• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 408 0

boy suffocating in the crowd screamed in fright. Someone stumbled over the water tun. A vessel broke. And then the groom was escorted to the bridal canopy, which stood between the prayer house and the old cemetery. Small mounds filled the prayer house court, marking the graves of school children who in 1648 had died martyrs' deaths at the hands of haidamaks and Tartars rather than change their faith and be sold into slavery. The groom, in memory of the day of death, put on a white robe like a shroud and a white mitre. He had sprinkled with ashes the spot on his forehead where the phylacteries usually rested. Hunched under the canopy Reb Itche Mates hid his eyes with a kerchief. The four men who were holding the canopy poles shuffled their feet to keep warm and blew on their hands. Mischievously an urchin thrust his grandmother's knitting needle into the groom's buttocks. The groom did not so much as move, and the boy's arms fell to his side. For a long time all were still. Fragments of ancient monuments loomed above the decrepit fence surrounding the cemetery; in serried ranks they rose above one another. Then suddenly the red leaping flames of braided candles approached, and all became merry. To the tune of a bridal canopy march played by the healer and his son, the bride was led forth. Girls in white, bearing wax candles, formed two rows through which Rechele passed. Completely veiled, she limped more markedly than usual; the bridesmaids almost had to drag her. Levi, Reb Benish's younger son, he that belonged to the Sabbatai Zevi sect, was the master of the sacrament. Pale with the fear of punishment that he, not Ozer, was filling his father's place, the narrow glass in his hand trembled, and the wine spilled over his fingers, as he chanted tearfully: "Blessed art thou, O Lord, who has sanctified us by thy commandments... who has sanctioned unto us such as are wedded to us by the rite of the canopy and the sanctification.... Blessed art thou, 0 Lord, creator of men."

2

The Seven Days of Benediction

It was now three nights since they had led the bride and groom to the marriage bed, and Rechele was still a maiden. Early each morning, after Reb Itche Mates had left for the study house, the two women who had given the bride away came, along with a few other interested matrons, to discover whether Rechele and her husband had as yet known each other. Ashamed, Rechele hid under the bolster, but that did not bother them, for was she not an orphan, with no mother to look after her? And so they uncovered her, and examined her slip and bedclothes carefully, their faces reddening as they piously went about their work. Each day they would ask the same question: "Well, have you been together? Has he lain with you?" The crows were already proclaiming the news from the rooftops to the amusement of the frivolous in Goray. As for Reb Itche Mates, he began to pray behind the oven in the study, hiding his face in his prayer shawl, so that his devotions might not be disturbed by the grimaces of ruffians and apprentices. The followers of Sabbatai Zevi saw that measures had to be taken and Reb Godel Chasid brought Itche Mates home with him for the express purpose of feeding him roasted garlic and saltless peas, food that would make a man potent. Rechele also received in-struction, Nechele explaining to her the ways of arousing lust in a husband. And for seven nights, as was the custom, bride and groom were led to the marriage chamber and all waited expectantly for the consummation. During this period, the time of the Seven Benedictions, all the members of the sect gathered together at the evening meal. Rechele still wore her white bridal canopy dress and jewelry, for she was still a bride. She sat shyly on her chair while the shoemaker passed lewd remarks to rouse everyone's spirits. Reb Itche Mates wore a coat of satin. His forehead was flushed, and he was forever wiping the perspiration from his face with his pocket handkerchief. He scarcely touched the dishes set before him, and what he did eat he swallowed with revulsion. The food seemed