is written in the Talmud that he who does so has no share in the world to come.'
'Well, you shamed us all,' retorted Barzinsky. 'A stranger would imagine we were a congregation of Sabbath-breakers.'
'But there wasn't any stranger,' said the minister.
'There was Simeon Samuels,' theParnassreminded him. 'Perhaps your sermon against Sabbath-breaking made him fancy he was just one of a crowd, and that you have therefore only hardened him——'
'But you told me to preach against Sabbath-breaking,' said the poor minister.
'Against the Sabbath-breaker,' corrected theParnass.
'You didn't single him out,' added Barzinsky; 'you didn't even make it clear that Joseph wasn't myself.'
'I said Joseph was a goodly person and well-favoured,' retorted the goaded minister.
TheParnasstook snuff, and his sneeze sounded like a guffaw.
'Well, well,' he said more kindly, 'you must try again to-morrow.'
'I didn't undertake to preach every Saturday,' grumbled the minister, growing bolder.
'As long as Simeon Samuels keeps open, you can't shut,' said Solomon angrily.
'It's a duel between you,' added Peleg.
'And Simeon actually comes into to-morrow'sSedrah' (portion), Barzinsky remembered exultantly.'"And took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes." There's your very text. You'll pick out Simeon from among us, and bind him to keep the Sabbath.'
'Or you can say Satan has taken Simeon and bound him,' added theParnass. 'You have a choice—yourself or Satan.'
'Perhaps you had better preach yourself, then,' said the minister sullenly. 'I still can't see what that text has to do with Sabbath-breaking.'
'It has as much to do with Sabbath-breaking as Potiphar's wife,' shrieked Solomon Barzinsky.
'"And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin."'
As the word 'Simeon' came hissing from the preacher's lips, a veritable thrill passed through the synagogue. Even Simeon Samuels seemed shaken, for he readjusted his praying-shawl with a nervous movement.
'My brethren, these words of Israel, the great forefather of our tribes, are still ringing in our ears. To-day more than ever is Israel crying. Joseph is not—our Holy Land is lost. Simeon is not—our Holy Temple is razed to the ground. One thing only is left us—one blessing with which the almighty father has blessed us—our Holy Sabbath. And ye will take Benjamin.' The pathos of his accents melted every heart. Tearsrolled down many a feminine cheek. Simeon Samuels was seen to blow his nose softly.
Thus successfully launched, the Rev. Elkan Gabriel proceeded to draw a tender picture of the love between Israel and his Benjamin, Sabbath—the one consolation of his exile, and he skilfully worked in the subsequent verse: 'If mischief befall him by the way on which ye go, then shall ye bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.' Yes, it would be the destruction of Israel, he urged, if the Sabbath decayed. Woe to those sons of Israel who dared to endanger Benjamin. 'From Reuben andSimeondown to Gad and Asher, his life shall be required at their hands.' Oh, it was a red-hot-cannon-ball-firing sermon, and Solomon Barzinsky could not resist leaning across and whispering to theParnass: 'Wasn't I right in refusing to vote for Rochinsky?' This reminder of his candidate's defeat was wormwood to theParnass, spoiling all his satisfaction in the sermon. He rebuked the talker with a noisy 'Shaa' (silence).
The congregation shrank delicately from looking at the sinner; it would be too painful to watch his wriggles. His neighbours stared pointedly every other way. Thus, the only record of his deportment under fire came from Yankele, the poor glazier's boy, who said that he kept looking from face to face, as if to mark the effect on the congregation, stroking his beard placidly the while. But as to his behaviour after the guns were still, there was no dubiety, for everybody saw him approach theParnassin the exodus from synagogue, and many heard him say in hearty accents: 'I really must congratulate you, Mr. President, on your selection of your minister.'
'You touched his heart so,' shrieked Solomon Barzinsky an hour later to the Reverend Elkan Gabriel, 'that he went straight fromShool(synagogue) to his shop.' Solomon had rushed out the first thing after breakfast, risking the digestion of his Sabbath fish, to call upon the unsuccessful minister.
'That is not my fault,' said the preacher, crestfallen.
'Yes, it is—if you had only stuck tomytext. But no! You must set yourself up over all our heads.'
'You told me to get in Simeon, and I obeyed.'
'Yes, you got him in. But what did you call him? The Holy Temple! A fine thing, upon my soul!'
'It was only an—an—analogy,' stammered the poor minister.
'An apology! Oh, so you apologized to him, too! Better and better.'
'No, no, I mean a comparison.'
'A comparison! You never compared me to the Holy Temple. And I'm Solomon—Solomon who built it.'
'Solomon was wise,' murmured the minister.
'Oh, and I'm silly. If I were you, Mr. Gabriel, I'd remember my place and who I owed it to. But for me, Rochinsky would have stood in your shoes——'
'Rochinsky is lucky.'
'Oh, indeed! So this is your gratitude. Very well. Either Simeon Samuels shuts up shop or you do. That's final. Don't forget you were only elected for three years.' And the little man flung out.
TheParnass, meeting his minister later in the street, took a similar view.
'You really must preach again next Sabbath,' he said. 'The congregation is terribly wrought up. There may even be a riot. If Simeon Samuels keeps open next Sabbath, I can't answer that they won't go and break his windows.'
'Thentheywill break the Sabbath.'
'Oh, they may wait till the Sabbath is out.'
'They'll be too busy opening their own shops.'
'Don't argue. Youmustpreach his shop shut.'
'Very well,' said the Reverend Gabriel sullenly.
'That's right. A man with a family must rise to great occasions. Do you think I'd be where I am now if I hadn't had the courage to buy a bankrupt stock that I didn't see my way to paying for? It's a fight between you and Simeon Samuels.'
'May his name be blotted out!' impatiently cried the minister in the Hebrew imprecation.
'No, no,' replied theParnass, smiling. 'His name must not be blotted out—it must be mentioned, and—unmistakably.'
'It is against the Talmud. To shame a man is equivalent to murder,' the minister persisted.
'Yet it is written in Leviticus: "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him."' And theParnasstook a triumphant pinch.
'Simeonand Levi are brethren ... into their assembly be not thou united: in their self-will they digged down a wall.'
TheParnassapplauded mentally. The text, fromJacob's blessing, was ingeniously expurgated to meet the case. The wall, he perceived at once, was the Sabbath—the Jews' one last protection against the outer world, the one last dyke against the waves of heathendom. Nor did his complacency diminish when his intuition proved correct, and the preacher thundered against the self-will—ay, and the self-seeking—that undermined Israel's last fortification. What did they seek under the wall? Did they think their delving spades would come upon a hidden store of gold, upon an ancient treasure-chest? Nay, it was a coffin they would strike—a coffin of dead bones and living serpents.
A cold wave of horror traversed the synagogue; a little shriek came from the gallery.
'I don't think I ever enjoyed a sermon so much,' said the pawnbroker to theParnass.
'Oh, he's improving,' said theParnass, still swollen with satisfaction.
But as that worthy elder emerged from the synagogue, placidly snuffing himself, he found an excited gentleman waiting him in the lobby. It was Lazarus Levy, whom his wife Deborah, daughter of S. Cohn (now of Highbury), was vainly endeavouring to pacify.
'Either that Reverend Gabriel goes, Mr.Parnass, or I resign my membership.'
'What is it, Mr. Levy—what is the matter?'
'Everybody knows I've been a good Jew all my life, and though Saturday is so good for the clothing business, I've striven with all my might to do my duty by the Almighty.'
'Of course, of course; everybody knows that.'
'And yet to-day I'm pointed out as a sinner in Israel; I'm coupled with that Simeon Samuels. Simeon andLevy are brothers in their iniquity—with their assembly be not united. A pretty libel, indeed!'
TheParnass'scomplacency collapsed like an air-ball at a pin-prick. 'Oh, nonsense, everybody knows he couldn't mean you.'
'I don't know so much. There are always people ready to think one has just been discovered keeping a back-door open or something. I shouldn't be at all surprised to get a letter from my father-in-law in London—you know how pious old Cohn is! As for Simeon, he kept looking at me as if Iwashis long-lost brother. Ah, there comes our precious minister.... Look here, Mr. Gabriel, I'll have the law on you. Simeon's no brother of mine——'
The sudden appearance of Simeon through the other swing-door cut the speaker short. 'GoodShabbos,' said the shameless sinner. 'Ah, Mr. Gabriel, that was a very fine sermon.' He stroked his beard. 'I quite agree with you. To dig down a public wall is indefensible. Nobody has the right to make more than a private hole in it, where it blocks out his own prospect. So please do not bracket me with Mr. Levy again. GoodShabbos!' And, waving his hand pleasantly, he left them to their consternation.
'What an impudent face!' said theGabbai(treasurer), who witnessed the episode.
'And our minister says I'm that man's brother! exclaimed Mr. Levy.
'Hush! Enough!' said theParnass, with a tactful inspiration. 'You shall read theHaphtorah(prophetic section) nextShabbos.'
'And Mr. Gabriel must explain he didn't mean me,' he stipulated, mollified by the magnificentMitzvah(pious privilege).
'You always try to drive a hard bargain,' grumbled theParnass. 'That's a question for Mr. Gabriel.'
The reverend gentleman had a happy thought. 'Wait till we come to the text: "Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren."'
'You're a gentleman, Mr. Gabriel,' ejaculated S. Cohn's son-in-law, clutching at his hand.
'And if he doesn't close to-day after your splendid sermon,' added theGabbai, 'you must call and talk to him face to face.'
The minister made a wry face. 'But that's not in my duties.'
'Pardon me, Mr. Gabriel,' put in theParnass, 'you have to call upon the afflicted and the bereaved. And Simeon Samuels is spiritually afflicted, and has lost his Sabbath.'
'But he doesn't want comforting.'
'Well, Solomon Barzinsky does,' said theParnass. 'Go to him instead, then, for I'm past soothing him. Choose!'
'I'll go to Simeon Samuels,' said the preacher gloomily.
'It is most kind of you to call,' said Simeon Samuels as he wheeled the parlour armchair towards his reverend guest. 'My wife will be so sorry to have missed you. We have both been looking forward so much to your visit.'
'You knew I was coming?' said the minister, a whit startled.
'I naturally expected a pastoral visit sooner or later.'
'I'm afraid it is later,' murmured the minister, subsiding into the chair.
'Better late than never,' cried Simeon Samuels heartily, as he produced a bottle from the sideboard. 'Do you take it with hot water?'
'Thank you—not at all. I am only staying a moment.'
'Ah!' He stroked his beard. 'You are busy?'
'Terribly busy,' said the Rev. Elkan Gabriel.
'Even on Sunday?'
'Rather! It's my day for secretarial work, as there's no school.'
'Poor Mr. Gabriel. I at least have Sunday to myself. But you have to work Saturday and Sunday too. It's really too bad.'
'Eh,' said the minister blankly.
'Oh, of course I know youmustwork on the Sabbath.'
'Iwork on—onShabbos!' The minister flushed to the temples.
'Oh, I'm not blaming you. One must live. In anideal world of course you'd preach and pray and sing and recite the Law for nothing so that Heaven might perhaps overlook your hard labour, but as things are you must take your wages.'
"I work on--on Shabbos!""I work on—onShabbos!"ToList
"I work on—onShabbos!"ToList
The minister had risen agitatedly. 'I earn my wages for the rest of my work—the Sabbath work I throw in,' he said hotly.
'Oh come, Mr. Gabriel, that quibble is not worthy of you. But far be it from me to judge a fellow-man.'
'Far be it indeed!' The attempted turning of his sabre-point gave him vigour for the lunge. 'You—you whose shop stands brazenly open every Saturday!'
'My dear Mr. Gabriel, I couldn't break the Fourth Commandment.'
'What!'
'Would you have me break the Fourth Commandment?'
'I do not understand.'
'And yet you hold a Rabbinic diploma, I am told. Does not the Fourth Commandment run: "Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work"? If I were to close on Saturday I should only be working five days a week, since in this heathen country Sunday closing is compulsory.'
'But you don't keep the other half of the Commandment,' said the bewildered minister. '"And on the seventh is the Sabbath."'
'Yes, I do—after my six days the seventh is my Sabbath. I only sinned once, if you will have it so, the first time I shifted the Sabbath to Sunday, since when my Sabbath has arrived regularly on Sundays.'
'But you did sin once!' said the minister, catching at that straw.
'Granted, but as to get right again would now make a second sin, it seems more pious to let things be. Not that I really admit the first sin, for let me ask you, sir, which is nearer to the spirit of the Commandment—to work six days and keep a day of rest—merely changing the day once in one's whole lifetime—or to work five days and keep two days of rest?'
The minister, taken aback, knew not how to meet this novel defence. He had come heavily armed against all the usual arguments as to the necessity of earning one's bread. He was prepared to prove that even from a material point of view you really gained more in the long run, as it is written in the Conclusion-of-Sabbath Service: 'Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.'
Simeon Samuels pursued his advantage.
'My co-religionists in Sudminster seem to have put all the stress upon the resting half of the Commandment, forgetting the working half of it. I do my best to meet their views—as you say, one should not dig down a wall—by attending their Sabbath service on a day most inconvenient to me. But no sacrifice is too great to achieve prayerful communion with one's brethren.'
'But if your views were to prevail there would be an end of Judaism!' the minister burst forth.
'Then Heaven forbid they should prevail!' said Simeon Samuels fervently. 'It is your duty to put the opposition doctrine as strongly as possible from the pulpit.' Then, as the minister rose in angry obfuscation, 'You are sure you won't have some whisky?' he added.
'No, I will take nothing from a house of sin. Andif you show yourself next Sabbath I will preach at you again.'
'So that is your idea of religion—to drive me from the synagogue. You are more likely to drive away the rest of the congregation, sick of always hearing the same sermon. As for me, you forget how I enjoy your eloquence, devoted though it is to the destruction of Judaism.'
'Me!' The minister became ungrammatical in his indignation.
'Yes, you. To mix up religion with the almanac. People who find that your Sabbath wall shuts them out of all public life and all professions, just go outside it altogether, and think themselves outside the gates of Judaism. If my father—peace be upon him—hadn't had your narrow notions, I should have gone to the Bar instead of being condemned to shop-keeping.'
'You are a very good devil's advocate now,' retorted the minister.
Simeon Samuels stroked his beard. 'Thank you. And I congratulateyourclient.'
'You are anEpikouros(Epicurean), and I am wasting my time.'
'And mine too.'
The minister strode into the shop. At the street-door he turned.
'Then you persist in setting a bad example?'
'A bad example! To whom? To your godly congregation? Considering every other shop in the town is open onShabbos, one more or less can't upset them.'
'When it is the only Jewish shop! Are you aware,sir, that every other Jew in Sudminster closes rigorously on the Sabbath?'
'I ascertained that before I settled here,' said Simeon Samuels quietly.