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

husband of Reb Feivush the Great’s sister. The fields belonging to the town’s Baron were leased to the father-in-law of the husband of Feivush the Great’s sister. And all of them together were partners in leasing the liquor authority. In short, there was not even one office of importance or monetary value that was not in the hands of the House of Feivush. Even the appraisers and tax assessors and the one in charge of the charitable consecrations were from this same family. Since Reb Fischel had married a woman from the family of the House of Feivush, the Feivushes said, “Why not nominate him for a judgeship? Surely he is entitled to it by rights of his first father-in-law and surely by his own right he is worthy to be a judge.” Those who were dependent on the Feivushes, tagged along behind them. Those who were not dependent on the Feivushes leaned at times in one direction and at times in the other. And so the peace was stripped away and the conflict had begun.
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    From time to time wealthy people from our town from would visit Reb Shlomo’s town for trade and commerce or to conduct some other business. And when someone from our town would visit Reb Shlomo’s town, he would go to meet him and deliver tidings to the rabbi’s wife from her brothers and other relatives. On days that she received visitors from our town the rabbi’s wife would make it a holiday for them because she liked her hometown folk, the vast majority of whom were fine and well-mannered people, and needless to say she liked the town itself which was worthy of affection. As the conflict had intensified and Reb Moshe Pinchas had already passed on, the rabbi’s wife went back to her wishful thinking that her husband the rabbi would return to our town. And she used to prepare large feasts for the guests to avail them the opportunity to speak with the rabbi and hear about new developments in our town. While there were not terribly many new developments in our town, still there is no town without something new. One development, from which you can learn how much our town loves peace and distances itself from conflict, is worth mentioning. When a member of one the new Hassidic sects, Vovi Zeinvil Fleshkidrige, broke the rules and wore a festive fur hat on the Sabbath immediately preceding the mournful fast day of Tisha B’Av, the entire town ridiculed him but it did not deteriorate into a brawl.
    And here it must be said, as we’ve already said before, that all our townsfolk were scholars. And whenever they used to sit around at a feast anywhere, it seemed as ifthe Divine table was actually standing in our town due to the plethora of Torah discussions that could be heard around it. From Torah discussions they would arrive at matters close to the Torah and it goes without saying to the matter of the rabbinate in our town. Reb Shlomo showed no indication that he was leaning towards accepting the rabbinate in our town. To the contrary, in those days he was urging the visiting dignitaries to seek another rabbi for themselves, as it is not right to leave an important Jewish town without a leader. One time Reb Shimon Eliyah, Reb Shlomo’s brother-in-law arrived with three of the best of our town, amongst them the distinguished Reb Yehudah, the father-in-law of my grandfather Reb Yehudah. After the evening prayers, during the meal, conversation got around to the conflict with the Feibushes and their entire clan. Reb Shimon Eliyah said to his brother-in-law, “Flee this town of quarrelsome people and come to our town.” The distinguished Reb Yehudah, father-in-law of my grandfather Reb Yehudah, added, “It is brought forth inMaimonides’s ‘Laws of Temperaments’ that if a man resides in a country whose leadership is malevolent and whose people fail to follow the just path, it behooves him to move to a place whose people are righteous and conduct themselves in the ways of virtue.” Reb Shlomo shut his eyes like a man who was contemplating his