In Those Days

In Those Days, by Jehudah
Steinberg

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Title: In Those Days The Story of an Old Man
Author: Jehudah Steinberg
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8539] [Yes, we are more than one

year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 21, 2003]
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DAYS ***

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IN THOSE DAYS
THE STORY OF AN OLD MAN
BY
JEHUDAH STEINBERG

TRANSLATED FROM THE HEBREW BY
GEORGE JESHURUN
1915

IN THOSE DAYS
THE STORY OF AN OLD MAN

I

When the time drew near for Samuel the Beadle to let his son begin his
term of military service, he betook himself to the market, purchased a
regulation shirt, a knapsack, and a few other things needed by a
soldier--and he did not forget the main item: he ran and fetched a bottle
of liquor. Then he went home.
And there, in the presence of his neighbors, of whom I had the privilege
of being one, he drank a glassful to "long life," and offered another to
Rebekah, his good wife.
"Drink, madam," said he, merrily. At this Rebekah turned up her nose,
as if ready to blurt out with "How often have you seen me drink
liquor?"
Indeed, it was an affront which she would not have passed over in
silence at any other time, but she had no heart for an open quarrel just
then, when about to part with her son, and was satisfied with a silent
refusal.
"Woman," said Samuel, angrily, "take it, and do as you are told!" But
Rebekah was not impressed by his angry tone, for in fact Samuel was
an easy "lord and master." As to his loudness, it was but part of an old
habit of his, dating from the days of his own military service, to bully
his inferiors and to let those above him in authority bully him.
"So are they all of his kind," she would often explain to her neighbors.
"They just fuss, to blow off their tempers, and then--one may sit on
them."
Rebekah persisted in her refusal, and Samuel began in a softer tone:
"But why does it worry you so much? Woman, woman, it is not to
Shemad, God forbid, that he is going!"
At the mention of conversion, Rebekah burst into tears, for Samuel had
unintentionally touched her sore spot: there were rumors in the town
that her family was not without blemish.

"Now that you are crying," exclaimed Samuel, thoroughly angry, "you
are not only hard-headed, but also silly, simply silly! 'Long of hair but
short of sense.' To cry and cry, and not know wherefore!" With this
Samuel turned towards us, and began to plead his case.
"Have you ever seen such a cry-baby? Five times in her life she filled
the world with a hue and cry, when she bore me a child, and every time
it was but an empty bubble: five girls she brought me! Then, beginning
with the sixth birth, she was fortunate enough to get boys, the real thing.
Three sons she gave me as my old age was approaching. And now,
when she ought to thank Heaven for having been found worthy of
raising a soldier for the army, she cries! Think of it--your son enters the
army a free man; but I, in my time,--well, well, I was taken by force
when a mere youngster!"
Here the old man settled his account with the bottle, and took leave of
his crying wife and his good neighbors, and in the company of his son
mounted the coach waiting outside, ready to go to H., the capital of the
district, where the recruits had to report.
By special good fortune I was going to H. by the same coach, and so I