Satan in Goray - Isaac Bashevis Singer [67]
AND THE SPIRIT spoke these words with cunning purpose to deceive the people and to mock them: And there were indeed some simple folk who in their innocence believed the words of the dybbuk to be true and they wished him to be spared: But the pious Reb Mordecai Joseph (may his remembrance be a blessing) comprehended the demon's wiles (for he was a great cabalist) and he cried, No, Depart thou from her and go forth to that place where no man dwelleth and where no cattle of the field sets foot For it is not seemly thou shouldst continue among the living: And when Reb Mordecai Joseph had uttered these words he meditated on such holy names and formed such unions and made such combinations and described such circles and rings as are within the ken of those that are knowing in the mysteries: THEN DID THE SPIRIT abandon gentle words and begin with the harsh words and a fire seethed from his nostrils and he cried in a loud voice that made the walls shake: WHO ART THOU and of what merit is the house of thy forebears that thou thinkest to contend with me: Dost thou believe that thou art a master of His name and wise in cabala: No, For thou art a complete ignoramus and thy combinations can never be efficacious: And the dybbuk spoke a saying in the vulgar tongue They shall avail as cupping avails the dead: And he cursed Reb Mordecai Joseph (may his remembrance be a blessing) and played tricks upon him such as were never seen or heard since the world began, and the multitude laughed at the pious Reb Mordecai Joseph: And there was a great desecration of God's name for the dybbuk uttered obscenities and played the fool and there was hee-hawing and guffawing: And first he reckoned up the secret sins of each one and called them by name and winked with his eyes and asked Dost thou not remember such and such a place, and there arose a hubbub: For he put the wives of respectable men to shame and revealed that the rabbi's wife had played the whore, and he published slander concerning many families and all with contumely and effrontery: And (for that we have transgressed) no one dared give the dybbuk the lie and he grew bolder and discovered things that had lain hidden, giving clear signs of proof: He reminded one woman that she had a mole under her breast: Another that she had a birth mark, another a boil, another a scar, another lice, etc.: And he also repeated things that are betwixt him and her, man and wife: And then he frolicked, singing songs and all in rhyme so that all who heard were amazed, for it is not the practice for women to produce such inventions: And he derided the women and their habitudes: How they blessed the candles on Sabbaths and holidays and how they tithed the white bread and burned it and how they picked peas and their gesticulations in the bathhouse and in the prayer house: And he worked this all with malice that the women might be ugly in the eyes of their husbands: And he called the pious with bynames in the German tongue to wit trop lekish parech esel shemosh pushkemeckler kaltoon bock, et al. (pinhead loony scab ass slattern meddler