coming from a copse on the right. Instantly the driver checked the horse, jumped to the ground, and drew a long knife from his girdle.
""Tis useful to be a _Shochet_." he said grimly, as he darted among the bushes.
I followed in his footsteps and a strange sight burst upon us. A beautiful woman was struggling with two saturnine-visaged men dressed as Rabbis in silken hose and mantles. One held her arms pinned to her sides, while the other was about to plunge a dagger into her heart.
"Hold!" cried the _Shochet_.
The would-be a.s.sa.s.sin fell back, a startled look on his narrow fanatical face.
"Let the woman go!" said the driver sternly.
In evident consternation the other obeyed. The woman fell forward, half-fainting, and the driver caught her.
"Be not afraid," he said. "And you, murderers, down at my feet and thank me that I have saved you your portion in the World-To-Come."
"Nay, you have lost it to us," said the one with the dagger. "For it was the vengeance of Heaven we were about to execute. Know that this is our sister, whom we have discovered to be a wanton creature, that must bring shame upon our learned house and into our G.o.d-fearing town.
Whereupon we and her husband held a secret Beth-Din, and resolved, according to the spirit of our ancient Law, that this plague-spot must be cleansed out from Israel for the glory of the Name."
"The glory of the Name!" repeated the driver, and his eyes flamed.
"What know you of the glory of the Name?"
Both brothers winced before the pa.s.sion of his words. They looked at each other strangely and uneasily, but answered nothing.
"How dare you call any Jewess a plague-spot?" went on the driver. "Is any sin great enough to separate us irredeemably from G.o.d, who is in all things? Pray for your sister if you will, but do not dare to sit in judgment upon a fellow-creature!"
The woman burst into loud sobs and fell at his feet.
"They are right! they are right!" she cried. "I am a wicked creature.
It were better to let me perish."
The driver raised her tenderly. "Nay, in that instant you repented,"
he said, "and one instant"s repentance wins back G.o.d. Henceforward you shall live without sin."
"What! you would restore her to Brody?" cried the elder brother--"to bring the wrath of Heaven upon so G.o.dly a town. Be you who you may, saint or devil, that is beyond your power. Her husband a.s.suredly will not take her back. With her family she cannot live."
"Then she shall live with mine," said the _Shochet_. "My daughter dwells in Brody. I will take her to her. Go your ways."
They stood disconcerted. Presently the younger said: "How know we are not leaving her to greater shame?"
The old man"s face grew terrible.
"Go your ways," he repeated.
They slunk off, and I watched them get into a two-horsed carriage, which I now perceived on the other side of the copse. I ran forward to give an arm to the woman, who was again half-fainting.
"Said I not," said the old man musingly, "that even the worst sinners are better than these Rabbis? So blind are they in the arrogance of their self-conceit, so darkened by their pride, that their very devotion to the Law becomes a vehicle for their sin."
We helped the woman gently into the cart. I climbed in, but the old man began to walk with the horse, holding its bridle, and reversing its direction.
"Aren"t you jumping up?" I asked.
"We are going up now, instead of down," he said, smiling. "Brody sits high, in the seat of the scornful."
A pang of shame traversed my breast. What! I was riding and this fine old fellow was walking! But ere I could offer to get down, a new thought increased my confusion. I, who was bent on finding the Baal Shem, was now off on a side-adventure to Brody. And yet I was loath to part so soon with my new friend. And besides, I told myself, Brody was well worth a visit. The reputation of its Talmudical schools was spread over the kingdom, and although I shared the old man"s repugnance to them my curiosity was alert. And even on the Baal Shem"s account I ought to go there. For I remembered now that his early life had had many a.s.sociations with the town, and that it was his wife"s birthplace. So I said, "How far is Brody?"
"Ten miles," he said.
"Ten miles!" I repeated in horror.
"Ten miles," he said musingly, "and ten years since I set foot in Brody."
I jumped down. ""Tis I must walk, not you," I said.
"Nay," said he good-humoredly. "I perceive neither of us can walk.
Those sacks must play Jonah. Out with them."
"No," I said.
"Yes," he insisted, laughing. "Did I not say Satan was determined to spoil my Pa.s.sover? The third time I shall have better luck perhaps."
I protested against thus causing him so much loss, and offered to go and find the Baal Shem alone, but he rolled out the flour-bags, laughing, leaving one for the woman to lie against.
"But your wife will be expecting them," I remarked, as the cart proceeded with both of us in our seats.
"She will be expecting me, too," he said, smiling ruefully. "However, she has faith in G.o.d. Never yet have we lacked food. Surely He who feedeth the ravens--" He broke off with a sudden thought, leapt down, and ran back.
"What is it?" I said.
I saw him draw out his knife again and slit open the sacks. "The birds shall keep Pa.s.sover," he called out merrily.
The woman was still sobbing as he climbed to his place, but he comforted her with his genial and heterodox philosophy.
""Tis a device of Satan," he said, "to drive us to despondency, so as to choke out the G.o.d-spark in us. Your sin is great, but your Father in Heaven awaits you, and will rejoice as a King rejoices over a princess redeemed from captivity. Every soul is a whole Bible in itself. Yours contains Sarah and Ruth as well as Jezebel and Michal.
Hitherto you have developed the Jezebel in you; strive now to develop the Sarah." With such bold consolations he soothed her, till the monotonous movement of the cart sent her into a blessed sleep. Then he took out a pipe and, begging permission of me, lighted it. As the smoke curled up his face became ecstatic.
"I think," he observed musingly, "that G.o.d is more pleased with this incense of mine than with all the prayers of all the Rabbis."
This shocked even me, fascinated though I was. Never had I met such a man in all Israel. I shook my head in half-serious reproof. "You are a sinner," I said.
"Nay, is not smoking pleasurable? To enjoy aright aught in G.o.d"s creation is to praise G.o.d. Even so, is not to pray the greatest of all pleasures?"
"To pray?" I repeated wonderingly. "Nay, methinks it is a heavy burden to get through our volumes of prayer."
"A burden!" cried the old man. "A burden to enter into relation with G.o.d, to be reabsorbed into the divine unity. Nay, "tis a bliss as of bridegroom with bride. Whoso does not feel this joy of union--this divine kiss--has not prayed."
"Then have I never prayed," I said.
"Then "tis you that are the sinner," he retorted, laughing.