Isaac Bashevis Singer
STRONG AS DEATH IS LOVE
My aunt Yentl and her cronies were talking about love,
and Aunt Yentl was saying, "There is such a thing as love. There is.
It even existed in former times. People think that it's new. It is not
true. Love is even mentioned in the Bible. Laban gave his daughter
Leah to Jacob, but Jacob loved Rachel. Imagine, a saint like this .
Still he was flesh and blood. One glance at a person and you see his
or her charm. The only difference is that in olden times once you
liked someone you got married. Nowadays, couples get engaged but
still look for others.
"Not far from Turbin there was a squire and they called him
the crazy squire . Actually, all the nobles were somewhat pixilated.
They lived in so much luxury that they didn't know whether they
were coming or going . This squire, Jan Chwalski, was completely
befuddled . He didn't speak, he screamed. He kept warning his serfs
that he would whip them to death but he never laid a finger on any–
body. When a peasant became sick, he sent in a doctor or at least a
healer to cure him. He had a court-Jew named Betzalel whom he
often threatened to hang and shoot. Still, on Purim he sent him a
Purim gift. When Betzalel married off his daughter, the squire sent
her a wedding present. He came to the wedding and danced a Kos–
sack dance with the Jews and made himself so ridiculous that the
people almost choked from laughter. Chwalski never married be–
cause he was in love with a noble woman who had a husband. Her
name was Aliza and she was not really such a beauty as he imagined.
Not bad, gentle and slender. Gentiles, as a rule, are blonde but she
was a brunette with black eyes and with a most charming smile. Her
husband, Count Lipski, was the biggest drunkard in the whole of
Poland. No one had ever seen him sober. He drank away his entire
fortune. He knew that Chwalski was in love with his wife, but these
things did not bother him . It was said that he used to wake up in the
middle of the night and drink vodka from a pitcher through a straw.
If
this Aliza would have been a loose woman she could have com–
mitted the worst sins. But she was a dignified lady. She used to plead
with Chwalski not to chase after her since she was married, but
Chwalski loved her too much to comply. He wrote daily love letters
to her and sent them by messenger. Maybe once a year he received a
