with a nod. He left the pulpit and joined her as she made her way out of the sanctuary.
“Something wrong, dear?”
“I feel a little done in. I guess I’ve got used to napping in the afternoon. Alice Fine is going home, and I thought I’d get a ride with her.”
“You’ll make yourself some tea, won’t you? Or perhaps a glass of warm milk would be even better. I think you should eat something. You sure you’re all right?”
“Believe me, David, I feel fine.”
“Anything wrong?” asked Schwarz when the rabbi returned to the pulpit. He told him Miriam felt a little tired.
“Well, it’s understandable. I hope she’s not fasting.”
“She was, but she promised to eat something.”
The sun began to set, and many of those who had left earlier returned to take part in the final congregational confession of sins, “We have trespassed, we have been faithless… ” and to ask once again for forgiveness, “Our God and God of our fathers, pardon our iniquities on this Day of Atonement… Accept, O Lord our God, thy people Israel and their prayer… “
The sun set as they began to read responsively the Ovenu Malkenu, “Our Father, our King.” Then in a voice of fervor and exultation, they declaimed, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One,” followed by “Blessed be His Name, whose glorious Kingdom is forever and ever,” recited three times. Then seven times, the cantor and the congregation exclaimed, “The Lord, He is God,” each time louder and more passionately, the last time climaxed by a long blast eerie, piercing, and exultant of the shofar, the ram’s horn, signifying the end of the long day of Atonement and the ten Days of Awe.
The Mourner’s Kaddish remained to be said, and a benediction by the rabbi, but the members of the congregation were already folding their prayer shawls and shaking hands with their neighbors and wishing them a healthy and happy New Year.
The rabbi shook hands with Mortimer Schwarz, with the cantor, and with the vice-president.
“See you tonight, Rabbi?” asked Schwarz.
“If Miriam feels well enough.”
Chapter Nine
Reluctantly Jordan Marcus went to the telephone, but before picking up the instrument he made one more appeal. “I tell you, Liz, I still don’t think we ought to get mixed up in this. We’re new members, for one thing.”
“So?” his wife said. “You paid your dues, didn’t you?”
“You know damn well I did, and don’t think that hundred bucks didn’t hurt plenty, plus fifty bucks on top of that for two tickets ”
“So? So what did you want to do on the High Holidays? Go to the movies?”
“You didn’t even have to show your tickets. We could have just walked in ”
“And when you got in you’d be invisible? The Levensons, the Baylisses they wouldn’t see you? And wouldn’t know you’re not a member?”
“We could have gone to my folks’ place in Chelsea. It would have cost me ten bucks apiece for the tickets, and I would have saved myself a hundred and thirty bucks.”
“And next year, when Monte has to start religious school, you’d take him to Chelsea three days a week, I suppose.”
“So we could have joined next year. And that’s a sweet little racket, by the way, making you join the temple so your kids can go to the religious school.”
“They all do it, all the new temples. I guess they got to. Besides what’s the difference if we join this year or next year?”
“A hundred and thirty bucks’ difference.”
“You want everybody to know you only joined at the last minute because you had to? You want everybody to think we’re cheap?”
“Well, by God, I’d just as soon. I’m getting sick and tired of worrying about whether people think I’m cheap. I put in wall-to-wall broadloom for almost a thousand bucks so people wouldn’t think I was cheap; I swapped the Chevy for a Pontiac so people wouldn’t think I was cheap; and when Henry Bayliss suggests going to the
“Something wrong, dear?”
“I feel a little done in. I guess I’ve got used to napping in the afternoon. Alice Fine is going home, and I thought I’d get a ride with her.”
“You’ll make yourself some tea, won’t you? Or perhaps a glass of warm milk would be even better. I think you should eat something. You sure you’re all right?”
“Believe me, David, I feel fine.”
“Anything wrong?” asked Schwarz when the rabbi returned to the pulpit. He told him Miriam felt a little tired.
“Well, it’s understandable. I hope she’s not fasting.”
“She was, but she promised to eat something.”
The sun began to set, and many of those who had left earlier returned to take part in the final congregational confession of sins, “We have trespassed, we have been faithless… ” and to ask once again for forgiveness, “Our God and God of our fathers, pardon our iniquities on this Day of Atonement… Accept, O Lord our God, thy people Israel and their prayer… “
The sun set as they began to read responsively the Ovenu Malkenu, “Our Father, our King.” Then in a voice of fervor and exultation, they declaimed, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One,” followed by “Blessed be His Name, whose glorious Kingdom is forever and ever,” recited three times. Then seven times, the cantor and the congregation exclaimed, “The Lord, He is God,” each time louder and more passionately, the last time climaxed by a long blast eerie, piercing, and exultant of the shofar, the ram’s horn, signifying the end of the long day of Atonement and the ten Days of Awe.
The Mourner’s Kaddish remained to be said, and a benediction by the rabbi, but the members of the congregation were already folding their prayer shawls and shaking hands with their neighbors and wishing them a healthy and happy New Year.
The rabbi shook hands with Mortimer Schwarz, with the cantor, and with the vice-president.
“See you tonight, Rabbi?” asked Schwarz.
“If Miriam feels well enough.”
Chapter Nine
Reluctantly Jordan Marcus went to the telephone, but before picking up the instrument he made one more appeal. “I tell you, Liz, I still don’t think we ought to get mixed up in this. We’re new members, for one thing.”
“So?” his wife said. “You paid your dues, didn’t you?”
“You know damn well I did, and don’t think that hundred bucks didn’t hurt plenty, plus fifty bucks on top of that for two tickets ”
“So? So what did you want to do on the High Holidays? Go to the movies?”
“You didn’t even have to show your tickets. We could have just walked in ”
“And when you got in you’d be invisible? The Levensons, the Baylisses they wouldn’t see you? And wouldn’t know you’re not a member?”
“We could have gone to my folks’ place in Chelsea. It would have cost me ten bucks apiece for the tickets, and I would have saved myself a hundred and thirty bucks.”
“And next year, when Monte has to start religious school, you’d take him to Chelsea three days a week, I suppose.”
“So we could have joined next year. And that’s a sweet little racket, by the way, making you join the temple so your kids can go to the religious school.”
“They all do it, all the new temples. I guess they got to. Besides what’s the difference if we join this year or next year?”
“A hundred and thirty bucks’ difference.”
“You want everybody to know you only joined at the last minute because you had to? You want everybody to think we’re cheap?”
“Well, by God, I’d just as soon. I’m getting sick and tired of worrying about whether people think I’m cheap. I put in wall-to-wall broadloom for almost a thousand bucks so people wouldn’t think I was cheap; I swapped the Chevy for a Pontiac so people wouldn’t think I was cheap; and when Henry Bayliss suggests going to the
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