Free Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home by Harry Kemelman Page A

self-satisfied smirk. Now he said. “This is it, boys.”
    They looked at one another questioningly and then at him. “This is what. Meyer? Have you gone crazy or something?”
    He looked at Edelstein and then turned to the back, where Kallen and Arons were sitting. “What you’re looking at, gentlemen, is the site for the new temple. Prime shore front property. You said you’d pull out. Irving, and I told you there was no place else to go. Okay” – his hand swept out to encompass all before them – “here’s a place.”
    No one said anything, but Paff seemed not in the least fazed by their silence, which made his deep rumble sound all the more booming. “All of us, we’ve all kicked in with big hunks of dough to the temple. Am I, are we going to let a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies push us around and tell us they’re taking over and we should go peddle our papers someplace else?”
    “You mean you want to start a new temple, here on the site of this old ark?” said Edelstein, finally managing to put what they all felt into words.
    “I mean I want to use this old ark, as you put it, for the new temple. She’s a hundred and fifty years old, but she’s sound, because that’s how they used to build in those days. Of course, it will cost some money to fix up –”
    “Some money?” said Arons. “It’ll cost a fortune.”
    “So what? I made my money too late to change my habits. My Laura is after me I should have my suits made to order. ‘You’ve got it now; spend it.’ But I can’t. I can’t get interested enough in clothes to bother. When I play poker, I play penny ante, and I notice that I get as much fun out of winning ninety cents as I would if it were ninety dollars. And Irving is just as sore at losing thirty-two cents.”
    “Thirty-seven cents.”
    “Right! Thirty-seven cents. See what I mean? None of us would ever think of gambling more than he could afford to lose, so it doesn’t make any difference if it’s pennies or dollars; we get the same kind of kick out of it. I used to trade my car every three or four years; now I trade every couple of years. Each time I come in to trade. Al Becker tries to get me to switch to a Lincoln. ‘A man like you.’ he says, ‘should drive a big car.’ What am I? A kid? A college boy? I got to ride around showing off in a big car to impress some dizzy little broad? For me, a car is just to get from one place to another, and I’m used to a small car. But the temple – that’s something else. I helped build it. Jake Wasserman started it, but I was right there behind him plunking down hard cash when it was needed. So now when Gorfinkle and his boys steal the place out from under our noses, do we just sit quiet and keep handing over money to them so they can spend it the way they like? What are we, a bunch of lousy Arabs we should steal away in our tents? I say, let’s give them a fight; let’s give them some competition.”
    “But the money –”
    “So what? If I’m not going to use my money for things I don’t care about, and I’m not going to use it for things I do care about, what am I going to use it for?”
    “Just what do you have in mind?” asked Edelstein. “They’re asking eighty thousand –”
    “Eighty thousand? For an old ark?”
    “Shore front, Irv, shore front. And there’s a nice piece of land across the street that’s part of the deal. That would make a nice parking lot. Believe me, it’s a good investment even for a businessman.”
    “You mean you want us to buy it outright, just like that with our own money?”
    “Us and a few others I got in mind. We form a corporation and buy the place. Then we sell it to the new temple organization – at cost – and take back notes for our money. In the meantime it’s a tax deduction. When the temple organization raises the money, they pay us off, and not only are we in the clear, but we’ve done a fine thing.” He lowered his voice confidentially. “I’ll tell you, I was thinking