It's Time to Get Higher and Higher
Tech Tribe Dispatch 170
💡 Think:
The following is an English rendition1 of Y. L. Peretz’s Oyb nisht nokh hekher! - If Not Higher. Peretz, one of the leading Yiddishts, was not a religious Jew, yet despite the satirical nature of his writings, he retained a general warmth for the chasidic community. This story, a work of fiction based on the the style of many chasidic tales, uses a “Litvak,” a chasidicially challenged Jew from Lithuania, as the protagonist. The story takes place on the eve of Selichos, the penitential prayers Ashkenazi Jews begin saying this Saturday night - after Shabbat. (Sephardic Jews began the beginning of Elul). The thrust of the story focuses on a core chasidic teaching: The sublime power of our actions in this world.
Early every Friday morning, at the time of the Selichos Prayers, the rabbi of Nemirov would vanish. He was nowhere to be seen - neither in the synagogue nor in the two study houses nor at a minyan. And he was certainly not at home. His door stood open: whoever wished could go in and out; no one would steal from the rabbi. But not a living creature was within.
Where could the rabbi be? Where should he be? In heaven, no doubt. A rabbi has plenty of business to take care of just before the Days of Awe. Jews, God bless them, need livelihood, peace, health, and good matches. They want to be pious and good, but our sins are so great, and Satan of the thousand eyes watches the whole earth from one end to the other. What he sees, he reports; he denounces, informs. Who can help us if not the rabbi!
That’s what the people thought.
But once a Litvak came, and he laughed. You know the Litvaks. They think little of the holy books but stuff themselves with Talmud and law. So this Litvak points to a passage in the Gemara - it sticks in your eyes - where it is written that even Moses, our Teacher, did not ascend to heaven during his lifetime but remained suspended two and a half feet below.
Go argue with a Litvak! So where can the rabbi be?
"That’s not my business," said the Litvak, shrugging. Yet all the while - what a Litvak can do! - he is scheming to find out.
That same night, right after the evening prayers, the Litvak steals into the rabbi’s room, slides under the rabbi’s bed, and waits. He’ll watch all night and discover where the rabbi vanishes and what he does during the Selichos Prayers. Someone else might have gotten drowsy and fallen asleep, but a Litvak is never at a loss; he recites a whole tractate of the Talmud by heart. At dawn he hears the call to prayers. T
he rabbi has already been awake for a long time. The Litvak has heard him groaning for a whole hour. Whoever has heard the rabbi of Nemirov groan knows how much sorrow for all Israel, how much suffering, lies in each groan. A man’s heart might break, hearing it. But a Litvak is made of iron; he listens and remains where he is.
The rabbi - long life to him! - lies on the bed, and the Litvak under the bed. Then the Litvak hears the beds in the house begin to creak; he hears people jumping out of their beds; mumbling a few Jewish words, pouring water on their fingernails, banging doors.
Everyone has left. It is again quiet and dark; a bit of light from the moon shines through the shutters. (Afterward, the Litvak admitted that when he found himself alone with the rabbi a great fear took hold of him. Goose bumps spread across his skin, and the roots of his payos pricked him like needles. A trifle: to be alone with the rabbi at the time of the Selichos Prayers! But a Litvak is stubborn. So he quivered like a fish in water and remained where he was.)
Finally the rabbi - long life to him! - arises. First, he does what befits a Jew. Then he goes to the clothes closet and takes out a bundle of non -ewish peasant clothes: linen trousers, high boots, a coat, a big felt hat, and a long, wide leather belt studded with brass nails. The rabbi gets dressed. From his coat pocket dangles the end of a heavy peasant rope.
The rabbi leaves and the Litvak follows. On the way the rabbi stops in the kitchen, bends down, takes an axe from the bed, puts it into his belt, and leaves the house.
The Litvak trembles but continues to follow. The hushed dread of the Days of Awe hangs over the dark streets. Every once in a while a cry rises from some minyan reciting the Selichos Prayers, or from a sickbed. The rabbi hugs the sides of the streets, keeping to the shade of the houses. He glides from house to house, and the Litvak after him. The Litvak hears the sound of his heartbeats mingling with the sound of the rabbi’s heavy steps.But he keeps on going and follows the rabbi to the outskirts of town.
A small wood stands just outside the town. The rabbi - long life to him! - enters the wood. He takes thirty or forty steps and stops by a small tree. The Litvak, overcome with amazement, watches the rabbi take the axe out of his belt and strike the tree. He hears the tree creak and fall. The rabbi chops the tree into logs and the logs into sticks. Then he makes a bundle of the wood and ties it with the rope in his pocket. He puts the bundle of wood on his back, shoves the axe back into his belt, and returns to the town.
He stops at a back street besides a small, broken-down shack and knocks at the window.
"Who is there?" asks a frightened voice. The Litvaks recognizes it as the voice of a sick Jewish woman.
"I" answers the rabbi in the accent of a peasant. "Who is I?"
Again the rabbi answers in Russian.
"Vassil."
"Who is Vassil, and what do you want?"
"I have wood to sell, very cheap."
And not waiting for the woman’s reply, he goes into the house. The Litvak steals in after him. In the gray light of early morning he sees a poor room with broken, miserable furnishings.
A sick woman, wrapped in rags, lies on the bed. She complains bitterly,
"Buy? How can I buy? Where will a poor widow get money?"
"I’ll lend it to you," answers the supposed Vassil. "It’s only six cents."
"And how will I ever pay you back?" asks the poor woman, groaning.
"Foolish one," says the rabbi reproachfully. "See, you are a poor, sick Jew, and I am ready to trust you with a little wood. I am sure you’ll pay. While you, you have such a great and mighty God and you don’t trust him for six cents."
"And who will kindle the fire?" asks the widow? "Have I the strength to get up? My son is at work."
"I’ll kindle the fire," answers the rabbi. As the rabbi puts the wood into the oven he recited, in a groan, the first portion of the Selichos Prayers. As he kindled the fire and the wood burned brightly, he recited, a bit more joyously, the second portion of the Selichos Prayers.
When the fire was set, he recited the third portion, and shut the stove.
The Litvak who saw all this became a disciple of the rabbi. And ever after, when another disciple tells how the rabbi of Nemirov ascends to heaven at the time of the Selichos Prayers, the Litvak does not laugh. He only adds quietly, "If not higher."
🏃 DO:
📅 LAST CHANCE! GET YOUR SEAT AT TWELVEX: The Soul of Soviet Jewry, at the Williamsburg Hotel, September 20th!
🐏 Googlers, join us at Google for a DIY Shofar workshop on Wednesday, September 21! Check the Jewglers Calendar!
🍎 Join our Rosh Hashanah meal, Sunday, September 25th - limited space available.
🐟 Hear the shofar, take part in the tashlich ceremony - join us for our second annual Rosh Hashanah experience on Tuesday, September 27th at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden!
📈 Invest:
Invest in Tech Tribe, join the #ChaiSociety!
Do you have a startup, announcement or message you’d like to share? Get it featured here!
📚 Read:
Returning to G-d, Each Year and Every Day: On the rejuvenation of spiritual life and the essential meaning of teshuvah
In the Shadow of Invasion. Text and art by Tech Tribe friend Molly Crabapple
🔥 Lit:
This week, light Shabbat candles in NYC at 6:45pm
For Shabbat candle-lighting time in your area click here.
Like what you saw? Want more? Please feel free to forward this email far and wide!
Support Tech Tribe’s mission to build community and curate epic experiences for young Jews in tech and digital media!
Follow us on Social: Twitter | Facebook| Instagram
Find out if your company does employee matching! We’re now listed on Benevity YourCause and Bright Funds!
Tech Tribe is an affiliate of Chabad Young Professionals Tax ID 82-2619676
Text from https://joewolfson.files.wordpress.com/