Satan in Goray

remained were young. Though the land was quiet, the fear of new visitations never left the Jews. Worst of all, at this time when unity was most necessary, every man went his own way, no longer willing to share the common responsibility. Time and again Rabbi Benish called a town meeting, only to have the townspeople doze off, or yawn at the walls. They would agree to everything, but carry out nothing. It was almost impossible to find anyone he could speak to. Rabbi Benish thought of his sons, but he had never detested them so much as he did now. Ozer, that scatterbrain, sat for days on end in the kitchen, disheveled and covered with feathers, playing Goats and Wolves with his own children, and quarreling with his mother because she would not cook the dishes he liked. Levi and his wife, like two great spiders spinning an evil web, sat apart from the rest in a pique in their darkened room, where the curtains were always drawn and the door always closed.

    5

    The Woman and the Rabbinical Emissary

    The rumor that the days of the Messiah were drawing near gradually aroused even Goray, that town in the midst of the hills at the end of the world.
    A highly respectable woman, who for many years now had been journeying in search of her husband (collecting alms at the same time), related that in all the provinces of Poland people were saying that the Exile had come to an end. Trees had begun to put forth enormous fruit in the holy land, and in the salt waters of the Dead Sea golden fish had suddenly appeared. The woman went from house to house. Her face was wrinkled like a cabbage head, but her black eyes were young and gleaming. The satin bands that hung down from her high bonnet rustled, the long earrings in her lobes swayed, and her lips--thin and keen--uttered assurances of salvation and consolation. Everywhere the woman tasted preserves which diligent housewives had put up in the summertime; blew her crooked, rabbinical nose; and with the silken tucks of her sleeve wiped the tears that slid brightly down her withered cheeks to shine among all the ornaments on the voluminous satin coat. The woman smelled of honey cake and holiday, of remote Jewish cities and good tidings. Chatting about the Land of Israel as though she had just returned from there, she told how the holy soil, which had been shrunken like a deer skin, now expanded day by day. The mosques were sinking into the earth, and the Turks were running away or being converted while there was still time, for later, after the Messiah came, no converts would be accepted. Even in Poland the nobles were showing favor to the Jews and showering them with gifts, having already heard that the children of Israel were soon to be exalted above all peoples. Crowds of women followed her about, tirelessly asking question after question--and she replied in phrases from the holy tongue, like a man. Wealthy folk presented her with gold pieces, which she painstakingly and piously bound into a kerchief, as though she were collecting donations for strangers.
    When Rabbi Benish heard about the woman he sent for her to present herself, but it was too late, for she was already in her sleigh, prepared to ride off. The people of Goray had wrapped blankets around her and covered her with straw; • they gave her jugs of cherry juice and Sabbath cookies. Her ram's-horn nose was red with the cold and the fear of God, and she replied to the beadle: "Tell the rabbi that, God-willing, we shall yet meet in the Land of Israel... at the gates of the Holy Temple."
    A traveling man who used to visit Goray yearly even before 1648 passed along the news that in Volhynia Jews were dancing for joy in the streets. They had stopped buying houses and sewing heavy overcoats, since it would be warm in the Land of Israel. In-laws-to-be were postponing weddings, so as to be able to raise the bridal canopy in Jerusalem. In Narol the young men had begun to study the Jerusalem Talmud, in preference to the Babylonian, and a rich man in Masel-Bozhitz had divided his possessions among the poor.
    An ascetic who ate no meat, drank no wine, slept on a hard bench, and journeyed over the world on foot, related that a prophet named Reb Nehemiah ha-Cohen had arisen in Poland Minor. He wore a haircloak over his bare skin, and, prophesying, would fall face down to the earth, emitting cries that were more than human. Reb Nehemiah foretold that the Jews were soon to foregather from all the corners of the earth, and the dead would