ings but little
profit. I have six children, an old father who lives with me, and two
orphaned grandchildren, whose parents died. Rabbi it is difficult to
find food for so many mouths, and we have meat only once a week.
Kosher meat is very dear, so I buy three pounds every week, and
eleven people have to keep up their strength, on it. Rabbi! I knew we
should have nothing during the week, except bread and onions and
cucumber. I was loth to throw that meat away and so ate from it, and
allowed my family to eat from it."

Thus complained and confessed the poor Samson, and the master
listened with clouded brows.

Then he spoke, transfixing the sinner with angry eyes. He explained
in a long and learned speech the origin of the law of clean and
unclean food. How great and wise men had written many commentaries
about it, and how great the sin of a man was who dared to eat a piece
of meat upon which a drop of milk had fallen.

"Your sin is abominable in the sight of the Lord," he thundered at
the humble penitent. "For the sake of greediness you have broken the
covenant which Jehovah made with his people, and transgressed one of
the six hundred and thirteen commandments which every true Israelite
is bound to keep. You deserve to be cursed even as Elisha cursed the
mocking children, and Joshua the town of Jerico. But since it was
only your body which sinned, whilst the spirit remained faithful, and
you came to me and humbled and confessed yourself, I will forgive
you, under the condition that you and your family abstain from meat
and milk during four weeks, and the money saved thereby be
distributed among the poor. And after four weeks, when your souls
will be clean again from the abomination, you may dwell in peace and
piety among your brethren Israelites."

"Say everybody Amen."

"Amen," called the people within the room and without, and those who
pressed their eager faces against the window.

The little red-haired Samson, relieved of the burden that had
oppressed his conscience, though otherwise burdened with a
four-weeks' fast, murmured his thanks and retreated towards the
entrance.

Reb Moshe again raised his finger and called out:

"Reb Gerson, melamed."

At his summons a round-backed, middle-sized man, with shaggy hair and
clouded mien, appeared. He was a colleague of Reb Moshe, a teacher
from a small town, where he enlightened the Israelitish youths. He
stood in the middle of the room, holding a heavy book wit