came back, and
entered the Tabernacle, and father started to make the blessing over the
wine, I looked into her eyes, and they were red, and had swollen lids.
Her nose was shining. Nevertheless, she was to me beautiful as Rachel or
Abigail, or the Queen of Sheba, or Queen Esther. Looking at her, I was
reminded of all our beautiful Jewish women with whom I had just become
acquainted at "_Cheder_." And looking at my mother, with her lovely face
that looked lovelier above the lovely silk shawl she wore, with her
large, beautiful, careworn eyes, my heart was filled with pain that such
lovely eyes should be tear-stained always--that such lovely white hands
should have to bake and cook. And I was angry with the Lord because He
did not give us a lot of money. And I prayed to the Lord to destine me
to find a treasure of gold and diamonds and brilliants. Or let the
Messiah come, and we would go back to the Land of Israel, where we
should all be happy.

This was what I thought. And my imagination carried me far, far away, to
my golden dreams that I would not exchange for all the money in the
world. And the beautiful Festival prayers, sung by my father in his
softest and most melodious voice, rang in my ears.

"Thou hast chosen us above all peoples, Us hast Thou chosen Of all the
nations."

Is it a trifle to be God's chosen people? To be God's only child? My
heart was glad for the happy chosen people. And I imagined I was a
prince. Yes, a prince. And the Tabernacle was a palace. The Divine
Holiness rested on it. My mother was the beautiful daughter of
Jerusalem, the Queen of Sheba. And on the morrow we would make the
blessing over the most beautiful fruit in the world--the citron. Ah, who
could compare with me? Who could compare with me?

* * *

After father, Moshe-for-once pronounced the blessing over the wine. It
was not the same blessing as my father's--but, really not. After him,
the landlord, Hershke Mamtzes pronounced the blessing over the wine. He
was a commonplace man, and it was a commonplace blessing. We went to
wash our hands, and we pronounced the blessing over the bread. And each
of the three women brought out the food for her family--fine, fresh,
seasoned, pleasant, fragrant fish. And each family sat around its own
table. There were many dishes; a lot of people had soup; a lot of mouths
were eating. A little wind blew into the Tabernacle, through the frail
thin walls, and the thin roof of fir-boughs. The candl