have seen two looks which, swift as lightning and
unperceived by all present, had been exchanged during the melamed's
speech. They were the looks of Ber and Meir. The former looked sadly
at the other, who answered him with a look full of restrained anger
and irony. When the melamed spoke of the fish Leviathan, so large
that the whole world stood on it, and which, in the day of the
Messiah, the scholars would eat from the head and the ignorant from
the tail, a smile appeared on Meir's thin lips. It was a smile
similar to the stiletto. It pierced the one on whose lips it
appeared, and it seemed as though it would like to pierce the one who
caused it. Ber answered this smile by a sigh. But the four young men
who sat opposite Meir noticed it, and on their faces Meir's smile was
reflected. After a period of silence, interrupted only by the clatter
of knives on the plates and the loud movements of the melamed's jaws,
old Saul said:

"Those are great things, scholarly and dreadful, and we thank Reb
Moshe for having told them to us. Listen to the learned men, who by
their great knowledge sustain Israel's strength and glory, because it
is written that the wise men are the world's foundation. 'Who
respects them, and questions them often about obscure things with
which they are familiar, to that one all sins shall be pardoned.'"

Reb Moshe raised his face from the plate, and stuttered with his
mouth full of food:

"Good deeds bring upon man an inexhaustible stream of blessing and
forgiveness. They open for him the secrets of the heavens and earth
and carry his soul among the Sefirots!"

A silence full of respect was the only answer. But after a few
seconds it was interrupted by the sonorous voice of the youth:

"Reb Moshe! what do you call a good deed? What must one do in order
to save one's life from sin and draw upon one's self a great stream
of grace?" asked Meir aloud.

The melamed raised his eyes at the question. Their looks met again.
The melamed's gray eyes shone angrily and threateningly. The gray,
transparent eyes of the youth contained silvery streams of hidden
smiles.

"You, Meir, you were my pupil, and you can ask me about such things.
Have I not told you a great many times that the best deed is
acquiring depth in the holy science? To whom does that everything
will be forgiven, and he who does not do that will be cursed and
thrust out from the bosom of Israel, although his hands and heart are
clean and white