The Family Moskat (47 page)

"Who said anything about being afraid?"

"Didn't you?"

"Are you afraid she'll throw some vitriol at you?"

"What 'she' are you chattering about?"

"Just listen to me, Koppel. I can see that you're keeping something from me. I can't drag the truth from you, and I don't care to try. Forget about the whole thing. Pretend I haven't said a word.

I'll divorce him anyhow, but that has nothing to do with you."

"So now you're changing your mind."

"Have it that way if you prefer it."

"Don't run away. You know I've loved you from the very first.

Ever since I came to work for your father. Everything I've done has been for you. Every night I had dreams that a day like this would come, a day that would--I don't know how to express what I mean. I used to have dreams that I was calling the boss 'father-in-law.'"

Leah's eyes filled with tears. She took a handkerchief from her bag and blew her nose. "Then why do you torture me?"

-302-"In

your eyes I'll always be a servant." "Don't talk like that.

You're just trying to hurt me." "Didn't you just call me a thief?" "I called you? Would I marry a thief?" "And if I did steal, that was for you, too."

The telephone rang. Koppel picked up the receiver and then put it down again. He took out his watch, glanced at it, then put it back in his vest pocket. He looked at Leah, half confused, half eager. He bit his lips, and the color in his cheeks faded, then flushed red again. An urge seized him to confess everything. He knew that he was doing something that he would later regret, but he was powerless to control his tongue. "Leah, there's something I've got to tell you."

"Go ahead."

"Leah, I've got more than sixty thousand rubles, cash, at my house."

Leah raised her eyebrows. "Well, what about it? I'm glad for your sake."

"It's your father's money."

Leah shrugged her shoulders. "Why do you tell me now? To ease your soul?"

"I can't stay here in Warsaw. I'll never be able to find any peace.

"What will you do?"

"I'll go to America."

It was like a stab in Leah's entrails. "Alone?"

"With you."

"How? There's a war going on."

"We can go through Siberia. What do you say?"

"What can I say? All I know is that I'm up to my neck in filth."

Leah could no longer control herself. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat and broke into sobs. Koppel went over to the window and closed it, though it had been open only a crack. Then he began to pace back and forth. Suddenly he felt an astonishing sense of lightness. A faint smile showed at the corners of his mouth. He had a distinct feeling that a load had fallen from him; it had oppressed him, somewhere on the left side of his chest. He went over to Leah, fell to his knees, and put his head in her lap.

Something youthful and long forgotten welled up in him. Leah put her hand on his head, caressing his -303-hair with the

tips of her fingers. He did not know himself whether he was weeping or laughing. With both her hands she raised his face to hers. Her cheeks were wet. But her eyes smiled. "Koppel, what will we do in America?" she murmured.

And Koppel answered: "We'll begin a new life."

ALREADY the reverberations of the cannon fire on the battlefront were causing Warsaw windows to tremble. The German line was advancing against a Russian counterattack. Regiments of soldiers were steadily marching through the Warsaw streets--

Cossacks, Kirghiz, Bashkirs, Caucasians, Kalmuks. The hospitals of the city were full of the wounded. City officials had hurried to move their families out of town somewhere to the rear. There was talk to the effect that the Governor-General was preparing to leave and that the bridges across the Vistula were being mined.

There were rumors that the retreating Russian ar-mies would put Warsaw to the torch. Nevertheless, the Feast of the Rejoicing of the Law was celebrated as always. The official liquor shops were closed, but the celebrants managed to get enough of the spirits from unlicensed distillers. There was no lack of either wine or beer. In the Bialodrevna prayerhouse the faithful began their drinking on the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Early in the morning of the Feast of Rejoicing of the Law the Chassidim were already drunk.

It was stiflingly hot in the prayerhouse. The children carried paper pennants, and apples stuck at the end of sticks, candles spluttering in the apples. Women and girls crowded forward to kiss the silk covering of the Torah scrolls. Young men and boys engaged in every kind of mischievous play. They stealthily -304-poured water into the pockets of the unsuspecting worshippers; they knotted the fringes of the men's ritual shawls; they hid prayerbooks and skullcaps. The reader intoned the additional service, but none of the congregation made the proper responses. Nathan Moskat was chosen as warden. He complained that he was a sick man and had no energy to devote to community affairs. Besides, his brother Joel was deathly ill. But the Chassidim refused to listen to his excuses, and when the formality of his election was completed, the younger men seized the new warden, stretched him out full length on a table, and pommeled him in good humor. Nathan groaned and protested, while the young men chanted:
"One and one,
One and two, One
and three. . . ."

After Nathan's bottom had been well pounded, they let him go, and he rose good-naturedly and invited the celebrants to his house for a drink in honor of the day. Saltsha had known in advance that Nathan was to be elected warden and had made proper preparations: wine, vishniak, mead, tarts, flat cakes, and nuts. An enormous pot of cabbage mixed with raisins and saffron steamed in the kitchen. Two geese were roasting in the oven. The fragrant odors permeated the entire apartment. Abram brought with him a magnum of wine that he had been hoarding since before the war. He took off his coat and shoes and danced on top of Nathan"s oaken table, singing a Bialodrevna ditty:
"Abraham rejoiced in the rejoicing of the Law,
Isaac rejoiced in the rejoicing of the Law, Jacob
rejoiced in the rejoicing of the Law, Moses
rejoiced in the rejoicing of the Law, Aaron
rejoiced in the rejoicing of the Law, David
rejoiced in the rejoicing of the Law."

Saltsha begged Abram to stop his nonsense, but Abram paid no attention to her. She warned the Chassidim that the floors had been highly waxed and that they might slip. They paid no heed to her. The ecstatic celebrants joined hands, forming a circle, and sang quavering Bialodrevna songs, stamping on the floor with their heavy boots. The boys thrust their way into the middle of the circle, hopping along with the oldsters. Housewives and -305-girls from the neighboring flats came in to watch the merriment, clapping their hands and doubling over with peals of laughter. When Saltsha brought in one of the roast geese, the Chassidim fell on it, tearing pieces of the steaming fowl with their bare hands. In less than a moment nothing was left but a pile of bones. Pinnie, hoarse with shouting and singing, clutched Saltsha and tried to kiss her.

Nathan laughed so uproariously that his belly shook.

"So, Pinnie," he squeaked, "must I say to you what the King said to Haman: 'Will you force the Queen before me in the house?'"

"At the Rejoicing of the Law every Jew's a king," Pinnie answered firmly.

Saltsha ran away, but Pinnie lumbered after her. The women in the kitchen began to scurry around, squealing. Abram chased after Pinnie, grabbed him by the collar, and shouted: "Idiot!

Woman-chaser!"

"Oh, mamma!" one of the women cried. "It's too much. I can't laugh any more."

"We know you, Abram," Pinnie squeaked in a comic falsetto, you old chicken-thief!"

"Good people, hold me! I'll fall! I'll die with laughter!" howled an old woman with an enormous Greek knot at the nape of her neck.

"Oh, my sides! My sides!"

Abram lifted Pinnie up bodily and carried him out of the kitchen.

Pinnie shrieked, kicking his feet like a school child being carried out for a whipping.

From Nathan's house the celebrants went in a body over to Pinnie's. His wife, Hannah, and his four daughters had expected the invasion and had been busy all day preparing for it. Hannah, known for her stinginess, had been careful to remove all the valuables and breakables from the living-room which the Chassidim might damage in their carryings on. She had prepared a mess of strudel and cherry punch. The Chassidim searched in vain for toothsome morsels in closets and chests, but all the hiding-places were locked tight. They quickly ate the strudel, drank the punch, danced a few of their dances, sang a few of their songs, and marched off to Abram's. There, too, the visitation was not unexpected. Hama and her married daughter, Bella, had cooked a savory cabbage mixture and roasted a goose. There -306-were honey cakes, meat patties, cherry brandy. Even before the holiday Abram had warned Hama not to shame him with her parsimoniousness. She was wearing a holiday dress with all her jewelry. The earrings, the brooch, the golden chain, the rings, looked out of place against Hama's uncouth form. Bella had put on the clothes that had been part of her wedding outfit. Avigdor, her husband, was present at the celebration, too. He had been a widower with a drygoods store on Mirovska Street. He was a fervent Chassid, a man of learning, with a pale face and a pair of eyeglasses with enormous thick lenses. Abram had wanted his son-in-law to join the Bialodrevna prayerhouse, but Avigdor was a loyal Sochatshov Chassid. Now, when Abram spotted him, he shouted: "A good holiday to you, my fine ornament! Are you drunk or sober?"

"I'm never drunk."

"Then in that case the hell with you."

Hama ran up warningly. "Abram, watch your tongue. Is that a way to talk to your daughter's husband?"

"A man"s got to drink!" Abram shouted. "If not, he'll never be able to spawn a kid."

"Shame on you, Abram! You're bringing disgrace to the house."

Hama's nose immediately reddened and tears came to her eyes.

Apparently Abram was already drunk. Bella ran up to him and tried to whisper something in his ear, but Abram caught her and started to kiss her. "Ah, my daughter, your father is just no good."

"Drunk as Lot," Hama sighed.

"Lot took special care of his daughters," Abram boomed.

"Feh, Abram!" Pinnie warned him. "Nice talk for a grandfather!"

"Yes, Pinnie, you're right!" Abram mumbled. He grabbed Pinnie's beard and began pulling him along like a goat. The others began to laugh and squeal with delight.

Stepha came in from one of the other rooms. She was tall, almost as tall as Abram. She had on a red dress and black lacquered sash. She was twenty-seven years old, but she looked older, in her thirties. She had a large bust and large hips. Her dark face was rich in charm. But something of fatigue was in her look. The medical student with whom she had been going about for the past four years had not completed his course. Neither was he willing to marry. It was whispered in the family that -307-Stepha had already found herself pregnant and that she had had an abortion.

When the Chassidim caught sight of Stepha, they began to smile shamefacedly and retreat shyly. The older men clutched their beards and whispered to each other.

"A good holiday to you, Sheba," Abram said. "For all good Jews today's a great holiday."

"A good holiday to you too," Stepha answered.

"Well, go and bring in the refreshments. You're a Jewish daughter, after all."

"I'm not denying it."

Stepha turned back and went to the room she had come from. She wasn't pleased that her father had called her by her Hebrew name, Sheba, nor did she like it when he carried on like those other orthodox Jews. What tricks was he up to now, the hypocrite?

"He's a thousand times worse than I am," she thought. "It's his fault that I am as I am, without either God or husband."

In the living-room the celebration went on, the singing and the shuffling of feet. Abram climbed on a table, holding high the babkes that Hama brought in. He doled them out, as Israel Eli, the beadle, was wont to do in Bialodrevna, at the same time shouting:
"Rich and poor, young and old, See
my babke and behold. Like a bee
without a sting Is a babke without a
drink. . . ."

Hama tried to hide away some of the brandy and whisky for her own household use, but Abram managed to get his hands on all of it. He kept on pouring glass after glass for the celebrants. He sent some of the youngsters out to rouse up the owners of the closed shops, and they came back laden with apples, pears, grapes, watermelons, and walnuts. From the wine cellars in one shop they brought up a basket of dry wine, the bottles dusty and cobwebbed.

Somewhere they had managed to get a small barrel of beer and a spigot. Abram knocked out the bung; the foam poured out over the vat. The singing and the dancing grew in ardor. More Chassidim arrived. Whenever the excitement started to flag, Abram was at hand to whip it up. "Livelier, brothers! No sleeping! Rejoice in the Torah!"

-308-Your

health! Your health, brothers! Next year in Jerusalem!"

Hama stood in the doorway with several of the neighbor women.

She alternately laughed and wept, blowing her nose and wiping her wet eyes. "If he could only be like this all through the year!" she thought. "What do they know of what I endure?" Abram brought her a glass of beer. "Drink, Hama! Your health!"

"But, Abram, you know it isn't good for me."

"Drink! The devil isn't ready to take you yet!" And he planted a kiss on her cheek.

Hama flushed with joy and embarrassment. The women giggled.

She managed to gulp down some of the beer. The first swallow seemed to spread a glow all over her. Mordecai, last year's warden, grabbed Zeinvele Srotsker's elbow. "A madman--but one of our own. A Chassid to his bones!"

2

This year Fishel did not take part in any of the family celebrations of the holiday. Directly after the services he left the prayerhouse.