Satan in Goray

very day, Reb Mordecai Joseph and Reb Itche Mates, taking parchment letters written by Reb Gedaliya and Levi and signed by many witnesses, hung beggars' bags on their arms and went off to spread the news far and wide--that they might gladden the hearts of those who believed in God and in Sabbatai Zevi, His Messiah.

    6

    A Wedding on a Dung-Hill

    Reb Mordecai Joseph and Reb Itche Mates departed, and their wanderings took them to far places, bearing the good tidings. In Goray some believed that they had already passed the Polish borders and were now somewhere in Germany, or Bohemia. Others thought that the emissaries had embarked for Stamboul to see the Messiah. Now the affairs of Goray town were managed by Reb Gedaliya. His new rulings disagreed with the practices cited in the Shulchan Aruch, but the few learned men who remained pretended neither to see nor hear what was happening, for the common people believed in Reb Gedaliya. As for Reb Gedaliya, he settled Rechele in his house, and he lived with her under one roof although she was a matron. He had a room painted white for her, and he hung the walls with guardian amulets, and placed a Holy Ark and Torah there. Rechele was dressed in white satin; her face was hidden by a veil. During the week she could be seen by no one except Chinkele the Pious who served her. But on the Sabbath ten women from the sect gathered in her room to make a prayer quorum, as though they were men--for thus Reb Gedaliya had bidden. A woman cantor stood before the lectern chanting the Sabbath prayers. Then the scroll was taken from the Ark and Reb Gedaliya chanted the proper melody. Moreover, he permitted seven women to be called up to the lectern to read for the Sabbath, and after each reading he ordered a benediction of thanks to be offered in the name of Sabbatai Zevi and Rechele the prophetess.
    His was a great name in Goray and in all of the surrounding countryside. Housewives gave him a tithe of their chickens, eggs, butter, and honey. A special poll tax had been laid by him on the rich. From every calf he slaughtered he put aside for him-self not only the tripe and the milt, as the custom is, but all of the under-parts as well--these he cleaned, though it is not the practice to do so nowadays. He did not need these for himself, no, not Reb Gedaliya--but for the poor and hungry. Sabbath afternoons he held the midday feast in the study house, and every household sent him pudding, seasoned according to his taste. Men and women sat at the table on benches, or clustered about it, and Reb Gedaliya sang new Sabbath hymns, served portions of calf's foot jelly himself, and gave each person a cup of wine. The wine was red and smelled of ginger, onycha, and saffron. Reb Gedaliya hinted that it tasted like the wine reserved for the righteous to drink in the Garden of Eden.
    Remarkable things were done by Reb Gedaliya, and his kindness was renowned. He was extremely charitable and would rise from bed in the middle of night to tend to the sick. Though an important man, he would roll up his sleeves when it was necessary, to massage men and women alike with aqua vitae and turpentine. He jested with the ill, forcing them to laugh and forget their pains. For children he imitated the mooing of cows and the twittering of birds. Stammerers began to speak properly under his guidance. The melancholy laughed heartily after he had spent some time with them. Adept at sleight of hand and hocus-pocus, he could turn a kerchief into a hare. His elbows bound with a sash, he would blow, freeing them once more--and then produce the sash from beneath the shirt of the person who had bound him! An expert at solving complex puzzles, he could write a row of words that might be read from top to bottom as well as the usual Hebrew right to left. He showed housewives who came to visit him how to put up new kinds of preserves, taught girls how to work on canvas and embroider. In the late afternoon he bathed in the river and instructed the young men how to swim and tread water. Afterward they all said their afternoon prayers at the riverbank, under the open sky. Once, when in good spirits, he gathered a few lusty young fellows who were boarding at their in-laws and went to the other side of the hill to scare the women bathing there. Chaos ensued. The more agile women sprang screaming into the water. Those who were large and slow-moving were so confused that they remained transfixed. Uncovered before the eyes of the men, they