An Orphan's Tale Read Online Free Page B

dishonest gain which thou hast made and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.”
    I helped Dr. Fogel take a Torah from the Ark. He took off the velvet cover and rolled the scroll from one side to the other until he found my portion.
    A question I thought of that I didn’t ask: If God believes He is the only God why is He always jealous of other Gods who don’t exist?
    Dr. Fogel unlocked the door next to the Ark and we went into a small dark room called the GENIZAH. The smell there was beautiful, from the dust and old leather. Dr. Fogel explained to me that old prayer books, because they contain the name of God, can never be destroyed. When a Torah is too mutilated to be used anymore it’s buried in the ground like a man, wrapped in a Talis.
    I wanted to ask him to tell me everything he remembered about Charlie, but I didn’t. He might get suspicious.
    There were old Tephillin bags piled in boxes and he gave me one, and also a white and black Talis that still has some silver threads in it. He gave me a copy of PIR-KAY AVOS which has the Hebrew and the English and I told him it was my favorite book, but he didn’t react. Even though I’m the only real student he has left I don’t believe he really cares about me.
    We walked back to the classroom and I told him about the Home being closed and that they’re going to use our buildings as a halfway house for Jewish mental patients. I gave him the reason I saw in the letter, about the supply of Jewish orphans drying up and he only laughed. He got angry and said that the real reason was always the same: the lack of religious observance. The Home was failing because it was failing God. Our kitchens were no longer Kosher, our Shul was unused, our boys received no real Jewish upbringing.
    He said that the Home was like the state of Israel because its real purpose was to lead the Jewish people away from religion and God!
    I never saw him speak with so much passion before and I wondered if Charlie ever heard him speak like this. He stood in front of the blackboard and waved his good hand in circles above his head. He said the Zionists were willing to sell all of Jewish history for a nationalist “mess of pottage.”
    He said that Zionism represented the greatest heresy of all time. He looked at me with great anger and told me to remember his words because nobody else would ever tell me the truth. I didn’t say anything but I concentrated as hard as I could.
    This was what he said: “ZIONISM IS AN ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH A JEWISH KINGDOM ON EARTH WHICH WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE PRIVILEGE OF THE MESSIAH ALONE.”
    He got so excited that he began to choke and his face turned from red to gray but I still didn’t say anything or move from my desk. Marty and a 10 year old boy named Norman were peeking through the window with their eyes bulging. Dr. Fogel punched his own chest with his fist and his color began to come back. He gave me a piece of paper and told me to write out a receipt for the Talis and Tephillin and book.
    Larry Silverberg was very friendly to me today but he forgot to ask me for my answer.
    What I want to know: more about Israel and its history, so I can refute Dr. Fogel!
    SATURDAY
    Today was visiting day so I went into the Shul with my new book and stayed there all day, memorizing and sleeping.
    This is what I told myself: The Sabbath is a day of rest and a day of study and I am doing both!
    I stood in front of the Ark and chanted my Haftorah. I opened the Ark but I was afraid that if I tried to lift a Torah out by myself I would drop it.
    There were only 6 boys at supper, and the Puerto Rican cooks and dishwashers ate with us and talked in Spanish about baseball players. After supper I took out my Tephillin and sat on my bed and unwound the leather straps. I wondered if the boy who once used the Tephillin was still alive somewhere and if he had a son who was putting on Tephillin.
    When the lights were out and