he teaching of
Nohim's son, Baruch, and his grandson Isaak seized the dignity held
by his ancestors during the period of their rule. Therefore the
religion of the inhabitants was neither Mosaism, nor Talmudism, nor
Hassidism, but it was a chaotic mixture of all three which prevailed
for the space of a number of miles around Szybow, and the highest
expression of which was found in the person of the Rabbi of Szybow.

Rabbi Isaak had a swarthy forehead, furrowed deeply by lines of
strained thought in trying to penetrate the mystery of Heaven and
earth by a combination of letters, composed of the name of God and
the Angels. Therefore in his coal-black eyes were gloomy lights which
sometimes became ecstatic when they contemplated the incomparable
delights of the supernatural world. His back was bent from the
continual reading of books, arid his hand shook with excitement
caused by the perpetual state of emotion in which his mind was kept;
his body was thin from spiritual torments and physical mortifications.

Celibacy, fasting and sleepless nights were written in the dark face
of the man, as well as his mystical ecstasies, secret dread and
merciless hatred of everyone who lived, believed and desired
differently from himself.

When he was young he had married--or rather they had married
him--before the slightest sign of a beard had appeared on his cheeks,
but he soon divorced his wife, because, by her continual bustling
activity she troubled his pious thought and spiritual raptures. His
three children were brought up in his brother's house, and he himself
lived the life of an anchorite in the little cabin--a life of fancy
strained to the utmost, of passionate prayers and unfathomable mystic
contemplations. Such was his spiritual life.

His physical life was sustained by gifts sent him by his zealous
admirers. But those gifts were small and common. Rabbi Isaak did not
accept great and costly presents--he even refused to accept
remuneration for the advice, medicines and prophecies which he gave
to the faithful who came to him.

But every day before sunrise some bashful figures glided through the
school-yard, and placed on the wooden bench standing near the window
of the house some earthen dishes with food--slices of bread or
holiday cake.

At that time the Rabbi usually recited his morning prayers, for it
was that moment at which white could be distinguished from blue,
which is the time that every faithful Israelite sho