"Nay," said he good-humoredly. "I perceive neither of us can walk.
Those sacks must play Jonah. Out with them."
"No," I said.
"Yes," he insisted, laughing. "Did I not say Satan was determined to
spoil my Passover? The third time I shall have better luck perhaps."
I protested against thus causing him so much loss, and offered to go
and find the Baal Shem alone, but he rolled out the flour-bags,
laughing, leaving one for the woman to lie against.
"But your wife will be expecting them," I remarked, as the cart
proceeded with both of us in our seats.
"She will be expecting me, too," he said, smiling ruefully. "However,
she has faith in God. Never yet have we lacked food. Surely He who
feedeth the ravens--" He broke off with a sudden thought, leapt down,
and ran back.
"What is it?" I said.
I saw him draw out his knife again and slit open the sacks. "The birds
shall keep Passover," he called out merrily.
The woman was still sobbing as he climbed to his place, but he
comforted her with his genial and heterodox philosophy.
"'Tis a device of Satan," he said, "to drive us to despondency, so as
to choke out the God-spark in us. Your sin is great, but your Father
in Heaven awaits you, and will rejoice as a King rejoices over a
princess redeemed from captivity. Every soul is a whole Bible in
itself. Yours contains Sarah and Ruth as well as Jezebel and Michal.
Hitherto you have developed the Jezebel in you; strive now to develop
the Sarah." With such bold consolations he soothed her, till the
monotonous movement of the cart sent her into a blessed sleep. Then he
took out a pipe and, begging permission of me, lighted it. As the
smoke curled up his face became ecstatic.
"I think," he observed musingly, "that God is more pleased with this
incense of mine than with all the prayers of all the Rabbis."
This shocked even me, fascinated though I was. Never had I met such a
man in all Israel. I shook my head in half-serious reproof. "You are a
sinner," I said.
"Nay, is not smoking pleasurable? To enjoy aright aught in God's
creation is to praise God. Even so, is not to pray the greatest of all
pleasures?"
"To pray?" I repeated wonderingly. "Nay, methinks it is a heavy burden
to get through our volumes of prayer."
"A burden!" cried the old man. "A burden to enter into relation with
God, to be reabsorbed into the divine unity. Nay, 'tis a bliss as of
bridegroom with bride. Whoso does not feel this joy of union--this
divine kiss--has not prayed."
"Then have I never prayed," I said.
"Then 'tis you that are the sinner," he retorted, laughing.
His words struck me into a meditative silence. It was towards twilight
when our oddly-encountered trio approached the great Talmudical
centre. To my surprise a vast crowd seemed to be waiting at the gates.
"It is for me," said the woman hysterically, for she had now awakened.
"My brothers have told the elders. They will kill you. O save
yourself."
"Peace, peace," said the old man, puffing his pipe.
As we came near we heard the people shouting, and nearer still made
out the sounds. Was it? Yes, I could not be mistaken. "The Baal Shem!
The Baal Shem!"
My heart beat violently. What a stroke of luck was this! "The Baal
Shem is there!" I cried exultantly.
The woman grew worse. "The Baal Shem!" she shrieked. "He is a holy
man. He will slay us with a glance."
"Peace, my beautiful creature," said the driver. "You are more likely
to slay him with a glance."
This time his levity grated on me. I peered eagerly towards the gates,
striving to make out the figure of the mighty Saint!
The dense mob swayed tumultuously. Some of the people ran towards our
cart. Our horse had to come to a stand-still. In a trice a dozen hands
had unharnessed him, there was an instant of terrible confusion in
which I felt that violence was indeed meditated, then I found our cart
being drawn forward as in triumph by contesting hands, while in my
ears thundered from a thousand throats, "The Baal Shem! The Baal
Shem!" Suddenly I looked with an incredible suspicion at the old man,
smoking imperturbably at my side.
"'Tis indeed a change for Brody," he said, with a laugh that was half
a sob.
A faintness blotted out the whole strange scene--the town-gates, the
eager faces, the gesticulating figures, the houses, the frightened
woman at my side.
It was the greatest surprise of my life.