The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer Read Free Book Online Page B

may his light shine forth!
    Your worthiness has undoubtedly long forgotten my humble person. It was my elevated privilege to be your pupil at the seminary in the years between 1892 and 1896. I am now in the town of Zamosc, the director of the school, Torah and Learning, to teach the youth of Israel the foundations of Judaism and also to guide them through the doorway of modern knowledge. The youth who brings this letter to your distinguished self is, according to the unworthy opinion of your former pupil, one of those high and aspiring spirits which are so few in number. His grandfather, Reb Dan Katzenellenbogen, is a sage of great repute, and has been for fifty years the shepherd of his flock in Tereshpol Minor. Of this young man, Asa Heshel Bannet, it can be said that he is the true limb of his grandfather. Even in his tender youth he won renown. Learned men who heard -29-him deliver a discourse spoke words of mouth-filling praise. Secretly, and away from the censorious eyes of the fanatics of the town, with the help of dictionaries he taught himself to read European languages. In the study of algebra he has traveled as far as logarithms. His soul also yearns toward philosophy. In his removed village there are all too few enlightened books, and through a traveler who visits us on the market days I have sent him books on history, natural science, psychology, and whatever else his heart has longed for.
    But it is difficult to satiate his spiritual hunger. I know that your honor has always striven to strengthen the hand of the youth who yearns to taste of the waters of wisdom, and I am prayerful that this neophyte will find favor in your eyes. It is his aspiration to complete high school as an extern and to enter a university, which is the Temple of Knowledge and also a threshold to an honorable livelihood. I add that many matches were bespoken for him with daughters of wealthy houses and he has turned away from them because of his thirst for enlightenment. He has also suffered many persecutions out of his search for truth. He is ready to eat bread and salt and to drink water by measure in order to reach the exalted goal of his heart. I could write many more words of praise for the youth Asa Heshel Bannet, and I could recount much of my town Zamosc and the struggles we must wage against the fanatics; the illumination that lights up all the corners of the Western lands has not yet penetrated into our towns, to our great shame be it said, and many still walk about in darkness at noon. But this paper is too small.
    I remain bound to you, my teacher and guide, with stout ropes of love. I sign myself, your pupil Todros Lemel, founder and director of the school Torah and Learning for the young sons of Israel in the town of Zamosc.
    3
    Dr. Shmaryahu Jacobi, secretary of the synagogue on Tlomatska Street, had in recent years had little to do with the account books of the temple; he was occupied with more learned matters. His wife had long been dead and his children had all married. He spent his days and half his nights writing a book on the history of calendars. In addition he was engaged in translating Milton's Paradise Lost into Hebrew. He was in his seventies, -30-short, with rounded shoulders and a small head on which he wore a six-cornered skullcap. His sparse beard had passed through the stage of grayness and was now a faded yellow. A pair of blue-tinted spectacles was perched in front of his gray eyes. Now he was climbing a wall ladder to get a book from an upper shelf of the bookcase. He climbed slowly, one rung at a time, halting after each step. He put out his hand and took a volume from a lower shelf, peering at its pages through a magnifying glass.
    "Yes, yes, yes, babble, babble, idle talk . . ." he muttered to himself, giving the Yiddish an elegant German intonation.
    The door opened and the chief sexton entered, a red-faced man with a wavy beard. He was dressed in an alpaca surtout, striped trousers, and a wide cap