Setting: Pa reminisces about the Toronto days. The
children are growing up in the goyishe world but the
oldest, Shmiel, has just returned from the Bobover Yeshiva in
Poland. World War II has broken out...
"Ma took the train to meet Shmiel in Montreal. The reason for
her making the eight-hour trip was to bring him a pair of
long pants. In Poland he had, as all chassidim, worn
three-quarter knickers. Ma figured that in Toronto, his beard
was enough.
"Not that Ma was ashamed. G-d forbid! In all the years that
we'd lived in Toronto, we'd never compromsied on Jewish
dress, names or language. In the merit of those three things,
Jews had been redeemed from Egypt and in their merit, we
hoped to also be redeemed.
"But this was different. Shmiel was already a young man; it
was time to think of marrying him off. What girl in this
hemisphere would take him if he looked like a relic from the
Middle Ages?
"But even with long trousers, Shmiel stopped traffic. How
many beards were there in all of Canada in 1939? The
Stretiner Rebbe, Rabbi Ochs, Rabbi Price, Rabbi Kamenetzky,
may they rest in peace. Me... and another handful of old Jews
in shul.
"Shmiel stayed indoors most of the time, studying with the
rabbis in the city. His friend Yossel had refused to leave
Bobov and Shmiel felt totally alone in the goyish city
to which he had come home. Most of his former classmates had
either left the fold or gone off to New York where yeshivos
were taking root. There were rumors that in Williamsburg and
Crown Heights, several young men had begun to grow beards. In
Lubavitch, Torah Vodaas. That there was a new breed of young
Americans who insisted on looking Jewish, even if everyone
pointed them out and laughed.
"It all sounded so strange, so unbelievable, almost... Until
then, whoever had reached the American shores from European
countries had done everything not to look Jewish, to
look like everyone else; and suddenly, perhaps because across
the ocean Jews were in danger of being annihilated, a new
generation of American-born young men were seeking
davka to look Jewish and strengthen the religion that
most Jewish immigrants had either cast away or, at best,
tempered.
"But even in America, despite that tiny nucleus of courageous
and idealistic young men who insisted on wearing traditional
Jewish garb and beards, religious girls wouldn't dream of
marrying anyone with a beard. All they wanted was that their
husbands look like everyone else.
"Remember, this was before Bais Yaakov was established in
America, before Jewish girls were not only proud to be
Jewish, but to also look like Jews."
*
Pa looked at the wall clock, eased his sick foot off the low
stool and stood up. He went to the sink, filled a pitcher
with naigel vasser and put it by his bed. He wound up
the alarm clock and checked if it would ring.
"Go home," he said. "It's late. The children need a rested
mother in the morning."
