"When God," said the rabbi, "has chosen a soul and decided that it is to go down into the sinful world, it trembles and cries. "In the nine months before birth an angel teaches it the whole Torah; then he gives it a fillip under the nose, and the soul forgets everything it has learned. "That," added the rabbi, "is why all Jewish children have cloven upper lips." That same evening I was skating on the ice outside the town, and I observed that the Gentile boys, Yantek, Voitek, and Yashek, had cloven upper lips just like ours. "Yashek," I risked my life and asked, "_ti tàkshé màyesh dùshé_?"[31] "What does it matter to you, soul of a dog?" was the distinct reply. 7 Beside going to the rabbi, I had a teacher for writing. This teacher was supposed by the town to be a great heretic, and the neighbors wouldn't borrow his dishes.[32] He was a widower, and people never believed that Gütele, his daughter, a girl about my age, knew how to make meat kosher. But he was exceedingly accomplished, and my mother was determined that her only son should learn to write. "I beg of you, Reb teacher," she said to him, "not to teach him anything heretical, nothing out of the Bible, but teach him how to write a Jewish letter, just a 'greeting to any friend' letter." But I don't know if he kept his word. When I gave him the poser about the cleft lips, he went into a fury; he jumped up from his chair, overturned it with his foot, and began to caper about the room, crying out: "Blockheads! murderers! bats!" By degrees he grew calm, sat down again, wiped his spectacles, and drew me to him: "My child," he said, "never believe such rubbish. You took a good look at the Gentile boys who were skating? What are their names?" I told him. "Well," he continued, "had any one of them a different kind of eye from yours; different hands or feet or limbs? Don't they laugh just as you do? And if they cry, do they shed another sort of tears? Why should they not have a real soul as well as we? All men are alike, children of one family, one God is their Father, one earth their home. It is true that at present the nations hate each other, and each one persuades itself that _it_ is the crown of creation, and occupies all God's thoughts; but _we_ hope for a better day, better and brighter, when humanity will acknowledge one God and one law, when the words of our holy prophets will come true, when there shall be an end to all wars and jealousy and hatred; when all will serve one Creator, and it will be as the verse says: 'For out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'" I knew that verse from the paragraph, "And it came to pass, when the Ark set forward," in the prayer-book.[33]