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

critical of Moshe Pinchas for being so vengeful and bearing a grudge. Reb Shlomo went to Moshe Pinchas and said, “I beg you, forgive me for the words that unintentionally escaped from my mouth.” But Moshe Pinchas just glared at him and did not respond.
    That very day a bookseller brought the book Ketzot HaHoshen to the Kloyz. The conversation got around to the book’s author, the Ba’al HaKetzot, who had labored in matters of Torah while living in deprivation and poverty. A plank over a barrel served as his table, and in winter he had no wood to light his stove and was forced to stay in bed and write his book there. And sometimes the ink would even freeze from the extreme cold and he would put it under his pillow to thaw out. When he had finished the first part of his book, he went to see the master sage, ourRabbi Meshulam Igra. And when the Ba’al HaKetzot began to present a Talmudic disputation to him, Reb Meshulam interjected, “Sir, you must be intending to say it this way.” And the other responded, “No, not really.” Reb Meshulam looked at him briefly and said, “Then undoubtedly the gentleman must be intending to say it this way or that way,” and this went on until the author had completely run out of innovative ideas, for Reb Meshulam had a knack of understanding each and every sage’s way of analyzing things and had honed in on the Ba’al HaKetzot’s precise thinking on every innovation the latter could present on any given issue. The Ba’al HaKetzot then said to Reb Meshulam, “Look, as we speak I’m already busy composing the second volume, and I am wondering if there is any point in my continuing to toil on it? Tell me, Sir, what could I possibly add now by way of commentary to the Shulhan Arukh’s finance code fromchapter 200 on?” At that point Reb Meshulam realized that he had disheartened a very gifted man and was filled with remorse. It is said that when this story was relayed, Reb Shlomo added that from this point on Reb Meshulam had fasted every Monday and Thursday for the rest of his life because of having aggrieved that sage. And people say that when this story was told, Reb Shlomo groaned and said, “I don’t come close to Reb Meshulam’s level of righteousness.” Those around him had a sense of where things were going and said to him, “And Moshe Pinchas doesn’t come close to Ba’al HaKetzot’s level of Torah scholarship!” Reb Shlomo replied, “Reb Moshe Pinchas is a great scholar and learns Torah for its own sake.” When this was relayed to Moshe Pinchas, he just shrugged and said, “Leave me be. I don’t even want to hear that man’s name.” A short while later, Moshe Pinchas arose from his studies, collected his Gemara and left. When a day or two had passed and he still hadn’t come back, people assumed that he’d gone to his mother’s in the village, even though it wasn’t his custom to go there on weekdays. A few days later, a voice was heard emanating from the Tailors’ Synagogue and they recognized it as belonging to Moshe Pinchas.
    The Tailors’ Synagogue was located above our old study house, opposite the bathhouse, and it was somewhat similar to the Great Synagogue, resplendent with paintings of theChariot and of the musical instruments of the Temple and also with depictions of the animals and birds in the teaching ofYehudah ben Teimah in tractate Avot, with the words of the Mishnah underneath each of the illustrations. Under the leopard it said, “Be bold as a leopard,” under the eagle, “Light as an eagle,” under the deer, “swift as a deer” and under the lion, “strong as a lion.” And under all of them it was written, “To do the will of our Father in heaven.” And why do I mention all of this? To demonstrate to you that a wise man learns from everything around him and, by gazing at the drawings he devotes his heart to the Torah. They say that when the women used to go to the mikveh and would hear Reb Moshe Pinchas’s voice, they