The Last Demon - Isaac Bashevis Singer [1]
I speak in the present tense as for me time stands still. I arrive. I look around. For the life of me I can’t find a single one of our men. The cemetery is empty. There is no outhouse. I go to the ritual bathhouse, but I don’t hear a sound. I sit down on the highest bench, look down on the stone on which the buckets of water are poured each Friday, and wonder. Why am I needed here? If a little demon is wanted, is it necessary to import one all the way from Lublin? Aren’t there enough devils in Zamosc? Outside the sun is shining – it’s close to the summer solstice – but inside the bathhouse it’s gloomy and cold. Above me is a spider web, and within the web a spider wiggling its legs, seeming to spin but drawing no thread. There’s no sign of a fly, not even the shell of a fly. ‘What does the creature eat?’ I ask myself. ‘Its own insides?’ Suddenly I hear it chanting in a Talmudic singsong: ‘A lion isn’t satisfied by a morsel and a ditch isn’t filled up with dirt from its own walls.’
I burst out laughing.
‘Is that so? Why have you disguised yourself as a spider?’
‘I’ve already been a worm, a flea, a frog. I’ve been sitting here for two hundred years without a stitch of work to do. But you need a permit to leave.’
‘They don’t sin here?’
‘Petty men, petty sins. Today someone covets another man’s broom; tomorrow he fasts and puts peas in his shoes. Ever since Abraham Zalman was under the illusion that he was Messiah, the son of Joseph, the blood of the people has congealed in their veins. If I were Satan, I wouldn’t even send one of our first-graders here.’
‘How much does it cost him?’
‘What’s new in the world?’ he asks me.
‘It’s not been so good for our crowd.’
‘What’s happened? The Holy Spirit grows stronger?’
‘Stronger? Only in Tishevitz is he powerful. No one’s heard of him in the large cities. Even in Lublin he’s out of style.’
‘Well, that should be fine.’
‘But it isn’t,’ I said. ‘ “All-Guilty is worse for us than All-Innocent.” It has reached a point where people want to sin beyond their capacities. They martyr themselves for the most trivial of sins. If that’s the way it is, what are we needed for? A short while ago I was flying over Levertov Street, and I saw a man dressed in a skunk’s coat. He had a black beard and wavy sidelocks; an amber cigar holder was clamped between his lips. Across the street from him an official’s wife was walking, so it occurs to me to say, “That’s quite a bargain, don’t you think, Uncle?” All I expected from him was a thought. I had my handkerchief ready if he should spit on me. So what does the man do? “Why waste your breath on me?” he calls out angrily. “I’m willing. Start working on her.” ’
‘What sort of a misfortune is this?’
‘Enlightenment! In the two hundred years you’ve been sitting on your tail here, Satan has cooked up a new dish of kasha. The Jews have now developed writers. Yiddish ones, Hebrew ones, and they have taken over our trade. We grow hoarse talking to every adolescent, but they print their kitsch by the thousands and distribute it to Jews everywhere. They know all our tricks – mockery, piety. They have a hundred reasons why a rat must be kosher. All that they want to do is to redeem the world. Why, if you could corrupt nothing, have you been left here for two hundred years? And if you could do nothing in two hundred years, what do they expect from me in two weeks?’
‘You know the proverb, “A guest for a while sees a mile.” ’
‘What’s there to see?’
‘A young rabbi has moved here from Modly Bozyc. He’s not yet thirty, but he’s absolutely stuffed with knowledge, knows the thirty-six tractates of the Talmud by heart. He’s the greatest Cabalist in Poland, fasts every Monday and Thursday, and bathes in the ritual bath when the water is ice cold. He won’t permit any of us to talk to him. What’s more he has a handsome wife, and that’s bread in the basket. What do we have to tempt him with? You might as well try to break through an iron wall. If I were asked my opinion, I’d say that Tishevitz should be removed from our files. All I ask is that you