Read Online Two Scholars Who Were in Our Town and Other Novellas by S. Y. Agnon - Free Book Online

could rub his fingers together would write “innovative works” and bring them to the print house. However, in contrast to those basketfuls of hollow gourds there were found some truly sharp analyses, such as the book of the true scholar Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi Horowitz, which clarified a number of laws in matters that had resurfaced in recent generations and had not been addressed by the books of the earlier scholars. About Reb Moshe Pinchas, we have nothing to relay. Reb Moshe Pinchas was involved with nothing but Torah. And when they would mention him in praise, they would add, “He’s like a mountain palm – perseveres in difficult conditions, but his fruit is so meager.” He had already despaired of the rabbinate and, needless to say, no town in need of a rabbi ever approached him. The story of what he had done to a leading Jewish town had spread throughout the land. And towns that needed an instructor found themselves a scholar more agreeable than he.
    24.
    When Reb Shlomo had advised the people of his town to appoint Reb Moshe Pinchas to succeed him, tears had streamed from their eyes. After all the ill will that this man had aimed at him, their rabbi was still striving to help him even though several members of the rabbi’s own family were seeking to take over his position. Could there be in this generation a person so righteous that he was able to overcome human nature, relinquish his honor and bestow kindness upon his affronter? As a result, the townspeople had not hesitated and had sent a letter of appointment to Reb Moshe Pinchas, as we have recounted. Now we shall relate a little something concerning what happened to Reb Shlomo after Reb Moshe Pinchas had sent the town away empty-handed.
    When news reached Reb Shlomo that Reb Moshe Pinchas had withdrawn from the rabbinate because he had not wanted to receive any benefit from him, Reb Shlomo’s countenance darkened like the edges of a cauldron and the matter gnawed relentlessly at his heart. Reb Moshe Pinchas had so begrudged him that he had shamed a town of Jewish eminence and was willing to live impoverished. Reb Shlomo remembered the days when the two of them had been ensconced in the same town. One sitting at the height of honor and the other living a life of sorrow without joy, without good fortune and without a wife, exhausting himself over Torah study, and in the end when Reb Moshe Pinchas had cited the law accurately, he hadn’t told him, “Well said!” but rather had belittled him and thrown in his face that he still remained a bachelor. And it is said that from that time on mirth had never again graced Reb Shlomo’s face. One day discussion began to revolve around the sermon incident. Reb Shlomo said, “Perhaps I should have let him triumph over me, but then again did I prevail only for the sake of my own pride? Surely it was for the sake of the Torah that I beat him and saved him from stumbling.” Nonetheless, Reb Shlomo’s mind would not rest.
    25.
    We must once again mention that which we are inclined to forget, namely the grim one, who reaps without having sown. In those days the elderly teacher passed away, the one who was not a rabbi but had occupied the teaching post in our town as an instructor. When the previous rabbi had gone to meet his Maker, our town remained unable to find a suitable replacement. They had brought in a rabbi from one of the small towns and appointed him as an instructor until they could find a rabbi commensurate with their prestige, and one worthy of the exceptional sages who by tradition had served as rabbis in our town. A year passed, then two, and ten, and twenty, until forty years had gone by and in all those years they had not approved any rabbi. At first, because for every rabbi who had sought the rabbinate in our town the town elders had said, “The post is bigger than he.” After that, it was out of habit. And after that, it was out of respect for the old instructor. When he died, many rabbis had come to