AHARON APPELFELD
433
honor me, honor the old and sick people," he said then. "We'll honor
both them and you," they sought to mollify him. He yielded to them
and never forgave himself for yielding. Since then six years had passed.
From year to year the struggle grew harsher, more burdensome and ex–
hausting. Were it not for Hirzl, who cared for him and served him his
meals on time, it's doubtful whether he would have kept going. When
his mood was somber, she would tell him about her village, the church,
and the priest. The village priest was not lenient to the sinners. He
chided them severely, and if his reproaches were of no avail, he used to
lash them with a whip, quite literally.
"Is that how people behave in the country?" wondered the Rabbi.
"In that way and none other. Some people are coarse in body and
spirit, and only the whip works for them."
"And they're willing to be punished?"
"Yes. If the priest sees fit to punish them, that means they deserve it.
Isn't that so?"
The following day he didn't get out of bed. Board meetings always
made him ill. Hirzl didn't wake him up for prayers. At nearly eleven o'–
clock she served him a cup of coffee and a roll spread with butter.
"How was the service?" he asked before sipping his coffee.
"Everything went fine . Everybody came. I served them breakfast."
"Did the carriage-drivers behave properly?"
"Properly. "
The morning prayer quorum had been held for ten years now. At
one time a few merchants had also joined the old men. Now only the
Rabbi and the old men prayed.
It
wasn't easy for them to get up in the
morning, to dress and go out in the carriages. The distance from the old
age home to the synagogue was not great, but still, it was a distance.
Were it not for the hot meal that Hirzl prepared for them, no one
could have roused them from their beds. The meal and the cigarette after
it renewed them, and they returned to the old age home with glowing
faces.
Only in the afternoon did the Rabbi overcome his weakness and get
out of bed. He immediately headed for the meadows, and from there to
the river. It is not easy to rid one's mind of six surfeited faces demanding
again and again that reductions must be made, efficiency must be in–
creased, and morning prayers and the afternoon Talmud lesson must be
canceled. "An ancient creed must die an honorable death, but not with
exaggerated stridency," they declared in a clever-sounding, annoying
tone. The Rabbi was revoltingly familiar with those tones, but still,
when they were heard in his office, an evil chill made his whole body
