Two Scholars Who Were in Our Town and Other Novellas by S. Y. Agnon Page A

habit of doing up to this point, as he was not one to converse with just anyone and if he did converse he did so only in truncated conversations. And when the dignitaries had left for the inn, his father-in-law Reb Meirtche summoned the tailor and the shoemaker to make clothing and shoes for Reb Moshe Pinchas, since the clothing and shoes that had been made for his wedding were worn out. The tailor labored at his craft as did the shoemaker, for they knew that so long as their work was not complete Reb Moshe Pinchas would be detained from leaving and an entire congregation would be left in limbo, like an abandoned wife without a divorce forever chained to her husband. And as such, they hastened to finish and did justice to their craft. And when Reb Moshe Pinchas donned his new clothes, his appearance truly was transformed into that of a rabbi. While all this was going on, his mother-in-law prepared everything that was needed for the journey. And when all was ready, Reb Moshe Pinchas boarded the coach and half the town came to escort him, all being jubilant that this talented scholar who had toiled in Torah was so esteemed by the Torah itself that people had come from another town to secure him for a great honor. And even his mother came to part from her only son, leaning on her cane, and in her hands a really large loaf like the ones she used to give him in the early days. She gazed upon her son and said, “My son, you look a rabbi. If only your father had been fortunate enough to see you this way, he would still be alive. The miller mills all his days, mills and mills endlessly, and in the end he mills his own bones until he dies. And I too shall die, and I don’t know where I will be taken. Remember, my son, and don’t forget that I carried you and gave birth to you and nursed you, and I implore you now to admonish the evil angels lest they vilify me.”
    And thus Reb Moshe Pinchas boarded the coach, dressed in his new finery that had that very day left the hands of the tailor, with the two dignitaries, emissaries of their town, sitting one to his right and the other to his left. After he had completed the traveler’s prayer he lit upon two peculiar questions that all the rabbis had wrestled with: why does Maimonides never mention the traveler’s prayer and why would theMaharam of Rothenburg recite the prayer in his house upon departing on a journey? In the heat of the events which transpired later on his observations on that issue were forgotten, and it is a shame that such a fine pearl of wisdom was lost to us.
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    And so the carriage left town and arrived at a crossroads, where Reb Moshe Pinchas looked down the road leading to the town that had hired him as Rabbi. He recalled the day on which he had gone there on foot and he remembered everything that had befallen him in that town. He mused to himself, “Here I am, traveling by carriage to the very place where the residents rose up to swallow me whole because I sought to undermine their shepherd.” He suppressed the anger in his heart with words of Torah and began to expound on the verse, “Do not come to anger on the road,” the text of which the Gemara interpreted to mean, “When on the road, do not engage in matters of law.” And, therefore, he began discussing other matters. The two emissaries were reminded of Reb Shlomo, their rabbi, who had left their town and encouraged them to take on Reb Moshe Pinchas as their next rabbi. And since they remembered their rabbi, they also remembered his righteousness. One of them said to Reb Moshe Pinchas, “I’m wondering, Rabbi, why you haven’t asked us how it came to be that we selected you as our new rabbi.” Reb Moshe Pinchas said, “I was also wondering, but was preoccupied with matters of Torah law and forgot to ask you.” The dignitary said, “In that case, I will tell you. When our great rabbi the sage Rabbi Shlomo, may he live long, was elevated to the seat of his father the sage, of blessed memory,