Jewish fiction; Jews -- Fiction; Short stories, Yiddish -- Translations into English
"Oh, no!" said the teacher, "there's a lot besides--a lot!"
"For instance?"
"Do you want me to tell you standing on one leg?"
"Well, yes, 'on one leg,'" he answered impatiently, as though in anger.
"But one can't tell you 'on one leg,'" said the teacher. "If you like, I
shall come on Sabbath, and we can have a chat."
"Sabbath?" repeated Reb Shloimeh in a dissatisfied tone.
"Sabbath, because I can't come at any other time," said the teacher.
"Then let it be Sabbath," said Reb Shloimeh, reflectively.
"But soon after dinner," he called after the teacher, who was already
outside the door. "And everything else is as right as your astronomy?"
he shouted, when the teacher had already gone a little way.
"You will see!" and the teacher smiled.
* * * * *
Never in his whole life had Reb Shloimeh waited for a Sabbath as he
waited for this one, and the two days that came before it seemed very
long to him; he never relaxed his frown, or showed a cheerful face the
whole time. And he was often seen, during those two days, to lift his
hands to his forehead. He went about as though there lay upon him a
heavy weight, which he wanted to throw off; or as if he had a very
disagreeable bit of business before him, and wished he could get it
over.
On Sabbath he could hardly wait for the teacher's appearance. "You
wanted a lot of asking," he said to him reproachfully.
The old lady went to take her nap, the grandchildren to their play, and
Reb Shloimeh took the snuff-box between his fingers, leant against the
back of the "grandfather's chair" in which he was sitting, and listened
with close attention to the teacher's words.
The teacher talked a long time, mentioned the names of sciences, and
explained their meaning, and Reb Shloimeh repeated each explanation in
brief. "Physics, then, is the science of--" "That means, then, that we
have here--that physiology explains--"
The teacher would help him, and then immediately begin to talk of
another branch of science. By the time the old lady woke up, the teacher
had given examples of anatomy, physiology, physics, chemistry, zoology,
and sociology.
It was quite late; people were coming back from the Afternoon Service,
and those who do not smoke on Sabbath, raised their eyes to the sky. But
Reb Shloimeh had forgotten in what sort of world he was living. He sat
with wrinkled forehead and drawn brows, listening attentively, seeing
nothing before him but the teacher's face, only catching up his every
word.
"You are still talking?" asked the old lady, in astonishment, rubbing
her eyes.
Reb Shloimeh turned his head toward his wife with a dazed look, as
though wondering what she meant by her question.
"Oho!" said the old lady, "you only laugh at us women!"
Reb Shloimeh drew his brows closer together, wrinkled his forehead still
more, and once more fastened his eyes on the teacher's lips.
"It will soon be time to light the fire," muttered the old lady.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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