THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

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DETROIT, MICH:, NOVEMBER 9, 1917

Vol. II. No. 87

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Chaim Bakal

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By Konrad Boercvici

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Chaim Bakal owned a large store And if Moishe only had the money educated, respectable and a good paper. Some accounts were not
recorded at all.
he would be happy to say, "Shall I business man.
in Vaslai, Roumania.
"Stan Gogol remembers his
So they drew up the marriage
Vaslai was a little Moldavian vil- send it to your store or will you
contract, and Rab Chaim induced debts. Rab Molitz has it written
lage whose outward appearance come for it yourself ?"
Chaim Bakal would never even the young man to become his part- down in his own book. I . don't
had been little changed by the prog-
have to keep any records for my
ress of civilization. The streets say thanks for such a favor. And ner in the store.
"The business is growing and I customers." So Chaim answered
had been leveled, the 'sidewalks in of course there was never any talk
am getting old. You are a business the inquiries of the bookkeeper.
the center of the city laid out, but of a note.
The young man grew very much
Chaim Bakal had a houseful of man. Besides it is not fitting that
the rest of the village remained as
it had been for hundreds of years. children—one son and six daugh- my son-in-law should work for alarmed.
"Father, how much do you think
Jews were practically the owners ters. God helped him and the old- someone else." So spoke Rab
of the city. The Gentiles had est daughter became of marriage- Chaim. And after the wedding the you are worth ?" he asked the old
grown so accustomed to dealing able age. "Shadchonim" kept run- son-in-law gave up his position and man one day.
"Oh, between ten and fifteen
with Jews that no Gentile could ning to the house from early morn- entered the business.
thousand
`rendlach'," Chaim Bakal
As
soon
as
the
young
man
came
ing till late at night. They knew
open a store in the city.
A Vaslai store was not of the that lie would give the girl a splen- into the store he asked about the answered proudly.
A few days later Chaim left for
kind which makes a specialty of did dowry, and so they proposed books. He wanted to get them into
Leipsig to buy merchandise. The
shape.
any one article. There one could the finest young men.
son-in-law seized the opportunity
What
books!
Whoever
kept
But the daughter did her own
buy golden earrings, brandy, silk,
to take an inventory of the bus-
knives, belts, boots and hats. In choosing. She was a modern books?
In Rab Chaim's pocket there was iness.
short, whatever one thought of or young woman and fell in love with
When the old man returned he
wished for could be found in a the bookkeeper of a large concern. a little note book in which was
"Brashevenie." And everything At first this did not please Rab marked down when the notes found that there had been a com-
was thrown together in a disorderly Chaim, but as soon as lie set eyes would fall due. The customers' plete revolution in the store.
mass on the rafters or hung down on the young man he was satisfied. accounts were either marked down Everything was in shipshape order.
The girl's choice was a fine fellow, in chalk on the wall or on slips of The merchandise was all carefully
from the roof beams on nails.
assorted and arranged.
This was the kind of store that
Soon his son-in-law came in and
Chaim Bakal ran.
asked for the names of the Leipsig
He was a big Jew with a red
firms with whom Rab Chaim dealt,
beard and heavy eyebrows. When
and these he entered into a book.
he spoke he counted each word.
By Max J. Herzberg
All day and till late into the
He still dressed "Yiddish," with a
night the young man sat over the
long "caftan" and a silken sash.
In many ways the writings of
In connection with the quadri-cen-
He was considered a very wealthy tennial celebration now being ob- Reuchlin and his followers in this books. The marks on the wall
split within the Roman were erased. Chaim's little pocket
man. Twice a year he would make served of the nailing of the Ninety- historic
five Theses by Martin Luther to the Church anticipate the reformation of note book was destroyed and the
a trip to Leipsig to buy merchan- church door at Wittenberg, it is in- Luther.
This was, however, Luther's view accounts all entered into the big
dise. And since his notes had teresting to note the great reformer's
in
an abstract matter of scholarship. book.
never been protested lie had un- contacts with Jews and Judaism.
When it came to individual Jews and
When all was ready Rab Chaim
In the first place, it may be ob- to the Jewish communities then ex-
limited credit.
served that Luther was of the Reuch- isting in Germany, Luther was by no asked, "Well?"
From Leipsig would come big lin faction in the celebrated sixteenth means always in advance of his age.
The bookkeeper hung his head.
cases of goods, and at their un- century controversy over the Talmud. On January 28, 1546, for example,
John Reuchlin, it will be recalled, be-
And what do you think ? In-
packing the wealthy women would came involved in an attempt made by Luther on a tour crossed the Saale
stead
of being a rich man with
River
and
passed
on
to
Eisleben
come together and choose what- the Dominican order of monks and through the little village of Rixdorf,
the Inquisition to destroy all Hebrew largely inhabited by Jews. On the about ten thousand "rendlach,"
ever they wished to buy and the books,
especially volumes of the Tal-
sales would be marked down with mud. He was stoutly opposed to following February 1 he wrote to his Rab Chaim was in debt six thou-
sand "rendlach." That is, he was
chalk on the wall, or, if it hap- their nefarious project, and himself wife:
"Dear Katie : I was weak on the insolvent.
published a Hebrew grammar. As road
to Eisleben, but that was my
pened to be a large amount, Chaim the attacks made upon him by the
The old man grew pale as death.
fault. Had you been with me
would write it down in his little Dominicans increased in volume, he own
you would have said it was the fault
Some time later he had to pay a
became, naturally enough, more and of the Jews or of their God. For we
pocket note book.
more friendly to the Jews and to had to pass through a village hard note and needed a few thousand
And so the business had been things
Jewish. In the Reuchlin con- by Eisleben where many Jews live; "rendlach." So he went off to get
troversy all learned persons in Eu- perhaps they blew on me too hard.
going on for twenty years.
Every evening when the clerk rope sooner or later became in- (In the city of Eisleben there are at a loan. But his proud, firm man-
volved. Those for Reuchlin were by
put up the shutters, Rab Chaim that very fact liberals, those against this hour fifty Jewish residents.) As ner was gone. He knew he was a
I drove through the village such a
would walk over to the till and him reactionaries. Luther, though a cold wind blew from behind through poor man. His voice trembled.
sided with the progressive
cap on my head that it was like He asked with an unsteady voice
count the money. Then he would monk,
party against the inquisitors. He ex- my
turn my brain to ice. This may and was refused.
tie it into his big red handkerchief pressed his opinion, among other to
have helped my vertigo, but now,
A second and third refused to
and later pour it into a big box places, in a letter to his friend George thank God, I am so well that I am
Spalatin, in February, 1514:
sore tempted by fair women and care lend him the money, and when Rab
which stood behind his bed.
"Brother John Lang has asked . me not how gallant I am.
Chaim confessed that he would
And if it sometimes happened what I think of the innocent and
"When the chief matters are set- have to sign a note, then no one
that he needed a few thousand learned Reuchlin, and whether he is, tled, I must devote myself to driving
as his persecutors of Cologne allege,
francs when a note fell due, Rab in danger of hersey. You know that out the Jews. Count Albert is hostile would give him the money. It was
to them, and has given them their
Chaim would go over to one of the I greatly esteem and like the man, deserts, but no one else has. God rumored in the city that Chaim was
perhaps my judgment will there-
hard pressed and that his business
rich men of the village and say, and
willing, I will help Count Albert
fore be suspected, but my opinion is
was tottering.
`Moishe Goldberg, give me three that in all his writings there is abso- from the pulpit."
(Continued on page 4)
(Continued
on
4)
or four thousand ,for a few days." lutely nothing dangerous."

Luther and the Jews

