FICTION
Moishe's Angelical Tailorshop
Heaven may not be what we expect but it is certainly what we make of it.
JONATHAN NEWMAN
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Special to The Jewish News
T
here exists, beyond the
southeast arm of the
spiral galaxy known as
the Milky Way, Moishe's
Angelical Tailorshop. The
shop was established in 1938
as God's haven for all Jewish
tailors murdered in the
Holocaust. Because Moishe
Levine was the first to arrive
there, the heavenly business
bore his name, but soon after,
thousands of souls inhabited
the sewing factory of the
afterlife.
The garments worn by all
new arrivals were made at
Moishe's establishment from
thread and cloth produced by
the souls of tiny silkworms.
Thrn garments were also
repaired, for even in heaven
one could catch a sleeve or a
hem, walking through one of
its many gates.
Business boomed through-
out the first of the 1940s, as
millions of Jewish souls were
dispatched to heaven by one
beastly man on earth and his
accomplices. The building
that housed Moishe's Angel-
ical Tailorshop grew to several
thousand miles on each side,
filled by the whirr of sewing
machines 24 hours a day.
But once the Second World
War, and this most recent
Holocaust was over, the whirr
of the sewing machines was
not quite so loud. Each day,
only a few new souls would ar-
rive. There were never any
complaints or complications.
That is, not until Doctor
Samuel Goldberg appeared at
the Angelical Tailorshop in
1989.
"Excuse me, I was sent
here. I'm supposed to give
you this card?
Moishe Levine looked up
from his papers. He took the
new soul's card.
"Well, you've come to the
right place. Welcome to
eternity. Says here Dr.
Goldberg? Is that right?"
"Yes, that's right," said the
doctor.
"Excellent. You've arrived
at the most opportune time.
Go right through that door.
David will show you what to
do."
Dr. Goldberg walked over
to the partly-opened door
through which he could see
men and women hunched
over sewing machines. Not
just a few, but row after row
to infinity. There was no ceil-
ing except for the countless
brilliant stars covering the
tailors. The light from the
stars could blind a mortal,
but to a heavenly soul the
light was peaceful and com-
forting. Dr. Goldberg was
mesmerized; as rapidly as the
light enveloped him, it disap-
peared before his eyes. He was
not yet ready to submit him-
self to the protection of the
stars.
Moishe noticed that the
soul called "Goldberg" was
still standing in his office.
"Is there a problem?" he
asked.
"Yes, I think there is,"
Goldberg said, turning
around. "I always imagined
that heaven would be . . .well,
heavenly. Not harps and
wings, exactly, but not a fac-
tory full of sewing machines
either. This is certainly not
where I belong. There must
be some mistake?'
"I'm really quite sorry, Dr.
Goldberg. Your card says that
you should be here."
"But I'm a doctor!" Gold-
berg insisted. "Those people
are nothing but tailors. I had
patients come from all over
the country! I lectured at in-
ternational seminars! I'm
supposed to be in DOCTOR
HEAVEN! Do you think I'm
going to spend eternity with
a bunch of illiterate tailors?"
"Sit down, Dr. Goldberg, I
think we have to talk."
"We certainly do! And the
result of our talk better be my
"When it comes
right down to it,
we're all tailors.
We're all trying to
mend the rips and
tears of our
humanity."
getting out of here." Goldberg
was irate.
"Please," said Moishe in-
dicating the chair in front of
his desk. Goldberg sat down.
"Do you know what this
place is, Dr. Goldberg? I
mean, do you know why this
place came into being?"
"Look. I arrived at the ad-
ministration building. I
waited on line, which, by the
place during World War Two.
Six million Jews died. My
own grandparents died. It
was all because of Adolf
Hitler. . . and a world that ig-
nored him and his insane
plans to murder Jews. For no
reason at all."
"But Hitler thought it was
a real reason. He wanted his
country to be pure. He want-
ed a thousand-year Aryan
Empire and felt that Jews
would contaminate it. So he
tried to rid his country of the
Jews by murdering them.
And his methods were quite
efficient. It's just that the
Germans were defeated
before Hitler could succeed in
killing all the Jews:'
"You speak as if there is
nothing wrong with that.
You're Jewish. How could you
defend Hitler?"
"Oh no, I wouldn't defend
Hitler in a million years. I'm
just trying to show you how
corruption can be justified.
But how did you know I was
Jewish?"
"Well, the name on your
door said Moishe Levine and
I . "
"You figured that because
my name was Moishe Levine
I had to be Jewish. Yes, I'm
Jewish. But not because of
my name. It's because of
what I believe in. The cus-
toms I follow. The God I pray
to. Not my name. When the
Germans searched for Jews to
be murdered they looked
mainly at the names Shapiro
dies, Schmidt lives. Schwartz
dies, Strasser lives. It didn't
matter if you were a merchant
or a doctor. . . or a tailor. If
you were a Jew, you would die.
I was Moishe Levine, so I
died. It was very simple.
Hitler made life and death
very simple?'
"But the world came to its
senses, Moishe. Hitler didn't
succeed completely. Those
Jews who survived were freed
and the world continues to
remember to this day."
"Yes, I know," shrugged
Moishe. "Children and adults
alike see movies and read
books about the Holocaust.
They see Hitler's fanatical
S.S. troops marching with
their murdering arms thrust
forward in salute. They hear
the thunder of 'Heil Hitler' in
the vast halls of Nazi power.
They see Jews lined up and
shot. They see the skeletal re-
mains of concentration camp
victims thrown into ditches.
They are told to 'Remember!'
and for a few minutes they do,
wondering how such a trag-
edy could take place. But
then it's back to their pleas-
ant lives, with any thoughts
of the subject comfortably
stored away from conscious-
ness."
"This is true," said
Goldberg, "all true. But why
are you telling it to me? I
know all of these things. I
told you that my grandpar-
ents were killed in the Holo-
caust, and I have never for-
gotten. Hitler was an abomi-
nation, and, of course, people
shouldn't be killed because of
their names, or their religion.
I never thought otherwise."
Moishe sat silently for a
minute and then spoke.
"But Dr. Goldberg, you did
think that those men and
women in there were lowly
tailors. You told me you
wanted to be in Doctor Hea-
ven and not with a bunch of
illiterates. How do you know
that they are illiterate? In
fact, some are, but many of
them are scholarly individ-
uals. On earth, some had
prospering businesses. If they
were less fortunate, they eked
out a meager living by hard
work over endless hours. They
loved their families. Many
were highly religious, and
prayed with fervor?'
"Is your ideal heaven one
free of the lower classes? Are
the tailors not good enough
for heaven, Dr. Goldberg, as
they were not good enough
for Hitler's world?"
"That's just why they are
here. All those men and
women murdered in the Holo-
caust, Dr. Goldberg. They
didn't want to take over Ger-
many. They harbored no ill-
will towards Germans. They
had their businesses. They
had their families. And they
had their religion. That was
all they needed, but even that
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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