The Maccabaean

DURING Selichoth (Hymns of Penitence) week, the Chassidic Rebi of Nemorova would disappear. Everyone wondered where he went. The pious said that he spent every morning of the week in Paradise, for the Days of Dread were approaching and there was much for him to do. The Jews were in need of health and prosperity, and their good resolutions had to be placed before the Lord in order that the Adversary should not have a free hand to blacken their celestial reputations. Gossip had it for certain that the Rebi must be in Paradise during that week.

Once a doubting Litvack settled in Nemorova and would not believe the story. He was one of those impudent Jews, who say that even Moses, our Master, could not enter Paradise, that he was compelled to stand about ten yards from the gate. He was asked, "Where, then, can the Rebi go if not to Paradise?"

"My brother!" he would reply, shrugging his shoulders. The doubter was determined, however, to ascertain for his own information whereto the Rebi disappeared.

One evening he crept into the Rebi's study and hid under the bed. If it had been another man he would have fallen asleep, but the Litvack spent his time memorizing an entire Mesikta (Talmudic Chapter), and he was awake when the call came to go to the synagogue to chant the penitential hymns. But the Rebi was still in bed, groaning, turning

restlessly in his sleep. Perhaps he was groaning for the woes of Israel. Soon the bed creaked, and after seeing that the rest of the people in the house had left, the Rebi arose. First he performed his ablutions and then went into a sort of closet and brought out a package. He unbound the package and the Litvack under the bed saw that it contained a suit of peasant's clothes, trousers, high boots, a heavy fur coat and a leather belt ornamented with brass nails. The Rebi dressed himself like a peasant and started to leave. The Litvack emerged from under the bed and followed him. The Rebi entered the kitchen and found an axe, which he placed in his belt, and then left the house. The Litvack followed.

A silent autumn breeze swept through the dark streets, and a cry broke on the air as from some lost soul chanting the penitential hymns. The Rebi did not walk on the main thoroughfare, but slunk in the shadows of the houses in the rear streets. He dodged behind one house after another, with the Litvack close after him. The beating of his own heart kept time with the Rebi's heavy footsteps, but he held to the pace until the Rebi arrived at the town limits. For awhile the Rebi stood there in doubt, then he approached a small tree and prepared to chop it down. The tree bent and finally yielded under his vigorous blows. The Rebi split the tree into long bits, then into smaller pieces and gather-