Free Two Scholars Who Were in Our Town and Other Novellas by S. Y. Agnon

him, “Rabbi, when will you finally come to us? The rabbinical seat still awaits you.” A few of those in the community, who feared that the matter would drag on and that our town would remain without a rabbi as it had until now, entered into discussions with a sage from one of the nearby towns. This sage, seeing that most of the people were leaning towards Reb Shlomo, got out of it by way of a jest. He said, “After all, I am already a rabbi in your town, as most of the householders who are in my town reside in yours.” And here we must explain the words of the sage. “Reside” meant reside in the jails, in that some of the householders of his town would be caught conducting fraudulent business and would be incarcerated in the jails of our town, as the jails in our town serviced the entire region.
    31.
    Reb Shlomo occupied the seat of his father and led his congregation peacefully and equitably. He issued several rulings which were good for the rich as well as for the poor, for the mighty as well as for the meek, for the men as well as for the women. How so for the rich? Among the wealthy are those who avert their eyes from the poor and do not give charity. When the needy die, even if their debts are paid off, they are not permitted to be buried until their heirs pay a certain amount for plot fees. And at times this would delay the deceased from burial so long that the body emitted a stench. Reb Shlomo ruled that every rich person had to purchase a burial plot in the cemetery and donate annually to the poor fund an amount equal to the interest he would have earned had he loaned the same amount that the land had cost him. And the result was that the rich and poor benefited equally. And how so for the mighty and the meek? There were some people who could not afford to pay tuition for private tutors and were embarrassed to bring their children to the local schoolhouse, for that is where the children of the poor study and it would become known that they were poor. Reb Shlomo appointed good teachers at the school and personally tended to the pupils. Some of the wealthy householders envied them and began to bring their boys there as well, so that one could no longer distinguish between the poor and the rich. For men and women, how so? It was customary in town that when an important person died his remains would be purified in the ritual bath. As this caused some women to fear going to that mikveh, Reb Shlomo decreed that it was prohibited to bring the dead for immersion.
    32.
    And thus Reb Shlomo sat in peace and led his congregation equitably. He issued many rulings and received everyone graciously. But anywhere he detected even a hint of desecrating God and His Holy Torah he wouldn’t stand for it, even from the upstanding. In the town there was a certain wealthy Enlightenment scholar, one of those about whom scripture says, “Can an Enlightened one seek after God?” Once during the life of the old scholar of blessed memory, this man was seen riding in a steam-powered wagon, which today is called a train, on the second day of the festival, a holy day. And when he was chastised instead of saying, “I was forced to,” he rather attempted to prove that travel by this type of wagon is permitted even on the Sabbath. Back in those days, transgressors used to seek a lenient interpretation of the rules of law, the very same kind of interpretation that the later medieval rabbis had decreed to be without foundation. When Reb Shlomo had been appointed as rabbi of the town, that same Enlightenment scholar had tried to get close to him, mistakenly thinking that he had found someone of like mind, inasmuch as the rabbi was familiar with German. Reb Shlomo, who embraced everyone, detested those scholars who used their knowledge perversly, uncovering ways to interpret the Torah in contravention of religious law, all the more so with respect to Sabbath observance upon which the redemption of Israel depends. And the more this man tried