A baby with six fingers and devil’s tricks. This picaresque novel will delight you [FRAGMENT KSI¡¯KI]

But first, let’s give the floor to the Nobel Prize winner: “Sometimes it seems to me that history can be told over and over again, depending on the perspective we adopt. This is also the case in this picaresque novel. We are shown the seventeenth-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in one of the most dramatic moments of its history, seen through the eyes of the involuntary adventurer, cabalist and vagabond Nechemia, entangled in the history of the false Messiah from Smyrna. The book by Yakov Z. Mayer is published in the translation by Magdalena Sommer by Wydawnictwo Literackie.

Fragment of the novel:

The moment the midwife grabbed the newborn by the legs, the sun’s rays fell on a battery of polished pots hanging on the wall, casting reflections on the white bedding and filling the entire interior with light. The woman giving birth squinted her eyes, and when they got used to the light, she let out a terrible scream. At this sound, the midwife came out of her thoughts and laid the boy on the bed.

“Lord, God of all living things,” she gasped. – He has six fingers.

Blinking her eyelids, she looked from the obstetrician to the newborn on the bed. Then she took the baby in her arms and counted the fingers on her left hand again, and then again. Finally, she hugged them to her heart.

These were good times for the sons of Jakub, when the world of Torah grew and flourished throughout Poland. Gentiles regularly killed each other, but for Jews their war has long been just a blurred background of life. In every town there were houses of prayer and kloyz available to everyone, and the chosen ones sat there and spent their time engaged in learned discussions. Such places were opened wherever there was some penny. The father of the newborn, Gawriel Kohen, did not stand out special in his generation or came from a significant family. His parents were considering the trade in apples in Gliniany, just like their parents earlier, even the great -grandfather was dealing with this occupation. However, the superior of the kloyz was not guided by appearance or origin, and everything he did, he did in the name of Heaven, which is why he offered Gavriel an honorary place in the synagogue next to the great and famous scholars, as if thanks to the Torah even the little ones could come out of oblivion. Gawriel was already visible, gray threads, and his wife was teasing rheumatism in his knees when they finally had a descendant. Why should we complain about an additional finger in such a situation, she said Pesila to her husband.

The great Kabbalist, Shimshon of Ostropol, lived in Połonne at that time. He always sat in a corner of his house and studied the Torah with great devotion. People did not approach him so as not to disturb him. But Gavriel and Pesili had an advantage over other mortals because Sima, the barren wife of Reb Shimshon, was Pesili’s only sister. So they had no reason to complain about this either. Reb Gavriel, with an impenetrable face, got into the first cart and went from Glinany to Polonne, entered Reb Shimshon’s house and found him wearing a tallit and with phylacteries, bent over a book in prayer, looking with unseeing eyes. Reb Gavriel hesitated for a long time, finally decided to interrupt the host and presented his problem to him. Reb Shimshon thought for a moment and then began to open the books one by one. He juxtaposed the names of good and evil angels, balanced one against the other, pondered and analyzed with the utmost scrupulousness, quoted holy verses and then reversed their meaning, applied the principles of gematria directly and inversely, chose and rejected the names of holy men after saints, and finally raised his head and said:

– The boy has a chance for tikun. The great Kabbalist and tzaddik, the God-fearing old man Elijah from Chełm, returns this evening from a long journey. On the way home, stop at Chełm, go to him and ask him to become a mohel for circumcision. This will help you with your distress.

Reb Gawriel thanked Reb Szymszon, and he urged him to leave. Reb Gawriel did not delay a moment, he left, got on the cart and headed to Chełm. He found an old cabalist at home, and his shoes were still covered with a traveler’s dust, as Reb Szymszon predicted. Elijahu Baal Szem listened to the whole story and promised that he would come to Glinian in eight days to carry out circumcision.

The spouses almost did not narrow the eye and almost did not tick food. For all days, PiSila did not leave for a moment from childhood, and at the same time she made various faces, like mothers, she converted his fingers and pulled his nose again and again. She started to like the boy. He had a pyzate cheeks and gracefully frowned his forehead, as if he was thinking about some extremely complicated arithmetic task. Pesili kissed him and cried, cried and kissed. Throughout the week, Reb Gawriel walked with his eyes stuck in the ground, and people looked at him as someone in mourning, they talked briefly, expressing compassion, and kissed his back. They also brought various victuals: one piece of sponge cake and a carafe of wine, the other hard-boiled eggs and lentils, because according to tradition, this is the food of mourners.

On the day of circumcision of Reb Szymszon and Sima they came to Glinian in the evening, but there was nowhere to be seen Reb Elijahu. At the evening prayer, Gawriel announced that he was asking that in the evening all the boys would come to refuse Szema with the child, but although they waited an hour and then two, no one appeared. People were overwhelmed by the fear of demons, so Reb Gawriel, Reb Szymszon, Pesila and Sima refused to pray over the newborn. The angry piperi finally fell asleep, she also fell asleep Sima with a heart filled with envy, Reb Szymszon opened the book and nodded over her, until he also fell asleep with a heart full of names of holy husbands, but Reb Gawriel did Tales of Kfar Tarsza from the Holy Book of Zohar, plus the “Lech Lech” couple, which is recited to resolve the danger.

On the morning of the circumcision, Reb Gabriel walked silently through the dark streets with his kabbalist brother-in-law and thought about the kugel prepared especially for the festive treat. After entering the synagogue, they saw that next to Gavriel’s permanent place was standing the holy old man Elijah Baal Shem from Chełm with a young assistant. Reb Gavriel hurried to the elderly rabbi, who was holding a one-day-old newborn in his arms.

“Your son was replaced by a devil’s trick,” Elijah said to Gavriel. – This is your true son, whom we will accept today into the Abrahamic covenant. Mazal Tow.

And it was like that. The previous evening, Reb Elijah came to the outskirts of Glinian and saw there a great horde of sorcerers and witches, over a hundred thousand, from whose mouths breathed fire and flames, and a blazing fire was raging all around. These sorcerers were playing with a newborn baby. When Eliahu saw this, he ordered his servant to give him water from a jug and bring him seven knives and seven nails, two loaves of bread and seven shoes, and each knife was stuck in one shoe. Then he took off his shoes and washed his hands twice, and touched the thumb of his right hand to the little finger of his left hand, saying these words: I am undoing the spell of these men and women without harming the child, beekira ve-chasna takifa deshma kadisha ve-jakira. Blessed, let the great royal name forever forever, his memory and his name blessed forever.

By speaking these words, Elijahu Baal szem killed all sorcerers, took the child in his arms and carried them to his parents. Reb Gawriel began to tremble all over his body, took the child, hugged and whispered: “My son, my son.” He kept them in his arms all the time, but bad thoughts rose in his heart. At the end of prayers, Pesila entered the synagogue. She had a child at her chest, at whom she smiled tenderly. Reb Gawriel approached her with a radiant face, carrying it true.

– What is that? – Pesili asked with horror.

The holy old man Elijah Baal Shem approached them and uttered the Holy Name: Shamshayahu.

Cover of the book ‘Nechemia’ mat. Literary Publishing House

Suddenly, everyone present saw that Pesili was holding an armful of straw and tow, which only superficially resembled a human being. She put it aside and took the living child from her husband. He frowned at the sight of her and Pesili looked at him again and again. There was a strange feeling in her heart that she couldn’t name. The boy blinked and began to cry.

Pesili said:

– I will feed him, and then he will be circumcised as a sign of the Abrahamic covenant.

She went out into the side room, kissed the child and hugged them, and she clung to her breast with all her strength. In amazement, she ran her little finger over his ear, cleaning it of any dust, and when she reached the five fingers on his left hand and felt them one by one, she let out a deep sigh of relief. Sim came in to urge her and remind her that the relatives were waiting. Pesili asked for a few more minutes to relieve her swollen left breast.

The scream that came from behind the door froze everyone, and above it the cry of a baby towered. It turned out that when Pesili put the baby boy to the other breast, she discovered that after the charm was removed, the extra finger had not disappeared, but was now on her right hand.

Elijahu Baal Szem was confused, just like Szemszon from Milropol and Reb Gawriel, and Pesili was close to fainting.

“No matter, on the right or on the left,” she sobbed. – Give me back that child, my child.

But they didn’t know what to do. Reb Gavriel stood up and addressed those present:

– We prayed for many years for a living child to be born, and finally it was given to us. He will be circumcised and we will bring him up in Torah, marriage and good deeds. Reb Shimshon will honor us and become a sandak, and the venerable Reb Eliyahu will perform circumcision.

Everyone sat down in their seats. The boy was named Nechemia on the advice of Reb Shimshon, because according to the principles of gematria, it combines two names of the Most High, uniting grace and justice. Moreover, said Reb Shimshon, the value of this name is three hundred and eighty-five, and when we write this number in letters, it can be read as the word safa – language or speech. And yet we read in the Scripture that “He will take away the voice of the gifted and deprive the old of sense.” Reb Gavriel was a pious but simple-minded man, and usually a bit slow-thinking, especially now when he was so worried, and he did not pay attention to the allusion. The old Reb Elijahu, in turn, noticed her but silenced.