Two Scholars Who Were in Our Town and Other Novellas Read Online Free

bury anyone next to him until after a hundred years had passed, and that even then the deceased had to be someone from his lineage. Reb Shlomo, the groom, was a son worthy of his ancestors. At the age of sixteen he had already received rabbinic ordination from two of the greatest scholars of that generation. And when he had come before them he had not revealed who he was until they had finished testing him. Unlike most of the well-connected snobs in our land who have made it only on the merit of their fathers.
    Already during the seven days of wedding feasts, every single study house in our town was vying for Reb Shlomo to affiliate himself with them. Our old study house, on account of its numerous books; the new study house on account of his father-in-law and his father-in-law’s father, both of whom prayed there; the men of the old Kloyz, because it is suitable for a man to pray in the place where his ancestors had worshipped and it was time-honored tradition that the great scholar Rabbi Pinchas Ba’al Mofet used to pray in the old Kloyz. But Reb Shlomo set himself up in the new Kloyz, because the new Kloyz was situated on a hill and the air was fresh, and he liked to study in a place with pleasant air. When Reb Shlomo entered the Kloyz, he would light up the whole place with the aura of his presence. The radiance of his face, his blue eyes and his chestnut hair endeared him to all who beheld him. His garments were just like those of all proper Jews of that period, short pants tucked into long stockings, soft shoes and a generously cut overcoat, and all of his clothes were of fine silk, as was the custom of sons of rabbis who had achieved a certain stature. His speech was calm and collected and his bearing was one of composure. The elders of the Kloyz prefaced his name with the title of Rabbi and the younger ones tried hard to study each and every one of his mannerisms, in order to emulate him. Except who can really come close to resembling such a son of great scholars, where twenty-six, some even say thirty-six generations or more, were all rabbis and sons of rabbis? Moshe Pinchas, who was so demanding of himself and didn’t converse with anyone, would put aside his studies to talk with Reb Shlomo and would accompany him to his house and go in and sit with him and engage him in debate. And he did not notice that Reb Shlomo’s wife did not suffer any man coming between her and her husband, like young wives who always like to keep their husbands to themselves.
    All this and more. Reb Shlomo was somewhat familiar with German from a translation of the Psalms byReb Moshe and also from the holiday prayer hymns translated byRabbi Wolf. And these had not been printed in the German alphabet, but rather in Hebrew characters with Old Yiddish type. Reb Shlomo’s wife, being proficient in written and oral German as was the case with most daughters of rich men of our town who used to study with tutors up until the time of their marriages, wanted to teach her husband German writing and pronunciation. But when Moshe Pinchas began coming and going regularly from their house, it diverted them from their studies, and she resented Reb Moshe Pinchas for bothering her husband and disturbing the house with his voice. Because of the story of Michal and David (Samuel II 6:16) she didn’t say a word about it. Reb Shlomo would try to appease her (with the same words he himself failed to heed) saying to her, “Is it not an honor that this wise scholar who doesn’t enter anyone else’s home is comfortable calling so frequently at yours?” And she was thinking to herself, “If only he’d go more to everyone else and less to us!” And Moshe Pinchas was thinking, “If I, who am not in the habit of going to see anyone else, call upon this man then surely he must be happy to have me.”
    6.
    Days passed as usual and the town went about its business according to custom. Summer was summer and winter was winter, and as time went on some matches