To the Editor:
In October’s COMMENTARY there is a story (“The First Three Stars,” by David Schreiber) about a little Jewish boy who knows that Jews are different. Whatever his father tells him about them has the same meaning—Jews are different. If Chaimke’s world is so strange it is because there are differences . . . and differences; and some of them (or possibly all of them), as Barry Pain once said, are wrong ‘uns. Here even time and the calendar are reckoned differently, for although it is December and Timmy Mulcahy and one of Tummy’s older brothers will that day come down the street carrying a Christmas tree, behind him in the synagogue basement ten men are reading Pirke Avoth under the delusion that these are still the summer months. They are also under the delusion that they are reading Pirke Avoth. Who may underestimate the potency of purple-black wine, black bread, and herring? This is what makes the learned rabbi, Chaimke’s grandfather, lick his lips. This is what makes the crowfooted eyes crinkle and sparkle, not the keen and tender logic of a passage which is not there. But since they are under the delusion that they are reading Pirke Avoth, it is fortunate that there are ten of them, for as every ignoramus knows, a minyan is required for the reading of Pirke Avoth. Or is it?
In Chaimke’s world, the word “Saturday” may not be used in synagogue because of its Roman origin, yet Chaimke’s father who has issued this particular decree subsequently speaks twice of Venus. If this bewilders the reader, Chaimke, at least, knows that all will be resolved when at night his father will tell him why neither Saturday nor Venus is to be mentioned in synagogue. After all, Chaimke is only a bit past seven and when he misses the point his father tells him, “Later, later you will see,” and whenever he rebels, his father smiles with the knowledge that his son will understand better later on. How are the dreams of parents fulfilled! Chaimke grows up and learns to smoke and is able to understand—what it must have meant to his grandfather to abstain from tobacco on the Sabbath. Nu—so is wisdom acquired!
J. Brothers
Harrison, New Jersey
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