The Rabbi Who Tricked Stalin Page 7

Next morning she arrived in her office and wrote her impression about ‘The case of Aaron Hittin’s cripple son’. Soon she has sent the following report to her woman manager:

  ‘Hittin’s earning is limited, as he is a part time Kosher butcher for a few Jews of the Minsk community. Maybe he also deals with something else (he refused to inform what it was). At first he said that he could handle the child by his own. But after a short investigation about a neighbor woman, who agreed to be his son’s caretaker I have organized that matter as follows: The kid will be taken care and eat lunch in that woman’s house. He may also sleep at noon there. At that time Rabbi Aaron would go to the synagogue, to study there Talmud with three or four men (that activity is not prohibited by the Soviet law)- under control of the Official Rabbi.

  The neighbor woman mentioned above- would return the kid to Rabbi Aaron early in the evening, and prepare him and the Rabbi their dinner. The average number of her visits may be five times a week. Of course it is not the most likeable arrangement for the future: Within a year- hopefully, the kid may know to speak and learn to walk – with some ‘harness accessory’. However, that woman needs first to be trained for the hard task of working with such an invalid, and of course the Rabbi has no financing ability for paying all that. ..

  Conclusion: For the next six months- we will allow Aaron Hittin a small payment by our office. This meets our communist policy to help the poor and the disabled. Next year we’ll reconsider this hard case of the invalid baby…. signed- (…….. )Natalya Besarobina”

  Three days after the report had been sent, a sudden phone ring made Natalya stand on the alert: An unknown male voice asked if she was comrade Besarobina. She confirmed that, and the man said that he was glad to hear her nice voice. He presented himself as the General Secretary of the Youths Party (Komsomol), saying that he would like to meet her on the coming day, at seven p.m. in his office. He would like to discuss with her the case of the cripple boy Raphael Hittin. . .

  She will also be invited to a small party, that he and some of his friends would organize. . .

  Natalya began to inquire women friends in her office- if they knew something about Elya Ruhin, the town’s Komsomol new Secretary.

  ‘Oh, he is a rising star in the local communist party,’ told her an elder Jewish woman. ‘Not only that’– she added, ‘but Elya Ruhin was the brother of the poor young woman, who had drawned herself in the lake, not long ago.’

  Natalya was surprised. Then she became glad to know, that she would soon be meeting a young man, who was also very handsome, so said the rumors; many girls would like to befriend him. Nobody that she had spokn to - knew more than that about Elya’s private life.

  Natalya now reflected why had Elya called her to an interview.

  ‘If he is the Rabbi’s brother-in-law, well...’ she thought, ‘I think they won’t like each other. But it isn’t my business. Surely, the young male secretary won’t hate the cripple boy.. .My interest should center on attracting the guy. If he is really a great success, as some women have told me.’

  In that evening she went to her small room with a good feeling. She was sharing that room with a girl room-mate, who was working in a factory. Natalya took a long shower and sprayed a cheap perfume (which was rare as anything else at those times) on her healthy and pretty body. She changed her dress, by wearing a blue skirt and a white pressed shirt, with a red thread embroidered collar. But she remained with her common daily boots, (that had been duly brushed) - having no nice woman shoes, that were very costly.

  She left her room and went to the Party’s building, that in the past had been a nice chapel. Recently the Communist Party has reshaped and renovated it, set a ‘Bolshevik five wings star’ on it. Natalya had known the place, and made her way slowly toward it, passing many pitfalls on the road, in which some little pools had been accumulated. She had been cautious not to smirch her boots or dress by mud, and was relieved when she already stepped up to the second floor of the Party’s house. Just at that moment there were heard seven Dingdongs of the chapel’s bells. A young man, who was standing on the upper floor and had activated the bells- received her face with a broad smile. He was the guard there, and asked her name. He looked into his list of visitors- and promptly pointed on the next door, that was Elya’s office. She knocked, listened to a man’s voice calling ‘Come in’ - and entered a wide room. Six or seven nicely dressed young couples were standing or sitting there on low benches, talking while drinking vodka or other liquids. Two of the women seemed to her even younger then herself, and at first she was

  wondering if that office was fit for such a joyfull, unofficial meeting. She was standing at the entry, quite confusd. Some of the men said ‘Hello’ to her, and they continued surveying her figure, while a young man with black eyes and black thick hair approached her.

  “Comrade Besarobina, I guess,” said Elya, stretching his hand to her, which she was shaking with a smile. He still grabbed her palm tightly, then bent and kissed its upper side, saying loudly to all:

  “I will renew the Russian noblemen’s tradition, of publicly kissing hands of delicate women.” Many were smiling, as he added: “I heard that our leaders have approved that.”

  The couples continued to eat the rich meal on the long table, caviare and rye bread and apples, and from time to time drinking vodka. Natalya apologized for coming a little late, and Elya said: “it is not critical”. Then they got to the table and he filled a small glass of vodka, and gave her, filled another one for himself, touched the glasses and toasted ‘Cheers’. While drinking, he saw that she had hardly tasted the liquid. So he offered her some sweet cake, which she also hardly tasted.

  “Thank you,” she said, as apologizing, “I have eaten too much today, having participated in a Jewish ceremony. Circumcizing of a baby. It was a poor family, in my responsibility.”

  She suddenly felt that maybe she didn’t have to talk too much about

  her personal job experience.

  “You mean – you take care that the family won’t die from hunger,” said Elya. She nodded. He felt that many eyes were turned to him, as condemning why he should deal so much with the new pretty visitor. So he asked Natalya’s pardon, and went back to his friends and began talking with them, indicating Natalya to have a seat with the group. She was looking toward him, and his voice seemed to her attractive, not less than his tall figure and sensitive lips. She recalled of his brother-in-law Aaron, and mentioned to herself that somehow their faces and way of standing - seemed similar. Maybe because they have studied long years together, and were in the same age. And both are Jewish...But Rabbi Aaron was a much less decisive and determined personality than this Elya..

  She remembered asking Rabbi Aaron about relatives in town, and he refused to answer. ‘Now I find out why’, she said to herself… ‘Either Aaron is jealous of his ex-friend, or he strongly dislikes him - because they had clashed about religion. Perhaps in other families that also had happened. But this case is different. It’s an interesting and curious situation for her. Curiosity is a part of the natural intelligence of a human being, isn’t it? And still scientists would debate - if the mind’s capabilties derive mainly from inheritance, or that it’s an outcome of the external conditions. The communists, I presume, believe now in the second theory. . .’

  The party participants began to sing a revolutionary song, clapping their hands. Then they began dancing in a ‘circled group dance’, to the music of an acordion, played by Borisov, whose obese wife was following his instrument with a like-yelling soprano, standing by him and making dancing moves ‘on the spot’. Elya was standing beside Natalya. He was looking mainly at the dancers, but turning to her surreptitiously from time to time.

  One of the young men, who was almost drunk, tried to pull Natalya to the circle. A girl tried to do that to Elya, but he said to Borisov:

  “Now, comrade musucian, play a tango. I will show
all of you . . that despite you think badly about my legs- they can do the job.” Some ‘bravoed’ while Elya invited Natalya to the tango – and she nodded and gave him her hand. He tried to grasp her tightly and press her to his chest, but not too vigorously. At the end of the dance he told her , that it was very nice and he would like to see her alone. ‘Tan dem’ as the French call it, at the end of the party. Yes, concerning what he had told her on the phone.

  One of the two young girls, who was without a boyfriend, came near Elya. She tried to look at him straight at the face in a questioning expression, and he said:

  “Tatyana, I have told you: I’ll be busy tonight. We will talk tomorrow, or a day after.”

  Natalya looked at the teenage girl. She understood that ‘Tatyana’ had become jealous, that Elya had danced only with her. Soon he indicated Borisov to begin playing a popular group dance, and all joined him - while he gave his hands to Natalya and the teenager together. Following them was a long line of other couples giving hands and dancing in a row that had changed to a circle. But soon Elya pretended to be tired, and pulled out Natalya from the circle. They both went to a corner-table, and he began to chat with her.

  “The communist party has covered the cost of our meal and drinks,” he said, “Being responsible to the Youths’ section - I have the right to spend a lot. That would bring the active young comrades – guys and girls, to be with us. I mean – we all stand behind the capable secretary of the party, Joseph Stalin.”

  “I am not familiar with many names of our leaders,” she said bluntly, “I know Lenin’s and Trotsky’s names, from reading the newspapers,” she added. ( At that time there had hardly been a radio in Russia. It was established just after Lenin’s death in 1924).

  “I’ve come to the conclusion,” said Elya, “that Trotsky is dangerous to our Communist state. He wants to conquer Europe, and Lenin has said that we must concentrate in Russia, to fortify our acievements.”

  “Well,” she said, “I think: why shouldn’t our revolution cross the borders, and advance to whole Europe?”

  Suddenly the teenager maiden re-appeared next to Elya. She said:

  “All are leaving, Elya,” and they heard already voices saying good night and thanking him for the ‘entertaining evening.’

  At that moment a wind from the opened door penetrated to the room.

  The girl’s skirt was blown up. Elya had discerned Natalya’s look

  “Galina is a ballet dancer,” he said, turning to Galina and looking straight into her eyes, “but now our ‘ballerina’ should leave, as I have an important and urgent matter with social worker Natalya.”

  Galina’s face became sallow and her lips were narrowed from anger and frustration.

  “Good bye, dear,” she said to Elya, “You’ll see me tomorrow evening in the Studio. If you…”

  “If I have time,” he said “bye.”

  She clapped the front door. Elya told Natalya that indeed -Galina was a pretty girl; but though he worshipped ballet, he couldn’t bear her relation to him like to a father. Neither he is a permanent mate of her. “She is seventeen years only,” he mentioned, “however- she is a prominent figure in the city ballet. One of the best future artists.”

  “I think,” said Natalya, “that competiton in arts needs the professionals to have strong nerves.”

  “Being the Party Youth’s secretary needs no less nerves,” smiled Elya, “hopefully I have these. But why the hell - do I chat with you about myself? Let me say something just interesting about you. Natalya, you… have to know, that I like you. I feel I can talk a lot with you. You have impressed me as one who has a view about life… from the bottom. You’ve seen much suffering in your job, I’m sure. And that has provided you with vitality .”

  “Yes, I think so.” she said, “and I see that you devote much more time to me - than I have thought before.”

  “We can talk here - even till midnight, when the cleaning woman will come in.”

  “O’key, if you think that we need a few hours . . .“ she said, a little embarrased, but smiling. ‘This He knows how to talk like a powerful young man’, she told herself. ‘I’ve heard no specific rumor about his bad behavior with women. But can I rely on him?’

  “I would like to hear- in what condition have you found the Rabbi?”

  “He was looking very bad, as his case was very hard. For you too, as his late wife’s brother.” she said without hesitation, and he liked the expression of her face.

  “Do everything possible to help Rabbi Aaron.” said Elya excitedly, “You should write to all the deparments’ managers of POMDAT. They should find a place to the kid in one of the instituitions. I mean- in the future, when he grows up a little. When he’ll begin to talk.”

  “Aaron told me, that the kid has begun to talk; not Russian…”

  “Yes. He had heard the Yiddish language from his late Mom, my sister,” said Elya with a weak moan, “Aaron Hittin told me that he would teach him Hebrew too.”

  “That’s bad. Why should he do that? It’s a dead language, only for their prayers. The boy should learn Russian. So, y o u have to take care that a teacher for Russian will come to the boy, in due time.”

  “I have some knowledge in pedagogy,” she said, “an infant can study

  simultaneously two languages. ..I agree, he should know Russian.”

  “What have you studied exactly in university?” asked Elya, “children’s education, or social work?”

  “Both,” she said.

  “You had certainly been a good pupil, hadn’t you?.”

  “The problems that rise nowadays - are heavier than those that we have ever learnt.”

  “Yes, the unstable political conditions for years- had their impact. We have many poor people, many wounded and invalids, many bereaved families. But we will cure everything. For that we are young and storng. Aren’t we?”

  He stared at her as she said: “I believe in that, too.”

  “All of us will sail in this stormy ocean - toward a shore of great love and passion,” he said.

  ‘His brown-black eyes are smiling,’ Natalya reflected, looking at two small skin wrinkles beside each of his eyes.

  “Our eyes have a similar color, don’t they?” he said, looking deeply into her eyes. His voice trembled a little bit, as if he was afraid to hear her negative reply. He stretched his hand, and his palm siezed her chin softly. She approached him - but suddenly withdrew.

  “Elya Moiseivitch,” she said, “You have nice eyes, but with some grey in them, not like mine. Grey like steel. Are you also tough and hard like that metal?”

  “A nice image,” he smiled, “a poetic one. You’ve certainly read the poems of Maiakovsky.”

  “I know a name of his most famous poem, though I haven’t read it: A cloud in pants.”

  Elya’s face soon returned to be serious. He fascinated her now as a man in his prime, with quiet self-confidence and power.

  “But returning to reality, I… daresay, that I feel having like a chemical reaction within me, while talking and looking at you, Natalya. Is that the kind of love that I hope for?” His fingers suddenly grabbed her by her chin like tongs, and her lips were very close to his.

  “It’s a desirous love,” he said, “burning like oxygen, in blue light, like the color of your shirt.”

  Their kiss was long; both with shut eyes, enjoying their sensuality.

  “When I will be burned completely in this fire,” he added afterward, in a whisper, “I’ll be black as your tiny eyeballs.”

  “Do you believe in free love?” she asked suddenly, and he nodded.

  He was feeling her body trembling while he was still embracing her.

  ‘She would soon surrender to her desire,’ he thought, ‘and to her aspiration to be close to a strong but amiable man, that she can love with admiration; I know she wants a man that will listen to what she would have to say. I can -and would like to b
e that man.’

  “You can do with me - whatever your desire would be,” she said bluntly, “But please, don’t behave like my first lover.”

  “Had he left you all of a sudden?”

  “Without an early announcement, as we say.”

  “Perhaps he has been arrested, or something?”

  “No. He had just fled to Poland. But don’t feel pityful about me.”

  He kissed her again, and she mumbled in a quick stream of words:

  “With you…I want that our love will be with much harmony of souls and with passion and. . . that it will ever leave a good taste in my mouth and spirit. . .and that it should be quite good – without claims or condemnations, and. . . no quarrels at the end.”

  She was speaking quite in whisper and he nodded from time to time.

  “We will always behave to each other like two mature human beings,” he said, “But I oppose your ending sentence. Why already think and talk about departing?” he asked that with a smile.

  She noticed again that he had short wrinkles beside his eyes, close to the temples .

  “A man cannot bind himself forever, I know that,” she said, but he opposed that opinion again, and said that an internal sense is telling him “Friendliness and love will be working wonderfully in our case. I feel there is already a tight connection between us.”

  At midnight they went to his room, which was in a small block of two story houses. Elya was living alone in a two small rooms flat. It was a chilly night, and he put on the fire in the brown bricks fireplace that he had there. He had extended a new cotton sheet on matresse of his iron bed. Then they slowly undressed, surveying each other’s nakedness, and covered their bodies with a flowery new blanket. They were caressing each other in a growing desire, and were making love, panting heavily. For a long hour they were saying fonding words, even childish, to each other. Her excitement was growing as Elya delicately clasped her breasts and caressed them relicking and kissing. Then their heads were moving down and down sending their uongues to find their their intimate places.

  After Elya had penetrated into her first time he ejaculated speedily. In their second intercourse, however, they found themselves in a long voyage full of sweetness and softness.

  Then they were brought to earth again, and as the dream seemed to be lasted - Natalya’s nails suddenly pitched Elya’s chest, and left there a small bruise. She asked his pardon, saying that now he would remember the feeling of lying with a wild woman. She just did it, she said, as a reminder of love for his smooth hairless chest. She kissed the bruise again and again, and he said that now it was ticking, then ticked her strongly under her breasts, and they laughed from joy and relaxation. .

  They rose up and washed themselves, wiping their front bodies by wet towels. They came back to the bed, and lied naked side by side.

  Elya folded his body beside Natalya, while she was embracing him, thinking about a baby in his mother’s womb. Then they stretched their bodies, and she sent her hands under his back and both were looking at each other in the red light scatttered by the fireplace. She continued talking with weak tones about her recent months, being lonely and feeling bad, condemning herself why she could not have fallen in love with ‘quite simple guys’. Many of them would chase her, trying to date with her, but she had refused …

  “Rabbi Aaron Hittin would never behave like you,” she said suddenly, laughing loudly.

  “Somebody should try to tempt him,” he said. “I pity him, though I hate his behavior as well as his religious opinions and belief. And of course - his views about what’s happening in Russia; maybe in the whole world. In his mind - modern culture and civilizations is not worthy even one piece of onion.”

  “Yes, he seems to be obstinate,” she said, “But it is a common quality of both of you, men. Isn’t it, Elya?”

  She waved her words in a whisper, that she sent straight to his ear. He had felt it like a fast wind passing in a desert-plain, and told her that metaphor.

  “If I could break the Rabbi’s stubborn back,” he added, “… you can understand my childish pity and cruelty, when thinking about him. . .And you, please don’t use it one day. I mean – my disposition to pity close relatives.” He looked at her in a threatening eyes and she quite feared. But he kissed her afterward, so she was calmed, telling herself that he had not lied to her this time. She should appreciate that quality of his character, if it’s really so.

  “I was used to think that I had no time for... sinking into a passionate relationship.” He was like telling himself now: “due to my work with the Party. I don’t despise lyrics, but I can’t find . . .I need a woman-friend, who will understand me,” he was talking very rapidly, as if he had prepared that sentence before, “who will make me feel, that history sometime can stop its rush. For us, the individuals. To let us enjoy the intensive life. ”

  “Oh, I believe you,” She advanced her lips to his, while all the time her eyes were looking at his.They were embracing and kissing again.

  “Aaron Hittin is like a baby, sucking milk from his Mom’s tasty breast.” Elya kissed Natalya’s breast, and contiued: “The holy Torah is his breast, and he would suck only from it.”

  “And you,” she asked, “have absolutely ababdoned all your old world, all your previous beliefs and worships?”

  “I don’t believe in any spirit, that rules us. I’m an atheist, a follower of the ‘Dialectic Materialism’. Only what will materially improve the wellfare of human beings- is acceptable in my mind. Not any religious belief. Idealistic entity like God or Angels or their Visions - seem futile to me.. .And of course I even hate sacred ceremonies, which I can’t find logically needed to redeem any human being from his misery, or help him in some way to overcome a daily problem. . . Yes, ceremonies and worship Temples and the like- are beneficial for the clergymen. Their rich properties make them feel secure. But in this country- we’ll destroy that illusion of faith in God.”

  “The religious community connects you to people,” she said, “and that’s sometimes good. Isn’t it? I sometimes long to my childhood, that had bounded me to my relatives – and them to me; one had an influence on the other, and was ready to help. . .But now every group or family has been crushed or srpead or split.”

  “I was fed up, living with a religious group in the clergy highschool. I was a part of it. I had been lucky, however, to begin reading Russian from the age of ten; then I became to know that not everything that a Rabbi or a Priest would tell you, is true.”

  “I was not educated like you,” she said, “My father is non-Jewish.”

  “My friend Borisov has told me that,” he said.

  “My Pa was from a Russian Pravoslav family. But atheism filled

  his spirit. Since I was born - my father had breeded and educated me that in his way. He would condemn the Popes’ and Rabbies’ hypocrisy. So I have never became to fear God.”

  “You naturally accept the conviction, that Heaven is empty,” he said, “and that all what we see and discover by science – are mere natural phenomena. . . Have you read Darwin?” he asked.

  “Some biography about him, in Russian. He was a great man, an offspring of a great monkey,” she laughed. “Interesting, how many women think that they are lying with a monkey. They are not thinking about themselves as such.”

  “My skin is smooth,” he laughed, “my body is almost hairless, as you’ve seen. I’m like a female in that. Yes, a woman is generally thought quite remote from her ugly monkey forefather- in her smoothness and beauty.”

  “Till today,” she said, “I worship Darwin’s theory.”

  CHAPTER 8