would not reach the Land of Is-rael. But blessed be all the passengers, all were proper Jews and none of them turned him in or denounced him. And even though all of
them love the Emperor and wish him well and want his armies to be strong, they don’t think of turning a Jewish boy over to the army.
After the train moved, Isaac raised his eyes. He saw before him dignified people, their beards black and shapely, their hats big and wide, and their shoes polished and shining. They sit comfortably and take cakes and brandy out of their bags and drink a toast and con-verse pleasantly with one another like well-mannered people. The train makes another stop, and broad-shouldered men with thick side-locks and wide belts come in. No sooner did they put their belongings down than they started reciting the prayer: It is You, HASHEM, our God before whom our forefathers burned the incense-spices in the time when the Holy Temple stood as You commanded them through Moses Your prophet, as is written in the Torah. All the passengers joined them and stood up for the afternoon prayers.
The train moves on and on and Reuben doesn’t go where Simon goes and Simon doesn’t go where Levi goes, but this one goes to this place and that one to that place. But at that hour, all their faces are turned to Jerusalem and their hearts are turned to their Father in Heaven, and all of them stand in awe and submission and great devotion and recite the afternoon prayers. Then the conductor came in and saw Jews standing at their prayers, so he withdrew and went to check the tickets of others who weren’t praying.
I
The train moves on and on, and as it moves it embraces stations and villages, towns and cities. And at every station, the conductor announces the name of the town, and signs hang in the railroad stations, and wherever the train arrives, the name of that city shines on the sign. Cities whose names you never even heard roll by. And all of a sudden, your heart is shaken because the train has reached Tarnow, that same Tarnow that added a village in the Land of Israel. That village, Mahanayim, has already fallen to rack and ruin and its despondent inhabitants have left there. But your affectionate glance rests on every Jew who gets on the train from this city, for that person may have lent a hand to the Land of Israel or he may have been in the Land of Israel and returned here because he didn’t succeed there.
A few years before, the newspapers announced that the farmers of Mahanayim were in trouble and distress and Isaac collected ten Crowns for them. Ten Crowns isn’t enough to satisfy a host of hun-gry people, but it can show them that even in a wretched town like Isaac’s, there is a person who pays heed to his brothers who work the soil of the Land of Israel.
The train moves on its way, disgorging passengers and ab-sorbing passengers. People come with open hearts and strange pronunciations. Some look with angry eyes at Isaac because he is sitting in his seat while they are wandering from place to place, and some look with angry eyes because their heart is pressed and making a liv-ing is hard. Isaac ponders, those people are Hasidim of that Rebbe who didn’t miss a time or place to revile and vilify the Zionists. Last year, Between the Straits, between the seventeenth day of Tamuz when the walls of Jerusalem were breached and the ninth day of Av when the Temple was destroyed, on the Sabbath when we bless the consoling month of Av, he sat amid his Hasids before the prayer and maligned the Zionists as was his wont. And when he passed before the Ark with the blessings for the new month and for impending sal-vation, he added a curse to the blessing and shouted at the top of his voice, But not through the wicked heretics in our time. And because he feared lest the Holy-One-Blessed-Be-He didn’t know the Holy tongue, he translated his words into Yiddish, Di epikorsim vus zaanen in inzere tsaatn.
The train reached Cracow, a metropolis with
them love the Emperor and wish him well and want his armies to be strong, they don’t think of turning a Jewish boy over to the army.
After the train moved, Isaac raised his eyes. He saw before him dignified people, their beards black and shapely, their hats big and wide, and their shoes polished and shining. They sit comfortably and take cakes and brandy out of their bags and drink a toast and con-verse pleasantly with one another like well-mannered people. The train makes another stop, and broad-shouldered men with thick side-locks and wide belts come in. No sooner did they put their belongings down than they started reciting the prayer: It is You, HASHEM, our God before whom our forefathers burned the incense-spices in the time when the Holy Temple stood as You commanded them through Moses Your prophet, as is written in the Torah. All the passengers joined them and stood up for the afternoon prayers.
The train moves on and on and Reuben doesn’t go where Simon goes and Simon doesn’t go where Levi goes, but this one goes to this place and that one to that place. But at that hour, all their faces are turned to Jerusalem and their hearts are turned to their Father in Heaven, and all of them stand in awe and submission and great devotion and recite the afternoon prayers. Then the conductor came in and saw Jews standing at their prayers, so he withdrew and went to check the tickets of others who weren’t praying.
I
The train moves on and on, and as it moves it embraces stations and villages, towns and cities. And at every station, the conductor announces the name of the town, and signs hang in the railroad stations, and wherever the train arrives, the name of that city shines on the sign. Cities whose names you never even heard roll by. And all of a sudden, your heart is shaken because the train has reached Tarnow, that same Tarnow that added a village in the Land of Israel. That village, Mahanayim, has already fallen to rack and ruin and its despondent inhabitants have left there. But your affectionate glance rests on every Jew who gets on the train from this city, for that person may have lent a hand to the Land of Israel or he may have been in the Land of Israel and returned here because he didn’t succeed there.
A few years before, the newspapers announced that the farmers of Mahanayim were in trouble and distress and Isaac collected ten Crowns for them. Ten Crowns isn’t enough to satisfy a host of hun-gry people, but it can show them that even in a wretched town like Isaac’s, there is a person who pays heed to his brothers who work the soil of the Land of Israel.
The train moves on its way, disgorging passengers and ab-sorbing passengers. People come with open hearts and strange pronunciations. Some look with angry eyes at Isaac because he is sitting in his seat while they are wandering from place to place, and some look with angry eyes because their heart is pressed and making a liv-ing is hard. Isaac ponders, those people are Hasidim of that Rebbe who didn’t miss a time or place to revile and vilify the Zionists. Last year, Between the Straits, between the seventeenth day of Tamuz when the walls of Jerusalem were breached and the ninth day of Av when the Temple was destroyed, on the Sabbath when we bless the consoling month of Av, he sat amid his Hasids before the prayer and maligned the Zionists as was his wont. And when he passed before the Ark with the blessings for the new month and for impending sal-vation, he added a curse to the blessing and shouted at the top of his voice, But not through the wicked heretics in our time. And because he feared lest the Holy-One-Blessed-Be-He didn’t know the Holy tongue, he translated his words into Yiddish, Di epikorsim vus zaanen in inzere tsaatn.
The train reached Cracow, a metropolis with
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