Leah the Fish-Seller

by Abraham Leib Shalkovich [“Ben Avigdor”]

[an extract – translated into English by Ester Birnbaum and donated by Robert Craig

……….Leah did not say a thing, but she turned her head aside and cried bitter tears. That’s how it was, she changed. It was two years now since she became a fish-seller in “Jew-Street” and she was always nice and pleasant to the other women who were fish-sellers. She did not argue with anyone and did not insult anybody….
 
The way of the market people was strange to her….she did not shout out to sell her merchandise, she did not swear by it, or haggle over price, she did not plead with the buyers or curse them. Anyway she always knew her own worth, because she was not a simple fish-seller, because she was better than her friends on the street and she did not want to behave like them.
 
And this is also how she appeared to them, for they looked at her with respect. They knew that beforehand she had a different life, a good life, a living and tranquility…..

 And today, what had happened to her? Hadn’t she become like all the others. Who had brought this on her. “Ribbonu shel olam” [1]she shouted from the depths of her heart. “Why did you punish me like that and not take pity on me. Why is my luck so bad? Why did you put me in such a situation? Wasn’t it enough that I’ve fallen so far, but you also have to crush my soul? My predicament made me sin, and soiled my soul.”

 “Am I nothing in your eyes, don’t I deserve the ‘schut’ [2] of my holy ancestors? And if not, I’d rather die than live this life”

 Her thoughts went through different memories…..she remembered her previous life, and the differences between this life and the other. How deep had she fallen? Who would have thought that she would fall so low – that she would become a fish-seller in “Jew-Street”?

She had been an only child of wealthy people with a big farm. The land did not belong to them but was rented from the landowner, who also rented them a big mill. They were successful in their business and lived a wealthy and respectable life
Her father, Reb Chaim, loved the Torah and believed in God. He stemmed from a very respectable Jewish family, his thoughts were always about the Torah and he prayed with ‘chasidut’[3]  and ‘kedusha’[4]. But he was also a man of action and a good businessman. He sent the harvest from his fields, and produce that he bought from other farmers in the neighbourhood, on boats downriver to Preussen. Sometimes he also went on his own to Ginsbruck and Leipzig. Her mother also helped in the father’s business. She was clever and an ‘eshet chayil’ [5].

And she, Leah was a nice and pretty girl. Her parents loved her like their own souls and gave her all their love. She could still remember those days…….Then she was happy; cold, illness and poverty were strangers to her. Life was calm and full of hope. Her father had only one wish, to marry her to a wise Torah scholar, approved by the highest rabbis, someone who would sit in the seat of judgement. What her parents wished for her was what she wanted for herself. She saw only good things in her future, to become a rebbetzin [6], in one of the big cities.

And, really, she did marry such a man. Zalman, even before he married was a notable rabbi with authority to teach. People predicted that one day he would become a famous rabbi in Israel, as his father was. Leah’s father gave her three thousand in silver as a dowry. From the day of their wedding she loved her husband and held him in respect, because he was so dedicated to the Torah, believed in God, was devoted to his family and also because of his soft and good heart. And he in turn loved Leah very much.

Really they had a very good life, loving and peaceful, and they always tried to find out each other’s wishes. Zalman came to live with her in her father’s house and to eat at their table. The years went by in peace and happiness. Zalman sacrificed the nights as well as the days to studying Torah, and that gave Leah a lot of pleasure. It gave her pleasure just to sit opposite him and to listen to his pleasant voice while he was studying - it swelled her heart and filled her with pride and happiness. Zalman told her that she had a part in his studies, and would also be rewarded in the life to come because of his studies. For she did not disturb her husband like other women, but was a helper to him like a true Jewish wife. This made him very happy.

One year after the wedding she gave birth to a son, and two years later to a daughter. These two children Ephraim and Dina, blessings from God, made their lives even more happy. The children were also a precious gift to their grandparents who loved them as their own, and had happiness in their old age.

But this state of affairs did not last. Three years after their wedding the wheel turned to its bad side and success left them. A boat full of corn which Leah’s father sent down to Ginsbruck collided with another vessel, was badly holed and sank. This was the start of their bad luck which broke the family apart. All her father’s wealth was swallowed by the river, and also that of the other people whose cargo was on the boat,. The little money that  he still had was needed to pay his debts, which he did to the last penny without thinking of himself. In this way he suddenly became very poor, but because he was a pious and holy man he did not complain to God. Instead he took all the burdens on himself with love. But he did not have to suffer for very long, for less than three months after the boat sank he took ill and died. His other children and their old mother were left with no-one to lean on. The farm which the father had rented for so many years was now rented to someone else.

Now Leah started to ask Zalman to look for a post as a rabbi in another town, which he would be able to get easily because his good name had even spread abroad. But he did not want to listen, he said did not want to be a  rabbi. He told her that he was a soft man and not capable of being a rabbi leading a community, which needed so much strength. He begged her to leave him in peace, and because his wishes were holy to her she never spoke about it again.

God found her another source of income, because the landlord rented his cows to her mother, and made her his dairywoman. This was a good business and she earned well, making cheese and butter from the milk and sending it every day to sell in town. Leah helped her mother who managed the business with energy and ambition. Ten village women came to milk the cows and make the cheese, and they had a Jewish servant girl who took the produce into town for sale.

After a year Leah’s mother died and she took over the business herself. Zalman did not interfere in it, or in the management of the house, because he spent all his time studying Torah, day and night. She had no need of his help because she knew how to manage the business herself. Doing that and running the house were a burden to her because she was not used to the work, but she thought in her heart “Man is born to work.” From time to time she missed her old life, the life of an only child, the daughter of a rich farmer, but she knew that she was doing it for her husband who was a pious man and a Torah scholar. She knew her reward would be in the world to come.

"Zebulun is the provider, and Issachar lives in the tents of the Torah, and they share the reward"[7] as Zalman told her many times, for she was providing for her children and that gave her satisfaction and happiness.
 

[1] Master of the Universe (Back)
[2] Self-respect (Back)
[3] Piety (Back)
[4] Holiness (Back)
[5] Woman of worth – reference to Proverbs 31.10 (Back)
[6] Rabbi’s wife (Back)
[7] Reference to Deut 33.18- translation by Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg



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