To America and Back Page 12

It was a very early hour in a cold morning. Ramona has waked up her son, Nahumik, telling him: “We have got An independent State! I’ve heard that in the radio: the United Nations voted for two new states would be established here.”

  Nahumik hardly knew that the Jewish Israelis had not had a state before, and didn’t quite understand how his Mom heard at night that some nations gathered to vote about such a vague issue. He knew that he had been living in a country ruled by a British Mandate, and there were many British soldiers and cops strolling by foot and patrolling with command cars and jeeps all over the country. There were also some Arab cops and Jewish militia men called “Gaffirs’( the word maybe taken from an Indian word)- and now his Mom has said that all that is finished.

  “We will have our own army and other forces,” added Ramona, “and the British will leave us. We should not rejoice much about this news, because maybe we will have a war with the Arabs, who don’t agree to divide the country. They want it all”.

  In the afternoon Nahumik went as usual to his Rabbi, to learn about “An old woman, who had three daughters. An enemy had come to the country. He imprisoned her and one of her daughters. A second daughter escaped, and the third got killed, but her baby remained alive. Who will inherit the property of the deceased daughter? The baby?”(Talmud book, Boba Metsiaah, page 39)…

  The Rabbi stopped reading and explaining, and raised his voice:

  “I must tell you something”, he said, “last night the the Atheist Jews have received a confirmation from some nations – to declare and establish a Jewish Regime here… Our old wise Rabbis had already said: Messiah, Son of David, won’t come – till all the country’s rulers will be fully changed to be Non-believers. So- there is a chance for the Zionists to make a kingdom here. Oy Vey, God Almighty! When will you send us the true Messiah, King David’s seed?”

  Why is the Rabbi so excited, like my Mom?- Nahumik asked himself. Maybe they fear that soon will be many clashes here. The Rabbi’s newspaper is telling already that here and there – Arabs are attacking Israeli-Jewish vehicles, and the British are doing nothing to avoid it.

  “O’key, pupils,” said Rabbi Aaron, “we should return to our study. The newspaper is a waste of time and paper together.”

  CHAPTER 13