America Jewish Periodical
Yossele Sets Out to Walk
Hard Road to a New Life
By ALEPH KATZ
OSSELE AWOKE from sleep. He felt cold, very cold. He craned his head above the pit
and he saw that the sky was radiant with a bluish light. Through the bare black
Y
branches of the tree-tops he suddenly noticed a crimson glow. A shudder went through
his body, but he did not know whether it was due to the morning frost of early Fall or the
red eastern sky.
In the forest there was an him into their net, and he did
eerie silence. Yossele strained not know whether he was think-
his ears, but he heard nothing. ing of real events he had ex-
Slowly he began emerging from perienced, or whether it was all
the pit. As he stood on all fours a dream. How did he get here?
on the ground, he noticed a white Why is it so quiet here? And
rabbit several steps ahead. Yos- why has he no fear? And what
sele rejoiced at the sight of a has become of the old man, who
living creature. The rabbit stood left him here last night? ... a
as if chiselled out of stone, but good old man!
when he sensed the closeness of
"Greetings!" he said softly,
the boy, he speedily tore himself caressing me with his loving
.away from the ground and van- gaze, "where is the young man
ished. going all alone?"
Yossele burst into laughter.
"Greetings, grandpa!" I an-
His face lit up: a good, omen! swered, almost crying with joy.
Rhymes began coursing through It has been a long time since
his head:
I've met a kind person.
He tapped me gently on the
Rabit white,
shoulder. "Have courage, my
Rabbit pale,
son. Come, let's go together and
Bit o' nose,
I . . ." His voice was drowned
Little tail,
You have vanished into zero, out by an outburst of shooting.
Go, and don't return, my hero. He seized me by the hand and
pulled me into the forest, where
Yossele rose to his feet, we both fell into a ground-hold.
stretched, tightened the belt
When the shooting had quieted
around his tatered little coat, down somewhat, the old man
and made a step, but he sudden- opened his sack, took out some
ly paused—Where? Now he once bread and onions and we sat
more thought of the rabbit; down to a feast.
where did he go? To morning
"What is your name, son?" he
services in a rabbit synagogue? asked after the meal.
Yossele had an urge to find a
"Yossele! . . . And yours,
rhyme for "synagogue." but he
grandpa?"
felt too cold and postponed it
"Yossele? Quite a name, quite
for another time.
a name! Joseph of old too lay
• • •
OTHER THOUGHTS seized in a pit, whence he emerged
whole and rose to reach way,
way up, as Scripture relates .. .
And as for me, son, I am called,
L'SHONO TOVA
called now in so many places!
They call me Ezra."
TI KOSEVU
The old man kept on talking.
His words rocked me as if I were
HOLLYWOOD
in a cradle, and T. fell asleep.
And then, and then? Then I
CURTAIN LAUNDRY
saw my father, mother, brothers
AND
and grandfather dancing in .a
circle around the pit and chant-
DRY CLEANERS
ing softly:
3918 JOY ROAD
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Thursday, September 7, 195?
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE
Page 40
Yossele sleeps on a bedding of
down—
Glory be, Glory be, good!
I stretched out my hands.
"Father," I called out, "father,
mother, grandpa, Reuben, Sim-
eon, Levi, Judah, Isaachar, Zeb-
ulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher
Benjamin" . .. but I could not
reach them and they did not
hear me. Their chanting became
softer and softter. You could
scarcely hear it. "Ezra!" I called
out, but the old man put two
fingers to his lips and said: "Sh,
Sh, Sh . . ."
• • •
IN THE MEANTIME it be-
came lighter and lighter and the
sun began giving warmth. Yos-
sele looked about and his gaze
fell on the pit which• had been
his shelter for the night. In a
corner he saw his little sack.
He bent down, pulled it out and
felt that it had become some-
what heavier. He put his hand
into it to his surprise he found
a slice of bread and an onion!
Yossele did not believe his
own eyes. It seemed to him that
he had become a magician. How
did it get there? Is this a dream
or reality? He quickly dug his
teeth into the bread and onion,
and found them most palatable.
It was then that he realized that
it was no dream, but that it was
a gift left for him by old Ezra.
But why did he go away? What
a pity, what a pity!
Refreshed by his food and
warmed by the sun, Yossele
raised his eyes toward heaven
and said a prayer.
Yossele stood up ' and began
to think again what to do next.
He thought and thought, until
it occurred to him that the most
natural thing to do would be to
find a drink of water. A wonder-
Yosseld rests in a hole in the ful idea. He left the forest and
went for a stroll on a path along
ground—
the forest.
Glory be, Glory be, good!
As he walked on, it appeared
■ •••••• ■■•■ ••••
to him that the path he was
treading was so much like the
New Year Greetings from
road over which the Jews march-
ed out of Egypt, after Moses split
the sea for them. On one side
is the thick dark forest and on
the other side—the wide open
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"Really!" exclaimed Yossele,
"you are thirteen today? How
do you know it?"
"Oh, I know. For two years
I kept track by means of a
string and this stick. The days
and weeks I counted by knots
I made in the string, and for
each month I made a notch on
the stick. See!" And he showed .
Yossele 24 notches on the stick.
"But what good was all this
figuring?" David sighed.
• • •
YOSSELE MARVELED at the
idea. "I too keep a record," he
said, "you see, with three dif-
ferent kinds of pebblestones for
the days, the weeks and the
months. But don't worry, David,
everything will turn out well."
And as he spoke, Yossele placed
his hand into the sack, slowly
pulled out a set of philacteries
and said: "Here Is a set of tefilin,
Bar Mitzva boy! You beat me
• • •
to it David. I have another half
YOSSELE STROLLS on and year to go."
on. The path winds into and out
With bulging black eyes and
of the forest. He gets tired and mouth open David gaped, as if
sits down to rest on a fallen tree. he were beholding a miracle,
Suddenly he thinks he hears and he broke into weeping.
footsteps. He holds his breath, Yossele placed his hand on
listens closely — yes, footsteps! David's shoulder and quietly
listen intently and his eyes sobbed.
Yossele was the first to come
search, while he himself re-
out of the trance. He stood up
mains immobile.
The steps are coming closer and said in a chant:
and closer. Yossele now hears
Wipe your tears, King David .
not only steps but also thelbeat-
mine,
ing of a cane on the ground.
Away with fear and worry,
Yossele slides down, stretches
In this your moment so divine,
out on the ground and, peering
In this your day of glory!
above the fallen tree in the
"You are quite a poet," David
direction from which he had
come, he notices a youngster like said, rising to his feet.
himself. A load falls off Yossele's
"Here, do your duty, and be-
heart. He breaks into smile and come a full Jew!" said Yossele.
advances toward the youth.
David took the philacteries,
"Hey there„ fellow," cried out caressed them tenderly and and
Yossele as he ran forward.
said in a tearful voice: "I don't
The stranger paused, waiting know how. Perhaps you do?"
for Yossele to come near.
"I don't know either," answer-
"Hello!" said Yossele and ed Yossele.
"What then can we do?" asked
stretched out his hand.
The boy took Yossele's hand David.
"My advice is," said Yossele,
and, in a broken voice, he tim-
"that the esential thing is to put
idly replied: "Hello."
"Don't be afraid," said Yos- on the tfilin. So just put them
sele and began bombarding the on and say the prayers inwardly.
David obeyed. He put on the
boy with questions. "Where do
you come from? Where are you hand-philactery, winding the
headed for? Who are you? What leather strap around the arm. He
is your name? . . Come, let's then put on the head-philactery,
stretched out like a string, raised
sit yonder on the fallen tree."
"My name is David," said the his eyes and excaimed: "Hear,
boy when they sat down, "and 0 Israel!"
His voice spread through the
what is yours?"
"My name is Yossele, but it forest, emerged over the field,
has been a long time since I returned in echo and rose unto
have been called by that name heaven.
Yossele looked at his friend
. . . And your name is David?
... King David! You and I wil with a serious mien. His heart
now lord it over the forest. I was beating rapidly, silent with
grant you half of my kingdom envy.
"And now, what now?" David
I-14w old are you, fellow king?'
"Today, Yossele, I became asked, after he had taken off
Bar Mitzva, but I have no tefilin the philacteries and Yossele
placed them carefully in his
and that is why I am so sad'
sack.
"Now, Reb David," said Yos-
se14, "now we march on. The
road is long and hard, but we
must not stop. We must go on
and on. We will get there."
It was already broad daylight.
The two boys walked off in high
spirits.
field, where every step is sown
with danger and where death
lurks.
Yossele turns sad. He recalls
the dark night when the dread-
ful storm tore him away from his
family. He hears the words of
his grandfather: "The storm is
great, Yossele, but we will over-
come it."
-Grandfather's consoling words
enccb. age him. Yossele goes on,
looking either right nor left, but
forward. From time to time he
sees a field-mouse or a squirrel
jumping across the path. A spar-
row comes flying and stops on a
swig. Yossele looks at the bird
and envies it. "Oh, if I could fly
that way," he muses, "where
would I not reach! Dear bird,"
says he, and stretches out his
hand, but the bird is gone, flown
into the air and away as if it
had never existed,
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