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The 
 
 God of Vengeance 
 
 Drama in Three A£ls 
 
 By SHOLOM ASH 
 
 Authorized Translation from the Yiddish 
 With Introduction and Notes 
 
 by Isaac Goldberg 
 
 Preface by Abraham Cahan 
 
 Editor of The Jewish Daily Forward 
 
 and Author of "The Rise of 
 
 David Levinsky" 
 
 BOSTON 
 THE STRATFORD CO., PUBLISHERS 
 MCMXVIII 
 
Copyright 1918 
 
 The STRATFORD CO., Publishers 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 The Alpine Press, Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 
 
^^ornell University Library 
 KJ i>i<!S*.A81G6 1918 
 
 God of vengeance; 
 
 3 1924 026 883 102 
 
 Preface 
 
 By ABRAHAM CAHAN 
 
 Editor of the Jewish Daily Forward and author of 
 
 "Tehl," "The White Terror and the Bed," "The 
 
 Rise of David Levinshy," etc. 
 
 THE birth, of Yiddish literature in Russia and 
 the beginning of the great Jewish exodus 
 from that country to America are two effects 
 of one and the same cause. The same anti-semitic 
 crusade that forced the Children of Israel to go be- 
 yond the seas in search of a safe home, aroused 
 them to a new sense of their racial self-respect and 
 to an unwonted interest in their native tongue. 
 
 Prior to the anti-Jewish riots of 1881 educated 
 Jews were wont to look upon their mother tongue 
 as a jargon beneath the dignity of cultured atten- 
 tion. Yiddish, more especially in its written form, 
 was the language of the untutored. People with 
 modem training spoke and wrote Russian. As for 
 the intellectual class of the Tahnudic type, it would 
 carry on its correspondence and, indeed, write its 
 essays, verse and fiction, in the language of Isaiah. 
 One wrote Yiddish to one's mother, for the mothers 
 of those days were not apt to understand anything 
 else. For the rest, the tongue of the Jewish 
 masses was never taken seriously and the very no- 
 
PREFACE 
 
 tion of a literature in "a gibberish that has not 
 even a grammar" would have seemed ludicrous. 
 
 Popular stories and songs were written in Yid- 
 dish long before the end of the nineteenth century, 
 but, barring certain exceptions, these were intended 
 exclusively for the most ignorant elements of the 
 populace, and were contemptuously described as 
 "servant-maid literature." (As for Yiddish poetry, 
 it was almost wholly confined to the purposes of 
 the wedding bard.) The exceptions here mentioned 
 belong to the sixties and the seventies, when some 
 brilliant attempts were made in the direction of 
 literature in the better sense of the term by S. J. 
 Abramovitch. But Abramovitch 's stories were not 
 even regarded as vanguard swallows heralding the 
 approach of Spring. They aroused an amused sort 
 of admiration. Indeed, it required a peculiar in- 
 dependence of mind to read them at all, and while 
 they were greeted with patronizing applause, it was 
 a long time before they found imitators. 
 
 All this changed when the whip of legal discrimi- 
 nation and massacres produced the "national 
 awakening" of the educated Jew. Thousands of 
 enlightened men and women then suddenly made 
 the discovery, as it were, that the speech of their 
 childhood was not a jargon, but a real language, — 
 that instead of being a wretched conglomeration of 
 uncouth words and phrases, it was rich in neglected 
 beauty and possessed a homely vigor full of artistic 
 possibilities. A stimulus was given to writing Yid- 
 dish "as the Gentiles do their mother tongues." 
 Abramovitch was hailed as "the father of Yiddish 
 
PREFACE 
 
 literature ' ' and his example was followed by a num- 
 ber of new writers, several of whom proved to be 
 men of extraordinary gifts. 
 
 The movement bears curious resemblance to that 
 of the present literary renaissance of Ireland. 
 
 Some truly marvelous results were soon achieved, 
 the list of writers produced by the new literature 
 including the names of men like Rabinovitch (Sho- 
 lom Aleikhem) and Peretz, whose tales were crowned 
 with immense popularity. 
 
 Sholom Ash belongs to a younger group of Yid- 
 dish story-tellers and now that Abramovitch, Rabin- 
 ovitch and Peretz are in their graves (they have 
 all died during the last two years) he is the most 
 popular living producer of Yiddish fiction. 
 
 His narratives and plays are alive with a spirit 
 of poetic realism, with a stronger leaning toward 
 the poetic than toward reality, perhaps, but always 
 throbbing with dramatic force and beauty. Sholom 
 Ash's passion for color and melody manifests it- 
 self as much in his rich, ravishing style as in the 
 picturesque images it evokes. The "jargon of ser- 
 vant maids" becomes music in his hands. 
 
 His "God of Vengeance," which is his strongest 
 play, is one of the best things he has written in any 
 form. Absorbingly interesting and instinct with 
 human sympathy, it mounts to a natural climax of 
 cataclysmal force and great spiritual beauty. 
 
 The theme, while thoroughly original and unique, 
 reflects the artistic traditions of the country in 
 which the author was bom and bred. It was a mat- 
 ter of course that the young literature of which he 
 
PREFACE 
 
 is a conspicuous representative should shape itself 
 under the influence of the much older and richer 
 literary treasures of Slavic Russia and Poland. If 
 it was natural for the novel of countries like 
 iVance, Germany, Norway or Italy to fall under 
 the sway of Turgenev, Tolstoi, Dostoyevski, Chek- 
 hov and Gorki, how much more so was it for a 
 non-Russian fiction produced on Russian soil to seek 
 guidance, directly or indirectly, in the same source. 
 
 Human sympathy is the watchword. Pity for 
 and interest in the underdog — the soul of Russian 
 art — became, from the very outset, the underlying 
 principle of the new-bom Yiddish art. No human 
 being is so utterly brutalized as to possess not a 
 single spark worthy of the artist's sympathetic, 
 though ruthlessly impartial, attention, — this is the 
 basic rule of Yiddish letters. 
 
 Himself a creature of the gutter, Yekel Tchafteho- 
 vitch, the central figure of ' ' The God of Vengeance, ' ' 
 is stirred by the noblest ambition known to a father 
 in the world of orthodox Judaism. Imbedded in the 
 slime that fills Yekel 's soul is a jewel of sparkling 
 beauty. But the very income by which he seeks 
 to secure his daughter's spiritual splendor contains 
 the germs of her loathsome fall and of his own 
 crushing defeat. 
 
 The clash between Yekel 's revolting career and 
 his paternal idealism, and the catastrophe to which 
 it inevitably leads form one of the strongest and 
 most fascinating situations known to the modern 
 drama. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I cannot conclude without a word of well-earned 
 praise for the English version of "The God of 
 Vengeance." Dr. Isaac Goldberg's translation is 
 not only a thoroughly correct and felicitous equiva- 
 lent of the original, but a piece of art in itself. 
 
 New York City, April, 1918. 
 
Introduction 
 
 SHOLOM ASH is one of the chief authors in eon- 
 temporary Yiddish letters, — a literature at 
 present enjoying a renaissance that attests the 
 remarkable vitality of a people long oppressed in 
 intellectual no less than in economic domains, — a 
 literature that has much to teach America in the way 
 of fearlessness before the facts of life, frankness in 
 their interpretation and persistent idealism in face 
 of the most degrading and debasing environment. 
 Indeed, the conjunction of squalid surroundings, 
 sordid occupation and idealistic yearning to be met 
 so frequently in Jewish writers arises most natur- 
 ally from the peculiar conditions of much of the life 
 in ghettos the world over. 
 
 It is interesting to consider Ash's "The God of 
 Vengeance" in connection with a play like "Mrs. 
 Warren's Profession." To be sure, there is no 
 technical resemblance between the two dramas; nor, 
 despite an external similarity in backgrounds, is 
 there any real identity of purpose. Shaw's play is 
 essentially sociological, and is a drama of disillu- 
 sionment. Ash's piece glows with poetic realism 
 and recounts an individual tragedy not without sym- 
 bolic power. Yet the essentially (though not con- 
 ventionally) moral earnestness of both Shaw and Ash 
 brings the circles of their themes in a sense tangent 
 to each other. 
 
 Mrs. Warren cherishes no delusions about her 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 dubious profession, — neither the delusion of that 
 sentimentalization of the prostitute which Dumas 
 helped so much to effect and which Augier strove to 
 combat, nor the delusion of the conservative, con- 
 ventional horror before an institution for the per- 
 petuation of which conservatism and convention- 
 alism are much to blame. If Yekel and his wife (in 
 Ash's play) are not so enlightened as Mrs. Warren 
 in their views upon the traf&c off which they live, 
 they are in their own crude way equally sincere in 
 beholding in it a business quite as legitimate as any 
 other. With the same inconsistency with which 
 Hindel implores Heaven for aid in achieving her 
 nefarious aims, after which she promises to be a 
 model wife and mother (See Act Two), Mrs. War- 
 ren at the end of Shaw's play swears by Heaven 
 that henceforth she will lead a life of evil. 
 
 In the case of Yekel and his wife, as in Mrs. War- 
 ren's, another touch of inconsistency is added by 
 the agreement that theirs is not the best of profes- 
 sions. Crofts, too, in the English play, discusses 
 the business with all the matter-of-factness of Ash's 
 Shloyme, yet considers himself a gentleman none 
 the less. 
 
 Rifkele, of course, is no Vivie. Ash's simple- 
 minded Jewish girl is a victim, not a rebel. Yet 
 in either case the daughter is lost to the parents, 
 and the power of money is of no avail to win the 
 child back. And just as Yekel, in his impobence, 
 blashphemously thrusts the Holy Scroll from his 
 household, so does Mrs. Warren, defeated in her at- 
 tempt to win back her daughter, cry "From this 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 time forth, so help me Heaven in my last hour, I'll 
 do wrong and nothing but wrong. And I'll prosper 
 on it." Perhaps, too, the retribution which in each 
 ease is visited upon the parent arises from the fact 
 that both Mrs. Warren and Yekel have, in Vivie's 
 accusatory words, "lived one life and believed in 
 another. ' ' 
 
 ' ' The God of Vengeance, ' ' despite conclusions too 
 easily drawn, is not a sex play. When Ash wishes 
 to deal with sex as sex he is not afraid to handle 
 the subject with all the poetry and power at his 
 command. Such a play as his "Jephthah's Daugh- 
 ter" treats the elemental urge of sex with daring, 
 beauty and Dionysiac abandon. Here, too, a golden 
 symbolism wafts through the piece. Again, in his 
 powerful novel "Mottke the Vagabond," Ash has 
 given us scenes from the underworld of Warsaw 
 that are unparalleled for unflinching truth to detail. 
 "The God of Vengeance," however, despite the 
 sordid environment in which the play takes place, 
 possesses a certain moral beauty, — a beauty much 
 dimmed, perhaps, by the repellant human beings 
 who are its carriers, but a beauty none the less. 
 Its symbolism and its poetry lift it far above the 
 brothel in which it takes place. And what a strong 
 conception is the Holy Scroll, itself one of the chief 
 characters, and how frightfully eloquent in the myste- 
 rious, religious power that the dramatist has woven 
 around it!* 
 
 *Tlie Holy Scroll, the religious significance of which is 
 fully explained in the course of the play, is a parchment 
 manuscript containing the first five books of the Bible, to- 
 gether known as the Torah, or Law. (Pentateuch). 
 
 xi 
 
INTEODUCTION 
 
 First produced by the famous director Max Rein- 
 hardt, at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin, in 1910, 
 Ash's powerful play quickly made its way to the 
 chief stages of Europe. It has been played all over 
 Germany, Austria, Russia, Poland, Holland, Nor- 
 way, Sweden and Italy. In Italy it created a 
 marked impression during the entire season of 1916. 
 "The God of Vengeance" has been translated into 
 Hebrew, German, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Swedish, 
 Norwegian, Italian and French. 
 
 Ash himself is yet a young man, having been born 
 near Warsaw, some thirty-seven years ago. He is 
 at present settled in New York, where pages flow in 
 rapid succession from his prolific pen. Among his 
 better known works are the following: 
 
 THE TOWN. A collection of sketches depicting 
 Yiddish life in the "staedtil" of the Old World. 
 It was this work that brought him into prominence 
 at the age of twenty-four. 
 
 MERI and THE ROAD TO SELF. A pair of 
 novels forming a continuous whole, in which the 
 author, with a wealth of color and episode, depicts 
 the wanderings of Jewish souls in search of self- 
 realization. The background, mainly that of the 
 Russian revolution of 1905, shifts to various parts 
 of the globe. The books are rich in poetry and 
 movement, and have been referred to as the epic 
 of the Yiddish part in the revolution of 1905. Be- 
 sides this the love story of Meri Rosenzweig and 
 Misha, and the figures of Rachel and Kovalski the 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 artist, lend to the novels all the charm that love can 
 add to adventure and beautiful language to both. 
 
 MOTTKE THE VAGABOND. (Translated into 
 English.) A powerful tale of life in the underworld 
 of Warsaw, and the career of a Yiddish "cellar- 
 child." American critics have found Ash, in this 
 book, comparable in various respects to such authors 
 as Hugo, Dickens and Gorki. 
 
 THE SINNER. (Translated into English.) A 
 one-act symbolic play of intense power, which has 
 been likened for its atmosphere to certain of Maeter- 
 linck's dramas. The story, which deals with the 
 refusal of a Jewish grave to receive the corpse of a 
 man who has sinned by marrying out of the faith, 
 is developed with penetrating skill and impartial 
 outlook. 
 
 OUR FAITH. A full-length drama upon a theme 
 similar to that just touched upon. The author's re- 
 fusal to cater to orthodox views shows his artistic 
 independence. 
 
 SHORT STORIES. The best of the numerous 
 short stories that Ash has published in his various 
 collections attain a high degree of artistic excel- 
 lence. That same nervous prose as distinguishes 
 his longer pieces, that same linguistic iridescence, — 
 one might term it, — as he achieves in such remark- 
 able places as Chapter XIII (Part One) of "Meri" 
 and Chapter XLI (Part Two) of "The Road to 
 Self," are encountered often in his many shorter 
 tales. 
 
 ziii 
 
INTEODUCTION 
 
 In Ms more notable work Ash glows with a spon- 
 taneous artistry. It is this part of Ash's work that 
 holds much pleasure in store for an increasing num- 
 ber of American readers who are awakening to the 
 beauties of Yiddish literature. 
 
 ISAAC GOLDBERG. 
 
 Roxbury, Mass., April, 1918. 
 
 XIV 
 
Persons of the Drama 
 
 YEKEL TCHAPTCHOVITCH, familiarly 
 known as the "Uncle;" the owner of a 
 irothel. 
 
 SARAH, his wife; formerly a prostitute. 
 
 RIFKELE, their daughter; a young girl of 
 about seventeen. 
 
 HINDEL, first girl of the irothel; a girl of some 
 thirty odd years, but much older in appear- 
 ance. 
 
 MANKE, second girl; rather young. 
 
 REIZEL, third girl. 
 
 BASHA, a country lass, recently arrived. 
 
 SHLOYME, a procurer; Hindel's betrothed, a 
 handsome chap of twenty-six. 
 
 REB ALI, a matchmaker; neighbor of the 
 
 "Uncle." 
 
 REB YANKEV, a pious Scribe. 
 
 A STRANGER, father of BifJcele's proposed 
 husband. 
 
 A POOR WOMAN, blind in one eye. 
 
 Poor Men and Women of the neighborhood. 
 
 Time: The Present. 
 Place: One of the larger towns of a 
 Russian province. 
 
ACT I 
 
Scene: The "Uncle's" private dwelling on 
 the ground floor of an old wooden house. Be- 
 low, in the cellar, is the brothel. A flight of 
 rickety wooden stairs, whose creaking announces 
 the coming of all visitors, leads from the outside 
 into the home, which consists of a large room 
 with a low ceiling. .The furniture is new, in the 
 cheap Warsaw style, and does not at all har- 
 monize with the old-fashioned structure. On 
 the wall hang pictures embroidered upon canvas, 
 depicting scenes from the Bible, such as "Adam 
 and Eve at the Tree of Knowledge," etc. These 
 are evidently a young girl's handiwork. At the 
 rear, the door leading to the outside. To the 
 right, a door leading to Bifkele's room. 'At 
 each side of this door, placed against the wall, a 
 bed piled high with bedding. To the left, two 
 low windows, hung with curtains and provided 
 with shutters that close from the inside. Before 
 the windows, pots of flowers; between, a cup- 
 board; at the side of one of the windows, a 
 bureau. 
 
 The finishing touches are being put to the 
 cleaning of the room. . . Evidently guests are ex- 
 pected. . . Extra tables and benches have been 
 placed about, laden with baskets of bread, cake, 
 fruit, etc. 
 
 An afternoon in early spring. 
 
 [2] 
 
Act I 
 
 Sarah and HwKEnE are discovered as the cur- 
 tain rises. Sarah is a tall, slender, prepossessing 
 woman. Her features have hecome coarsened, 
 yet they retain traces of her former heauty, 
 which has even now a tone of insolence. On her 
 head lies a wig, through which, from time to 
 time, shows a lock of her alluring hair. She is 
 dressed quite soberly, as befits a mother, yet a 
 vulgar display of jewels spoils this effect. Her 
 movements, too, reveal that she is not quite lib- 
 erated from the influences of the world out of 
 which she has risen. 
 
 Bifkele is a fascinating girl, dressed very 
 neatly and modestly; still in short dresses, with 
 two long braids hanging across her shoulders. 
 She is busy decorating the room. 
 
 RiFKELE, as she pins some paper flowers to 
 the curtain. 
 
 There! That's the way, mamma dear. And 
 now to decorate the mirror. See, mamma dear. 
 Won't this be pretty? 
 
 Saeah, busy arranging the table. 
 Hurry, daughter dear, hurry. Your father 
 has already gone to ask the guests to bring the 
 Holy Scroll home. 
 
 [3] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 RiPKELE 
 
 Won't that be lovely! We'll have a house 
 full of people. . . There'll be playing and sing- 
 ing. . . Yes, mamma dear? 
 
 Saeah 
 Yes, my darling. It's a sacred event, — a 
 great merit in the eyes of God. . . Not everyone 
 can have a Holy Scroll written. Only a man of 
 dignity, a person of standing. 
 
 RiPKEIjE 
 
 And will there be girls, too? And dancing? 
 ReaUy, mamma dear? (Suddenly.) I'll have to 
 buy myself a waist, ma. And a pair of white 
 slippers. {Sticking out her shoes.) You can't 
 dance in shoes, can you? 
 
 Sarah 
 When you'U be engaged, in God's good time. 
 Next Passover I'll make you a long dress and 
 buy you slippers. Girls will come, fine young 
 ladies, respectable ones. And you'll chum with 
 them. 
 
 RiFKELE, stubbornly. 
 
 You're always putting things off until Pass- 
 over. I'm a grown-up girl already. (Looking 
 into the mirror.) See, ma. I'm a big girl. 
 (Showing her hair.) And just see how long my 
 braids are. Why, Manke tells me. . . (Inter- 
 
 [4] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 rupting herself.) And Manke will be there, too, 
 won't she, mamma dear? 
 
 Sarah 
 No, my darling. Only nice, respectable girls. 
 For you are a respectable child, a decent Jewish 
 daughter. . . 
 
 RrPKELE 
 
 Why not, mamma dear? Manke sketched a 
 David's shield for me on the cover of the Holy 
 Scroll. . . I 'm going to embroider it now in silk 
 thread, — a wreath of leaves and a garland of 
 flowers. You'll see how beautiful it'll be, ma. 
 (Points to the pictures on the wall.) A hundred 
 times prettier than these. . . 
 
 Sarah, with deep concern. 
 Woe is me! Don't tell that to your father! 
 He'll scold and fly into a rage when he hears of 
 it. 
 
 ElFKELE 
 
 Why, mamma dear? It's for the Holy Scroll, 
 isn't it? 
 
 Sarah 
 Your father will rave ! (Footsteps are heard.) 
 Hush, Rifkele, father is eomiag. 
 
 Yekel, still without. 
 What? Do they think I'll get down on my 
 knees and beg them ? Not on their lives ! (En- 
 
 [5] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 ters. He is a tall, strong man of about forty, 
 stout; swarthy countenance, covered with dark 
 hair; his Mack beard cut round. He speaks in 
 loud, gruff tones, at the same time making coarse 
 gestures and grasping the lapel of the man 
 whom he happens to be addressing. Despite 
 this, his face and person beam with a certain 
 frank geniality.) So they won't come! They 
 don't have to! ... So I got together some poor 
 folks. . . Don't you worry. . . We'll have plenty 
 of customers for our honey-cakes and our geese. 
 {Noticing Bifkele, he sits down.) Come here, 
 my little Eifkele, come to papa. 
 
 Sakah, angered, but trying to conceal her feel- 
 ings, continues to set the table. 
 Do they think they'll soil their pedigree by 
 coming to you ? And when they need to borrow 
 a hundred-rouble note. . . or take a charity con- 
 tribution. . . they're not at all ashamed of your 
 company then. . . The Gentile is impure, but 
 his money's untainted.* 
 
 Yekel 
 She's afraid already. Something new to 
 worry about, eh? Never fear, it'll spoil noth- 
 ing of yours. . . {Calls Bifkele.) Well, well, 
 come to daddy, won't you? 
 
 '^ The force of this in the original is increased by the use of 
 the terms 'trayf* and 'Itosher,' i. e., that which, accord- 
 ing to the Mosaic dietary laws, is unfit or fit to be eaten. 
 
 [6] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 EiFKELE, approaches her father very unwill- 
 ingly, in fear. 
 What does papa dear want? 
 
 Yekel 
 Don't be afraid, Rifkele, I won't hurt you. 
 (Takes her hand.) You like your father, don't 
 you? 
 
 RiPKELE 
 
 Nods ''yes." 
 
 Yeked 
 Then why are you afraid of him? 
 
 Rifkele 
 I don't know. 
 
 Yekel 
 Don't be afraid of papa. He loves you. 
 Very, very much. Today I'm having a Holy 
 Scroll written. It costs a good deal of money. 
 All for you, my child, all for you. {Bifkele is 
 silent. Pause.) And with God's help, when you 
 are betrothed, I'll buy your sweetheart a gold 
 watch and ehaiu — the chain will weigh half a 
 pound. . . Papa loves you very dearly. (Bifkele 
 is silent. She lowers her head hashfully. 
 Pause.y Don't be ashamed. There's nothing 
 wrong about being engaged. God has ordained 
 it. (Pause.) That's nothing. Everybody gets 
 engaged and married. (Bifkele is silent. 
 Pause.) Well, now. Do you love daddy? 
 
 [7] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 BiFKELE, nodding, and speaking softly. 
 Yes. 
 
 Tbkel 
 Well, then. What do you want me to buy 
 you? Tell me, Rifkele. {8he makes no reply.) 
 Tell me, now. Don't be afraid. Your daddy 
 loves you. Tell me, like a good little girlie. 
 What shall I buy you? {Rifkele is silent.) 
 
 Sarah, busy at the table, to Rifkele. 
 Well, why don't you answer when your father 
 speaks to you? 
 
 Rifkele 
 I don't know. . . 
 
 Sarah, to Yekel. 
 She wants a silk waist and a pair of white 
 slippers. 
 
 Yekel 
 Ts that it? A silk waist and a pair of white 
 slippers? Eh? 
 
 Rifkele 
 Nods "yes." 
 
 Yekel 
 
 You certainly deserve them. (From his 
 
 pockets, which jingle with coins, he takes out a 
 
 gold-piece and offers it to Rifkele.) Here, give 
 
 this to mamma. And let her buy them for you. 
 
 [8] 
 
THE GOD OP VENGEANCE 
 
 {Rifkele takes the money and hands it to her 
 mother. On the stairs outside is heard the' 
 noise of the poor folk whom Tekel has invited. 
 Yekel turns to Sarah.) See? You said (He 
 opens the door.) that you would have no guests. 
 (Calls.) Now then. Come in. Come in. (En- 
 ter a crowd of poor people, men and women, at 
 first singly, as if they were stealing in; then more 
 boldly, in groups. All greet Yekel, some of 
 them ironically.) 
 
 People in the Crowd 
 Good day to you, host! (To Sarah.) Qood 
 day to you, hostess. 
 
 Sabah 
 Puts on an apron, places in it loaves of white 
 bread, rolls, honey-cakes and so forth, and dis- 
 tributes them among the guests. 
 
 One op the Pook Men 
 Long life to you, hostess, and may you live 
 to celebrate joyous events beyond number. 
 
 A Woman 
 May the Holy Scroll bring good fortune and 
 be a blessing to your home. 
 
 Yekel, throwing slices of white bread to the 
 poor people. To Sarah. 
 Give them a whole pound of cake apiece. And 
 a bottle of brandy to take home with them. 
 
 [9] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Let them know that I'm celebrating today. . . 
 Never mind. I can well afford it. 
 
 A Woman, Blind in One Eye, praising Yekel 
 and Sarah before her poor neighbors. 
 This is a house for you, such luck may I have. 
 Nobody ever leaves this place empty-handed. 
 There's always a plate of soup for the sick, a 
 shirt for a poor fellow. "What then? Do you 
 think you can get anything over there where 
 the proud purses live?* (Sarah, as if not hear- 
 ing the woman's ivords, throws into the apron of 
 the latter a few more portions of food. The 
 old woman holds up her apron and continues 
 to talk. ) Whenever there 's a celebration here. . . 
 whoever you are. . . however humble your 
 trade. . . 
 
 Other Poor Folks, among themselves. 
 That's so. May we know such luck. . . May 
 such good fortune be ours! . . 
 
 Yekel, takes out a handful of small change 
 and casts it into Bifkele's apron. 
 Here, divide this among the poor folks. (Rif- 
 kele distributes the money.) 
 
 The Blind Woman, now enthusiastic, pointing 
 
 to Rifkele. 
 
 And show me, in the whole town, another 
 
 girl as respectable as she! ... (To the other 
 
 women.) Why, Eabbis haven't such virtuous 
 
 * Literally, 'under the high windows.* 
 
 [10] 
 
THE GOD OF VENaEANCE 
 
 children! {More softly, yet loud enough for 
 Yekel and Sarah to hear.) God alone knows 
 how such a pure child came to them. . . Imagine, 
 hrought up in such a place, — may Heaven not 
 punish us for menitioning it. (Louder.) And 
 they guard her like the apple of their eye. . . 
 They weigh and measure every step she takes. 
 It's a delight to look at her. (Goes over to 
 Yekel.) Never mind. Everybody knows it. 
 (Pointing to Bifkele.) If I had a Rabbi for a 
 son, I'd choose her for his bride. 
 
 The Other Women, among themselves. 
 Everybody knows it. It's the talk of the 
 town. 
 
 Yekel 
 Just wait tiU I lead her under the wedding 
 canopy, in God's good time. You'll all get a 
 whole goose apiece, and a pickerel just out of 
 the water, and roubles galore. And if I lie, 
 then my name isn't Yekel Tchaf tchovitch ! 
 
 The Blind "Woman 
 And I tell you, it's just as if she had been 
 brought up in a synagogue, — Heaven pardon 
 the word in this place. So pure and modest. . . 
 finer than any child of the most respectable 
 family. 
 
 The Other Women 
 Folks will learn all about it. It's the talk of 
 the town. 
 
 [11] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Yekel, distributing glasses of iraridy. Blurts 
 out, before he realizes what he is saying. 
 Even though her father is Yekel Tchafteho- 
 
 vitch. . . 
 
 Sarah, giving out glasses. 
 Look at the people before whom he must 
 boast ! 
 
 Yekel, pouring hrandy into glasses. With pas- 
 sionate unrestraint. 
 It makes no difference to me, — poor or rich. 
 Let everybody know, — let the whole town 
 know. What I am, I am. {Points to his wife.) 
 What she is, she is. . . It's all true, — every- 
 thing. But let them not breathe a word against 
 my daughter. . . And if anyone dares to do so, 
 I'll break his head with this bottle here. Even 
 if it's the Eabbi himself, it'll make no difference 
 to me! . . . She's purer than his own daughter. 
 (Pointing to his neck.) You may slash my 
 throat if that isn't so! 
 
 Sarah, stops passing around the brandy. 
 
 We've heard all that before. . . That's enough. 
 (Rubs her hands and goes to a corner for the 
 broom.) We must clean the room now for our 
 guests. (Turning to the poor folk.) You're not 
 offended, I hope? 
 
 The Pook People 
 Not at all, hostess. May happiness and joy 
 
 [12] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 be yours forever. . . (They leave the room singly, 
 uttering profuse blessings. Yekel, behind his 
 wife's back, throws them more food. The last 
 woman speaks to Bifkele, loud enough for the 
 others to hear.) Go, Eifkele, and prepare the 
 robe for the Holy Scroll. Reb All will soon 
 come, and the Scribe, too. (Bifkele goes into 
 her room.) 
 
 Sarah, sweeping the floor. 
 To think that he had to boast before such 
 people ! I tell you ! . . . And otherwise, do you 
 imagine, they wouldn't have come to you? 
 Make a celebration every day, and every day 
 you'll have them here. In respectable houses 
 people know how to act so that they'll be looked 
 up to. What do you think, — they're all like 
 you, with your "Hello, good brother!" right 
 away ? What kind of host are you, anyway ? 
 
 Yekel 
 
 Do you expect respectable folks to come to 
 your home? Have you forgotten who you are, 
 perhaps ? 
 
 Sabah 
 
 "Who you are!" What! Have you stolen 
 anything? You have a business. Everybody 
 has his own business. You don't compel any- 
 body, do you ? You may deal in what you please, 
 can't you, if you yourself do no wrong? . . . Just 
 try to give them some money, and see whether 
 they'U take it from you or not! 
 
 [13] 
 
THE GOD or VENGEANCE 
 
 Yekel 
 They'll take it from you, all right, but they'U 
 look upon you as a dog, just the same. . . And 
 at the synagogue you'll have the back seat, and 
 they'll never call you up to the altar, to read 
 from the Holy Book. 
 
 Saeah 
 Do you really believe that they're any better 
 than you? You don't need their favors! . . . 
 That's the way of the world these days: if 
 you've got the money, even so pious a Jew as 
 Reb Ali comes to your home, — a Pietist,* 
 mind you, — and accepts handsome alms from 
 you. He asks no questions, — whether you got 
 it by theft or by murder. So long as you have 
 the cash. That's the chief point! 
 
 Yekel 
 Don't climb too high, Sarah. Do you hear? 
 Not too high. . . For if you do, some fine day 
 you'll fall and break your neck. (Shakes a warn- 
 ing finger at her.) And don't try to break into 
 the upper crust. Don't, I tell you. You've a 
 home of your own, — stay there. You've got 
 bread, — eat. But don't intrude where you're 
 not wanted. . . Every dog must know his own 
 kennel. (Leaving the table, with a gesture of ap- 
 prehension.) The whole business is beginning to 
 
 * 'Khossid.' The 'Khassidim' are noted for the religious 
 frenzy of their worship. 
 
 [14] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 make me uneasy. . . I'm afraid that this will 
 bring the downfall of our hopes. . . 
 
 Sarah, stops her work, placing Tier arms akimbo. 
 And you're a man! Shame yourself! I'm 
 only a woman, but I can say to myself, "The 
 past is gone forever." Whiz! Flown away !.. . 
 There's nobody to be ashamed of. The whole 
 world isn't any better. "Why, if it were, people 
 would have to go about with their heads bowed 
 to the earth. {Coming nearer to Mm.) In a little 
 while you'll have money. You close up shop 
 and not a rooster crows. . . Who needs to know 
 what we were? 
 
 Yeked, meditatively. 
 That would be best. . . {Pause.) To buy a 
 pack of horses and smuggle them across the bor- 
 der, just like Eisikl Furman did. . . And become 
 a respectable person. . . not have people eye you 
 like a thief. 
 
 Sarah, considering the matter. 
 Just the same it's too bad to go out of our 
 business. . . You'll never make such good money 
 from your horses. Here, at least, it's all cash. 
 
 Yekel 
 That's certainly so. 
 
 Sarah, goes into the next room, returns with a 
 
 tray of plates and begins to arrange them upon 
 
 the table, 
 
 [15] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 And just see what a daughter we have. Thank 
 God, more decent than all the daughters of the 
 best families in town. She'll marry some highly 
 esteemed fellow, raise a respectable family. . . 
 Isn't that so? Then what's wrong? 
 
 Yekel, arising. 
 
 Yes, with an example like you as her guide. 
 Go, let Manke steal up to her from downstairs. . . 
 Have her here, in this room, all the time! 
 
 Saeah 
 
 Just see how he's carrying on! I once asked 
 Manke to teach Rifkele how to embroider on 
 canvas. Rifkele 's a young lady, you must re- 
 member. Has she any companions at all? You 
 don't let her step out into the street. . . {Paitse.) 
 If you don't want her to have anything to do 
 with Manke, then she won't. 
 
 Ykeel 
 No, I don't want her to! Do you hear? I 
 don't! I don't want my home to mix with 
 downstairs. (Points to the cellar.) My home 
 must be kept apart from that place! Under- 
 stand? Just like pure and impure!* Below 
 {Indicating the cellar.) is a brothel, and here 
 lives a pure girl, worthy of marrying the best 
 of men. Do you hear? {Bangs his fist upon the 
 table.) A pure, virtuous maiden lives here! 
 
 * Cl. previous note on 'trayf and 'kosher.' 
 
 [16] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Keep the two places apart! . . . (Footsteps are 
 heard outside.) 
 
 Saeah 
 All right. Just as you say. Only don't make 
 such a racket. (Listening.) Hush. People are 
 coming. It's Eeb Ali. (She thrusts her hair 
 hack underneath her wig and pulls off her apron. 
 Tekel strokes his heard and straightens his coat. 
 Both stand by the door, expectantly. . . The 
 door opens wide. Enter Shloyme and Hindel, 
 The first is a tall, sturdy chap; wears long hoots 
 and a short coat. He is a knavish fellow, whose 
 eyes blink with stealthy cunning as he speaks. 
 The second is a rather old girl, with a wan face 
 and wearing clothes much too young for her 
 years. Shloyme and Hindel are evidently at 
 ease and feel at home.) 
 
 Yekel, to SaraJi. 
 Take a look at these guests of mine, will you T 
 (To Shloyme.) I do no business here. Down 
 below. Everything down below. (Pointing to 
 the cellar.) I'll be down right away. 
 
 Shloyme 
 What's the hurry to get rid of us? Are you 
 already ashamed of our company? 
 
 Yeeel 
 Well, what have you got to say for yourself? 
 
 [17] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Shlotme 
 
 You're having a celebration today, aren't 
 you? So we came in to wish you good luck. 
 Old friends. . . eh, what? 
 
 Sarah 
 Look at our "old friends," will you? 
 
 Yekel 
 That was all once upon a time. From today 
 on, — all over! You want to talk business 
 with me? All right. But everything down- 
 stairs. {Indicating the basement.) Here I 
 don't know you, nor do you know me, — from 
 now on. You're welcome to a glass of brandy. 
 {Pours out brandy.) But be quick. Somebody 
 might come. 
 
 Shlotme, taking his glass, speaks to Hindel, 
 roguishly. 
 
 You see? It's a great thing to get married. 
 You become a somebody, on a par with every- 
 body else. And you have Scrolls of the Law 
 written. Not like us chaps, us scamps. (To 
 Yekel.) Yes, and I've reaUy taken an example 
 from you and have today become engaged to 
 this thing here. {Points to Hindel.) She'll 
 make a dandy housewife, eh ? You'll see. She'll 
 put on a wig and she'll be the living image of a 
 Rabbi's wife. As true as we're alive. . . 
 
 [18] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Yekel 
 
 May I always hear such good news! So! 
 You're engaged, are you? And when will the 
 wedding take place, — may it be with luck ! 
 
 Saeah 
 
 Just see with whom he's stopped to talk! It 
 really becomes him! With outcasts, God for- 
 give my words. Reb Ali and the Scribe will be 
 here at any moment! 
 
 Shloyme 
 
 When '11 the wedding take place, you ask? 
 When does one of our kind ever have a wedding? 
 When we'll get a couple of girls we'll get mar- 
 ried and open a house of our own. What else 
 can one of us become? Certainly not a Rabbi. 
 But the girls must be something fine, — first 
 class. Fiery and hot-blooded. {Winking to 
 Yekel.) Otherwise it doesn't pay. 
 
 Yekel 
 
 And what do you want of me, I'd like to 
 know? 
 
 Shloyme 
 
 What do I want of you? A mere trifle. 
 (Points to Hindel.) She's your woman, isn't 
 she? And she's my sweetheart. She has a 
 claim upon you. {Takes from Hindel her wage- 
 hook.) From this day on you'll have to deal 
 
 [19] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 with me. Today I ask a mere bagatelle. Ten 
 roubles, on this book. (Slaps the hook.) It's 
 good money, safe money. {Looking at Eindel.) 
 She wants to buy herself a hat. 
 
 Ybkel 
 All that downstairs. Down below. I'll be 
 down soon and we'll transact all business down 
 there. Here I don't even know you. Here I 
 do no business with you at all. 
 
 Shlotme 
 It's all the same to me. Above or below. 
 Downstairs live no strangers, nor upstairs 
 either. Same thing. The same devil. 
 
 Yekel 
 Get a move on ! Off with you ! Do you hear ? 
 — We're expecting people! 
 
 Sakah 
 May an evil night descend upon their heads, 
 their hands and their feet. They came here to 
 spoil our celebration. . . (Looks at Eindel with 
 scorn.) It pays to have so much vexation over 
 such a slut! 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 If I'm not good enough to be one of your 
 women, go down into the cellar yourself. 
 
 Shlotme, to Eindel 
 Tell her to send her daughter down there. (To 
 
 [20] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Sarah.) Upon my word, you'd do a rushing 
 business. 
 
 Yekel 
 
 Curse me, — do you hear? {Points to Sa- 
 rah.) Curse her, too. We're your kind. But 
 don't dare to breathe my daughter's name. 
 Understand? {Coming closer to Shloyme.) 
 Don't dare to mention her name, or I'll rip 
 your bowels open. Do you hear? She doesn't 
 know you, and you don't know her! 
 
 Shloyme 
 
 Then I will know her. She's the daughter of 
 a fellow-tradesman, so we're quite closely re- 
 lated. 
 
 Yekel, seizing Shloyme iy the throat. 
 
 I'll rip your bowels open. . . You may slap my 
 face; kick me about, if you wiU, but don't men- 
 tion my daughter's name ! {Yekel and Shloyme 
 engage m a struggle.) 
 
 Sarah, running over to them. 
 
 A curse has been visited upon me! There he 
 goes, starting a fight with such low-lives ! Some- 
 body 's liable to come in at any moment, woe is 
 me. Yekel ! — Reb Ali and the Scribe. . . Yekel, 
 for God's sake! {Dragging him away from 
 Shloyme.) "What's come over you? {Heavy 
 footsteps are heard outside.) Yekel, Yekel! 
 
 [21 J 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Eeb Ali is coming, — the Scribe is here ! This 
 is a shame and a disgrace before people! 
 
 Yekel 
 Let me go. Eight on this spot I'll. . . {Tight- 
 ening his grasp upon Shloyme.) 
 
 Eeb Ali's Voice 
 Eight here, Scribe. This is the home of the 
 Scroll's donor. (Reb Ali appears in the door- 
 way, first thrusting in his large head, with a 
 pipe between his teeth.) What's all the noise 
 about ? In the home of one who has a Scroll of 
 the Law written, all must be joy and happiness. 
 Not quarrelling. (To the Scribe outside.) This 
 way, please, Scribe. {Yekel, at the sound of 
 Beb Ali's voice, releases Shloyme. Sarah runs 
 over to Shloyme and thrusts into his hand a 
 piece of paper money which she has taken from 
 her stocking. She shoves Hindel and Shloyme 
 toward the door; the latter two encounter the 
 Scribe and Beb Ali on the threshold. The pious 
 men stand back from the woman, making way 
 for her and Shloyme.) 
 
 Shloyme, to Hindel, as they leave. 
 Take a peek at the folks he 's hob-nobbing with 
 these days. He'll become head of the town be- 
 fore long. {They go off, conversing in indistinct 
 tones.) 
 
 Eeb Ali, a short, corpulent fellow, who speaks 
 [22] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 rapidly, makincr ingratiating gestures as he does 
 so. He appears to he much at hoyne, and evi- 
 dently entertains a high opinion of himself. 
 I beg your pardon, Scribe ; I beg your pardon. 
 {Quietly, to Yekel and Sarah.) You ought to 
 act more decently. It's high time. People are 
 coming and. . . 
 
 The Sceibb, enters. A tall old man, whose long, 
 thin body is enveloped in a hroad overcoat. His 
 beard is long, white and sparse. He wears spec- 
 tacles and has an air of cold aloofness and mys- 
 tery. 
 
 Eeb Ali, pointing to Yekel. 
 This is the donor of the Scroll. 
 
 The Sceibe, proffering his hand to Yekel, at 
 the same tims surveying him. 
 Greetings. Peace be to you, fellow Jew. 
 
 Yekel, Thrusts out his hand, uncertainly. 
 Sarah reverently steps to one side. 
 
 Reb Ali, takes a seat at the table and pushes a 
 chair over toward the Scribe. 
 Be seated. Scribe. {To Yekel.) Take a seat. 
 {The Scribe sits down. Yekel, still uncertain, 
 sits down opposite him, next to Reb Ali. The 
 latter addresses the Scribe.) This is the gentle- 
 man on whose behalf I ordered the Holy Scroll. 
 {He helps himself to brandy, first pouring out 
 a glass for the Scribe.) He has no son, so he 
 
 [23] 
 
THE GOD or VENGEANCE 
 
 desires to do honor to the Lord with a Scroll 
 of the Law. Such is the custom among the 
 people of Israel, — and a very beautiful one, 
 too. So we must aid him. . . Your health, 
 Scribe. (Gives his hand to the Scribe, then to 
 Yekel.) Your health, host. Today you are the 
 Master of Festivities. [Yekel stretches out Ms 
 hand, at a loss. Beb Ali drinks. Sarah ap- 
 proaches the table and pushes toward Beb Ali 
 some jelly preserves. Yekel puUs her by the 
 sleeve and signals her to withdraw from the 
 table. Beb Ali, after drinking, turns to the 
 Scribe.) Drink, Scribe. (To Yekel.) Drink, 
 host. Today you must rejoice. God has favored 
 you with the means of having a Holy Scroll 
 written. It is a divine merit indeed. A very 
 great one. 
 
 The Scribe, holding his glass in his hand, to 
 Beb Ali, referring to Yekel. 
 Who is this man? 
 
 Eeb Ali 
 What is the difference ? A Jew. . . And if he 
 isn't a learned scholar, must all men be scholars t 
 A Jew wants to earn a divine blessing. Then 
 we must befriend him. {To Yekel.) Drink a 
 health. Here's joy to you. 
 
 The Scribe 
 Will he know how to take care of the Holy 
 Scroll? 
 
 [24] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Reb Ali 
 And why not? He is a Jew, isn't he? And 
 what Jew doesn't know the holy significance of 
 a Scroll? (Drinks.) Your health, your health. 
 And may the Lord send His blessings to His 
 people. 
 
 The Scribe, gives his hand to Yekel. 
 Your health, host. (Admonishing him.) And 
 know, that a Holy Scroll is a wondrous posses- 
 sion. The whole world rests upon a Scroll of the 
 Law, and every Scroll is the exact counterpart 
 of the tablets that were received by Moses upon 
 Mount Sinai. Every line of a Holy Scroll is 
 penned in purity and piety. . . Where dwells a 
 Scroll, in such a house dwells God himself. . . So 
 it must be guarded against every impurity. . . 
 Man, you must know that a Holy Scroll. . . 
 
 Yekel, awed; he stammers. 
 Rebbi, rebbi*. . . I want to tell the Rebbi the 
 whole truth, — the honest truth. . . I am a poor 
 sinner. . . Rebbi, I'm afraid. . . 
 
 Reb Ali, interrupting Yekel. To the Scribe. 
 
 The man is a sincere penitent and it is our 
 duty to befriend him. The Talmud counsels us 
 to. Of course he understands the significance of 
 
 * 'Eebbi' is b term usually applied to teachers of Hebrew. It 
 is often interchanged with the more dignified 'Eabbi,' 
 which means, properly, a doctor of Hebrew law. The 
 term 'Eeb' is a form of address used by Jews before 
 first names only. Of. the Spanish 'Don.' 
 
 [25] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 a Holy Scroll. He's a Jew, after all. {To YeJcel.) 
 You must have reverence for a Scroll of 
 the Law. Great reverence, — precisely as if a 
 noted Rabhi were under your roof. In the house 
 where it resides no profanity must be uttered. 
 It must dwell amidst purity. {Speaks to Sarah, 
 looking toward her but not directly at her.) 
 Wherever a Holy Scroll is sheltered, there no 
 woman must remove the wig from her head. . . 
 {Sarah thrusts her hair more securely under 
 her wig.) Nor must she touch the Scroll with 
 her bare hands. As a reward, no evil overtakes 
 the home that shelters a Scroll. Such a home 
 will always be prosperous and guarded against 
 all misfortune. {To the Scribe.) What do you 
 imagine? — That he doesn't know all this? 
 They're Jews, after all. . . {Sarah nods affirm- 
 atively.) 
 
 The Scribe 
 You hear, sir, that the whole world rests upon 
 the Scroll. The fate of our race lies rolled up 
 in that parchment. With one word, — with a 
 single word, God forbid, you can desecrate the 
 Law and bring down upon all the Jews a griev- 
 ous misfortune, — God forbid. 
 
 Yekel, arising from the table. 
 
 Rebbi, I'll confess everjrthing. . . Rebbi 
 
 {Comes nearer to Beb Ali.) I know that you 
 
 are a holy man. I am not worthy, Rebbi, of 
 
 your presence in this house. . . under my roof. . . 
 
 [26] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Rebbi, I am a sinner. She {Pointing to his wife.) 
 is a sinner. We have no right to a Holy Scroll. . . 
 Inside that room. {Pointing to the door at the 
 right.) For her sake, Rebbi. . . {Goes into Bif- 
 kele's room and returns, leading her hy the 
 hand. She holds a velvet cover of a Scroll, upon 
 which she is embroidering a David's shield in 
 gold thread.) Rebbi, she {Pointing to Bifkele.) 
 may go about a Holy Scroll. She is as pure as 
 the Lord's Law itself. It is for her that I or- 
 dered it. {Indicating her embroidery.) See, 
 Rebbi, she 's embroidering a cover for the Scroll. 
 She may, Rebbi, for her hands are pure. I, 
 Rebbi, {Striking himself over the heart.) I 
 promise not to touch your Holy Law. She 
 {Pointing to his wife.) will not touch your Holy 
 Scroll. She {Besting his hand upon Bifkele's 
 head.) will carry it. It will be placed in her 
 room. {To Bifkele.) And when you are mar- 
 ried and leave my roof, take the Scroll of the 
 Law with you to your husband's home. . . 
 
 Reb Ali, to Yekel. 
 In other words, when you marry o& your 
 daughter, you'll give her the Holy Scroll as her 
 dowry. Isn't that it? 
 
 Yekel 
 
 Reb Ali, when my daughter is married, I'll 
 
 give her as a dowry a pile of money, and I'll 
 
 say to her: "Go out of your father's house and 
 
 forget. . . forget your father. . . forget your 
 
 [27] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 mother. . . and have pure children, Jewish child- 
 ren, just like every Jewish daughter." That's 
 what I'll say to her. 
 
 Eeb Ali 
 That is, you will present the Holy Scroll as 
 a wedding-gift to your son-in-law. That's the 
 idea, isn't it? {To the Scribe.) Do you see, 
 Reb Aaron, there are still pious Jews in the 
 world ; here 's a man with a daughter, and has a 
 Scroll of the Law written for her future hus- 
 band. . . How beautiful that is, — how virtuous 
 ... I tell you, Reb Aaron, that the spirit of Is- 
 rael, the Jewish spark. . . the. . . ahem. . . ah ! . . 
 ah! . . . {Smacking his lips.) 
 
 Yekel, leads Bifkele hack into her room. He 
 closes the door after her. 
 Eebbi, I can speak plainly to you. "We're 
 alone. My wife may hear it, too. We are sin- 
 ners. I know, God will punish us. Let Him 
 punish. That doesn't bother me. Let Him crip- 
 ple me, disfigure me ; let Him make me a pauper, 
 so that I'll have to go begging from door to 
 door. . . Anything but that. . . {More softly.) 
 Rebbi, when a man has a son who goes to the 
 bad — the devil take him. But a daughter, 
 Rebbi. If a daughter falls, it is as if the mother 
 had sinned in her grave. So I went to the holy 
 synagogue and approached this man {Pointing 
 to Beb Ali.) and I said to him: "Give me some- 
 
 [28] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 thing that'll guard my home from evil.". . . So 
 he said to me: "Have a Holy Scroll written and 
 place it in your home." Eebbi, as for us, our 
 souls belong to the devil anyway. . . For her, 
 and in her room I'll place the Scroll; for her to 
 have as a companion. As for us, we dare not, 
 we must not. . . (Bel Ali bends over to the 
 Scribe, whispers something to him, making var- 
 ious gestures and pointing to Yekel. The latter 
 and Sarah stand at the table in tense expectancy. 
 Pause.) 
 
 The Scribe, after brief consideration. 
 And where are the guests in honor of the 
 Holy Scroll? 
 
 Reb Ali 
 We'll go to the synagogue and gather a quo- 
 rum* of Jews. It will be easy enough to find 
 men who are willing to honor the Law. (Arises 
 from the table, pours brandy into the glasses, 
 slapping Yekel on the shoulder.) There, there! 
 God will help you! Rejoice, host! The Lord 
 befriends the sincere penitent. . . Don't worry. 
 You'U marry your girl to some proficient schol- 
 ar; you'll take some poor Yeshiva** student for 
 a son-in-law, and support him while he sits and 
 studies the Holy Law. And the blessings of the 
 Law will win you the Lord's forgiveness. 
 
 * 'Minysn'. The quorum of ten males above the age of 
 
 thirteen required for all religious services. 
 ** 'Yeshiva'. An academy of Hebrew studies. 
 
 [29] 
 
THE GOD or VENGEANCE 
 
 (Pause.) I've really been thinking about it, 
 and have a certain fellow in view, — a jewel of 
 a chap, — smart head on his shoulders. . . his 
 father is a highly respected man. (Abruptly.) 
 Are you going to give your daughter a large 
 dowry? 
 
 Yeeel 
 Rebbi, take away all I own. I'll let you strip 
 me bare. . . Take everything, everything. . . And 
 I'll say to my girl, "Forget your mother. . . for- 
 get your father." And I'll send her and her 
 husband all they need, in a roundabout way. 
 "Here's your food and drink, keep on studying 
 in your holy books. . . I don't know you. . you 
 don't know me. . ." 
 
 Reb Ali 
 Everything wiU be all right, in the virtue of 
 the Scroll. . . Come, Scribe. Come, host, let's 
 be off to the synagogue. "We'll hunt out a quo- 
 rum and celebrate the Holy Scroll. . . (To the 
 Scribe.) Do you see, Reb Aaron? A Jew, even 
 if he sins, stiU remains a Jew. A Jewish soul 
 — seeks a pious scholar for a son-in-law. . . 
 (To Tekel.) Never you mind. Don't worrj^ 
 God will help you. . . The Lord loves a repentant 
 sinner. But you must give generous donations 
 to the students of the Law. If you cannot study 
 the Law yourself, at least support those who 
 can, for the whole world rests upon the Holy 
 Law. . . (To the Scribe.) Is that not so, Reb 
 
 [30] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Aaron? And why not? (Pointing to Yekel.) 
 I knew his father. . . He was a fine man. . . a 
 teamster. . . handsome chap. . . Believe me, the 
 Lord win come to his aid, and he will become a 
 Jew as worthy as any other. {To Yekel.) The 
 important thing is to repent deep in your heart, 
 — that is, you must abandon the path of iniquity 
 that you've followed hitherto. . . and you must 
 contribute liberally to the support of the stu- 
 dents of the Holy "Word. 
 
 Yekel, summoning courage, he approaches Beb 
 All. 
 Just let me make a little more money, Beb 
 Ali, so that I can give my daughter a handsome 
 dowry, and my name isn't Yekel Tchaftchovitch 
 if I don't go out of the business altogether. . I'll 
 deal in horses, just as my father did, may his 
 soul rest in peace. I'll get together a stable of 
 horses and go to the Lovitch fair. And my son- 
 in-law will be sitting inside there studying the 
 sacred Law. I'll come home for the Sabbath 
 and sit down right here and listen to him read- 
 ing from the Commentaries. And if I lie, my 
 name isn't Yekel. 
 
 Rbb Ali 
 Don't worry. It's all right. The Lord will 
 come to your aid. Yes, God will help you. 
 Isn't that so, Reb Aaron? 
 
 [31] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 The Sceibe 
 
 Who can tell? Our Lord is a God of mercy 
 and forgiveness, but He is also a God of retri- 
 bution and vengeance. (Leaving.) "Well, it's 
 getting late. Let's be off to the synagogue. 
 (Leaves.) 
 
 Yekel 
 What did the Rebbi say? 
 
 Reb Ali 
 
 It's all right. Don't worry. God will help 
 you. . . He must help you. . . Gome, come and 
 take your Holy Scroll home in rejoicing. (About 
 to depart. Yekel hesitates, undecided. Bei Ali 
 notices this.) What? You want to speak a few 
 words with your wife, — to tell her to prepare 
 for our return with the Scroll? 
 
 Saeah, to Beb Ali. 
 Everything's ready, Reb Ali. Everything. 
 
 Reb Ali 
 
 Well, what are you waiting for? The Scribe 
 has already gone. 
 
 Yekel, at the door, uncertain, pointing to him- 
 self. 
 
 I, walk together with the Rebbi, through the 
 streets ? 
 
 [32] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Beb Ali 
 
 Come, come. If the Lord pardons you, surely 
 we may do so, too. 
 
 Yekel, enthtisiastically. 
 Eeb Ali, you're a good Eebbi. {About to em- 
 brace Eeb Ali; suddenly recalls himself and 
 draws back.) A good Bebbi, may I live so ! {Beb 
 Ali and Yekel leave together. The evening 
 shadows gather.) 
 
 Sabah, betakes herself assiduously to cleaning 
 the room and setting the table. Calls into Rif- 
 kele's room. 
 Rifkele, Rifkele, come in and help me out a 
 bit. They'll soon be coming with the Holy 
 Scroll. 
 
 EiPKELB, appears on the threshold of her door, 
 uncertain. 
 Has father left already? 
 
 Sabah 
 Yes. He went to the synagogue with Reb Ali 
 and the Scribe. The Rabbi will soon be coming, 
 and other guests, too. 
 
 RiFKEDE, showing the cover for the Holy Scroll. 
 See how nicely I've embroidered it. 
 
 Sabah 
 Yes, yes. I see. But comb your hair. Dress 
 
 [33] 
 
THE GOD or VENGEANCE 
 
 yourself. The guests will soon be here. The 
 Eabbi and. . . 
 
 ElPKELE 
 
 I '11 call up Manke and have her comb me. . . I 
 love to have her eomb me. She does it so beauti- 
 fully. Makes my hair so smooth. . . And her 
 hands are so cool. {Takes something and taps 
 the floor with it, calling.) Manke! Manke! 
 
 Sarah, frightened. 
 Rifkele! What are you doing ? Don't! Your 
 father will be furious! It isn't becomiag for 
 you to chum with Manke. You're already a 
 marriageable young lady, a virtuous child. And 
 we've just been talking about some good matches 
 for you, — excellent matches with learned schol- 
 ars. . . 
 
 ElFKELE 
 
 But I do love Manke so much! 
 
 Saeah 
 It's a shame for you to chum with Manke, I 
 tell you! You are a decent girl; you'll have 
 clean, respectable girls to go around with. . . 
 We're arranging a match for you, an excellent 
 match. Your father's just gone to see the bride- 
 groom, Beb Ali said, . . . {Goes into the next 
 room.) We must wash, dress, and put on our 
 best clothes. . . The guests will be here at any 
 moment. 
 
 [34] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 RiPKELE 
 
 A bridegroom? What kind of bridegroom, 
 mamma dear? 
 
 Saeah, from the other room. 
 A sweetheart, — a golden one. A wonderful 
 student, of a fine family. 
 
 Manke 
 Appears in the doorway at the rear. First 
 she thrusts in her head, shaking her finger play- 
 fully at Bifkele; Bifkele goes over to her, walk- 
 ing cautiously backwards, beckoning to her as 
 she does so. The room is fast growing dark. 
 
 RiFKELE, falls into Manke 's arms. To her 
 mother. 
 A handsome sweetheart, mamma dear? 
 (Manke kisses her passionately.) 
 
 Sarah, from within. 
 Yes, daughter dear. A handsome sweetheart, 
 with two jet-black temple-locks and a satin coat, 
 and a velvet skull-cap, dressed just like a Rabbi. 
 He's a Rabbi's son, Reb Ali said. 
 
 RiTKELE, in Manke' s embrace, caressing Manke' s 
 cheeks. 
 And where will he stay, mamma dear? 
 
 Saeah, from within. 
 There in your room, where the Sacred Scroll 
 
 [35] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 will be kept. He'U live there with you and 
 study the Holy Law. 
 
 KiPKELE, in Manhe's arms. 
 And will he love me, mamma dear? 
 
 Saeah, tts before. 
 Ever so much, daughter dear, ever so much. 
 And you'll have pure, respectable children, vir- 
 tuous children. . . 
 
 SLOW CUETAIN 
 falling as they speak. 
 
 [36] 
 
ACT II 
 
Scene: In the cellar-irothel. A spacious 
 basement in an old building; low-arched ceil- 
 ing; high up on the wall, close to the ceiling, 
 two deep, narrow windows, hung with curtains. 
 On the sill, flower-pots. The rain is coming in 
 through the windows. A flight of stairs leads to 
 the door above, which is constructed like that of 
 the entrance to a cabin on board ship. Half of 
 the door is ajar, revealing the gloom of the 
 night. Bain drips down. In the background of 
 the cellar, several small compartments, separ- 
 ated from one another by thin partitions, and 
 screened by thick black curtains. One of the 
 curtains has been draivn aside; in the compart- 
 ment are seen a bed, a wash-stand, a mirror and 
 various toilet articles. A colored night-lamp 
 sheds a dim light over the tiny room. The fur- 
 niture of the cellar itself consists of several 
 lounges, a table, benches and card-tables ; on the 
 walls, looking-glasses bedecked with gaudy orna- 
 ments; chromos representing women in sugges- 
 tive poses. . . 
 
 On mie of the lounges sleeps Shloyme; his 
 long boots reach to a nearby bench. It is a 
 night in spring. 
 
 The room is lighted by a large hanging-lamp. 
 
 [38] 
 
Act II 
 
 HiNDEIi 
 
 Enters. Halts for a moment upon the top 
 stair and looks down at Shloyme. She is 
 wrapped in a thin shawl, coquettishly dressed in 
 a skirt much too short for her age. Descends 
 into the cellar, stepping noisily so as to wake 
 Shloyme. 
 
 Shloyme, awakes. Looks around. 
 It's you, is it? Why aren't you outside? 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 It's begun to rain. 
 
 Shloyme, sitting up. 
 So you deign to answer me, milady? Have 
 you, then, forgiven me? 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 I wasn't angry in the first place. 
 
 Shloyme 
 So. . . Well, if you wish, you can get angry 
 again, for all I care. (Lies down.) 
 
 HiNDEL, looks around. Buns over to one of the 
 screened compartments and listens, then runs 
 back to Shloyme. 
 Shloyme, I don't want to leave this place. 
 
 [39] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 See, now we're all alone and nobody can hear us. 
 Tell me, as truly as there is a God in heaven, — 
 tell me, do you really mean to marry me ? 
 
 Shlotme 
 Go, my grand dame. Make knots in your shirt 
 and hide your money there, and then run to 
 "Uncle" Yekel and complain that I take aU 
 your earnings, — that you haven't even enough 
 to buy yourself a hat. . . 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 Yes, I did teU him that. It made me furious 
 and cut me to the quick, — to have you tear the 
 very clothes off my back and then go and make 
 eyes at that yellow bitch. . . I '11 dash vitriol into 
 her face. Why, her breath smells terribly. How 
 can anybody get near such a thing? A fine 
 young lady he's hunted out! 
 
 Shloyme 
 Away from me! I'll give you such a crack 
 between the eyes that you'll see your great- 
 great-granny's ghost! 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 Crack away ! Tear strips of skin off my body 
 . . . (Pushing up one of her sleeves and showing 
 him her arm.) You've covered me with black 
 and blue marks. [Baring her other arm.) Here, 
 pinch, slash, whatever you will. But tell me, 
 here on this very spot, by the memory of your 
 
 [40] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 father and as truly as you pray for the repose 
 of his soul, — will you really marry me? 
 
 Shlotme, still stretched out. 
 Once I wanted to. Now I don't. 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 Then it's no. That's the way I like to do 
 things. Only no deceit. Do you want money? 
 — Say the word. A coat? — Here's the price. 
 Only no fooling me. (Walks off.) 
 
 Shloyme 
 That's all right. There are plenty of sweet- 
 hearts. You'll catch your fish, all right. 
 
 HiNDEL, drawing aside the curtain of her com- 
 partment. 
 Don't give yourself any worry on my account. 
 
 Shloyme 
 You object, do you? Have it your way. 
 (Pause.) But you're not too angry to pour a 
 fellow a glass of tea, are you? 
 
 HiNDEL, fetches him a glass of tea from her 
 compartment and places it upon the cellar table. 
 She then returns to her place and sits dovm he- 
 fare her trunk of clothes, as if looking for some- 
 thing. After a brief silence she addresses 
 Shloyme, from her compartment. 
 
 So you like her, eh?. . . Well, well. . . You'll 
 soon be busy, all right, — buying towels to pad 
 
 [41J 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 out her flat bosom, paying dentists for putting a 
 set of teeth into her jaws, and getting her a 
 pair of stilts to make her look human size. 
 Then you can hire a barrel-organ and take her 
 around people's backyards. A fine hurdy-gur- 
 dyman you'd make, upon my word. I'll throw 
 you a two-kopeck-pieee from the window, I 
 promise. 
 
 Shlotmb 
 Hold your tongue, I tell you! 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 And what '11 you do if I don't? 
 
 Shlotme 
 I'll beat you black and blue. 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 Ho, ho ! There 's no beating folks these days. 
 Nowadays a beating is answered with a knife. 
 
 Shlotme, springing to his feet. 
 And who'll do that? {Striding into Hindel's 
 compartment.) Who'll do the knifiag, eh? 
 (He struggles with her, tearing from her grasp 
 a red waist. He returns to the cellar.) Now 
 we'll see. (He rips the waist open eagerly. A 
 photograph falls to the floor.) Aha! Moyshe 
 the locksmith! So that's your champion, is it? 
 And since when have you become so thick with 
 him? (Goes back to her room.) 
 
 [42] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 What business is that of yours? 
 
 Shloyme 
 This is what business it is of mine! {He 
 gives her a hard slap; she falls upon her bed 
 and begins to weep.) So you're going around 
 with Moyshe the locksmith, are you? Exchang- 
 ing photographs, eh? A regular pair of sweet- 
 hearts! And all behind my back? {Silence. 
 He returns to his table.) And I knew nothing 
 about it. . . {Drinks more tea, arises, and mounts 
 the stairs.) And I knew nothing about it. . . 
 {He stops at the door.) Hindel! {She doe's 
 not answer.) Hindel! Come here this instant! 
 {No reply.) Hindel! {He stamps his foot, 
 then runs down the flight of stairs in a rage.) 
 Come here, I tell you ! Do you hear what I say ! 
 
 Hindel 
 Arises from her bed and walks over to him, 
 hiding her face in her handkerchief. 
 
 Shloyme 
 Have you spoken to Manke? 
 
 Hindel, whimpering. 
 Yes. 
 
 Shloyme 
 Well, what does she say? 
 
 [43] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEAJSTCE 
 
 HiNDEL, still crying. 
 If we'll have our own "house," she'll come 
 to us. 
 
 Shloyme 
 Sure? 
 
 HiNDEL, drying Tier eyes. 
 Yes. But she doesn't want to come alone. 
 She wants to bring a chum. 
 
 Shloyme 
 Certainly. Do you imagine you can make any 
 money on one girl, — even enough to pay the 
 rent? 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 "We ought to have a fresh young girl. . . 
 
 Shlotme 
 Upon my soul ! Then we 'd do business ! But 
 where can we get her? 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 I've got my eye on one — as beautiful as the 
 day,* and still untouched. 
 
 Shlotme, curious. 
 Can we get her for the business? 
 
 HrNDEL 
 
 I should say! . . . 
 
 * Literally 'as beautiful as a tree.* 
 
 [44] 
 
THE GOD or VENGEANCE 
 
 Shlotme 
 A girl. . . from a "house"? 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 No. A pure maiden. 
 
 Shloyme 
 How do you come to know her? 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 She comes to Manke every night. . . Steals out 
 of her home. . . Nobody sees her. Something 
 seems to draw her here. . . she is so inquisitive. . . 
 
 RiFKELE, thrusting her bare head through the 
 window, beckonimg to Hindel. 
 Ps-s-s ! Is my father down there ? 
 
 HiNDEL, signalling hack. 
 No. 
 
 EiPKELE, disappears from the window. 
 
 Shloyme, eyeing Hindel closely. 
 She! "Uncle" Yekel's daughter! A genuine 
 gold-mine ! 
 
 Hindel 
 Hush! She's coming! 
 
 Rifkele, slender and beautiful; dressed mod- 
 estly, and wrapped in a black shawl; steals 
 through the door, runs down the stairs with 
 trembling caution. She speaks more with signs 
 than with words. 
 
 [45] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 "Where is Manke? There? (Pointing to a 
 screened compartment.) There, with. . . ? 
 
 HiNDBL 
 
 Nods "yes." 
 
 RlTKELE 
 
 Approaches the curtain of Manke' s room and 
 listens with passionate intentness, looking 
 around every other moment with palpitant ap- 
 prehension. 
 
 Shlotme, very softly, to Hindel. 
 Tomorrow we must go and take a look at that 
 house on Pivna Street. 
 
 Hindel 
 And when shall we be married? 
 
 Shlotme 
 First we've got to have a home. 
 
 Hindel 
 I wonder how much the Rabbi will ask for 
 performing the ceremony. 
 
 Shlotme 
 As long as there's enough left to buy some 
 furniture with. The place must make a decent 
 showing. (The door is suddenly banged open 
 and Yekel bursts in.) 
 
 Yekel, his face still betrays signs of his cun- 
 ning and of his youthful dissipation. He is 
 
 [46] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 dressed in dignified, orthodox fashion. Re- 
 moves his hat and shakes the rai/n from it. 
 
 A fine business! It has to rain! (Suddenly 
 noticing Rifkele, he explodes with rage.) What! 
 You here ! (Seizes her by the collar and shakes 
 her, clinching his teeth.) What are you doing 
 here? 
 
 EiFKELE, terrified, stammering. 
 Mam. . . Mamma told me. . . to. . . c-call. . . 
 (Bursting into tears.) Papa, don't hit me! 
 
 Yekel 
 Your mother. , . your mother sent you. . . 
 here! (With a loud outcry.) Your mother! 
 (Dragging her upstairs.) She'll lead you to 
 ruin yet ! Something draws her to it ! . . . She 
 wants her daughter to be what the mother 
 was. . . 
 
 Rifkele, crying. 
 Papa, don't hit me! 
 
 Yekel 
 I'll teach you to mind your father! (Leads 
 her out. Rifkele' s crying is heard from with- 
 out.) 
 
 Shlotme 
 
 There's a virtuous Yekel for you! It doesn't 
 
 become his dignity for his daughter to be a 
 
 brothel- woman. (Through the ceUing is heard a 
 
 noise of angry stamping, and the weeping of a 
 
 [47] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 woman.) He must be giving it to his wife now, 
 all right! Biff! Bang! 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 He's right. A mother should guard her 
 daughter well. . . Whatever you were, you were, 
 but once you marry and have a child, watch over 
 it. . . Just wait. If God should bless us with 
 children, I'll know how to bring them up. My 
 daughter will be as pure as a saint, with cheefe 
 as red as beets. . . I won't let an eye gaze upon 
 her. And she'll marry a respectable fellow, 
 with an orthodox wedding. . . 
 
 Shloyme, slapping her across the shoulders. 
 "We'll see about that, all in due season. But 
 talk to Rifkele in the meantime. "Work upon 
 her, I say. Otherwise everything's lost. 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 Don't you worry about my part. I'U know 
 how to go about it. 
 
 Shlotme 
 "We'll see, then. (Silence.) If you land her, 
 bring her right to me. You know. . . 
 
 Yekel, enters, in anger. 
 It's time to close up. It's raining. In any 
 case no dog's going to stick his snout into this 
 place tonight. (With a sharp look at Shloyme.) 
 Enough, enough of this billing and cooing. 
 Time to close up. (Mounts the steps, opens the 
 
 [48] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 door and calls.) Reizel! To bed! Basha! 
 Time to go to sleep ! {From without are heard 
 girls' voices: "Soon. Right away!") 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 Points to Yekel and signals Shloyme to leave. 
 
 Shlotme 
 Goes up the steps. As he is about to go out he 
 comes face to face with Yekel. They eye each 
 other. 
 
 YiEKEL 
 
 Get a move on. Time to close up. You've 
 whispered secrets long enough. 
 
 Shloyme, thrusting his hands into his trousers 
 pocket. Looks sharply at Yekel. 
 Since when have you become such a respect- 
 able personage? 
 
 Yekel 
 Off with you, now. Get a move on. I'll tell 
 you later. 
 
 Shloyme 
 To the devil with you! 
 
 HiNDEL, runs up the stairs to Shloyme. 
 Shloyme, go home, I tell you. Do you hear? 
 Go home! 
 
 Shloyme, leaving, with a defiant glance at 
 Yekel. 
 There's a fine lout for you! 
 
 [49] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Yekel 
 As if I need him here ! . . . {Pointing to Hin- 
 del.) Here! You may take your old carcass 
 along with you and start a place of your own. 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 People don't open places with old carcasses. 
 You merely lie down to rest with them. But 
 little dolls. . . 
 
 Yekel, calling into the entry. 
 Reizel! Basha! {Enter two girls, running. 
 Rain is dripping from their wet, filmy dresses 
 and from their unbraided hair. They are in a 
 merry mood and speak with laughter. Yekel 
 leaves, slamming the door behind him.) 
 
 Basha, a stout girl, with red cheeks. Naive in 
 manner; she speaks with a harsh accent. 
 
 What a sweet odor the rain has ! . . . {Shak- 
 ing raindrops off her clothes.) Just like the 
 apples at home drying, in the lofts. This is the 
 first May rain. 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 Such a crazy idea: to stand in the rain. As 
 if they'll attract the whole world. . . Nobody 'd 
 ever show up in a downpour like this. . . ( Goes 
 into her compartment and sits doivn near her 
 trunk, packing various articles.) 
 
 Reizel, shaking off raindrops. 
 To the deuce with the whole lot of them. I 
 
 [50] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 paid my account the day before yesterday. . . 
 We were standing under the eaves, the rain is 
 so fragrant ... It washes the whole winter off 
 your head. {Goes over to Hmdel.) Just look. . . 
 (Showing her wet hair.) How fresh it is. . . 
 how sweet it smells. . . 
 
 Basha 
 
 At home, in my village, the first sorrel must 
 be sprouting. Yes, at the first May rain they 
 cook sorrel soup. . . And the goats must be graz- 
 ing in the meadows. . . And the rafts must be 
 floating on the stream. . . And Pranek is getting 
 the Gentile girls together, and dancing with 
 them at the inn. . . And the women must surely 
 be baking cheese-cakes for the Feast of Weeks.* 
 (Silence.) Do you know what? I'm going to 
 buy myself a new summer tippet and go home 
 for the holidays. . . (Buns into her room, brings 
 out a large summer hat and a long veil; she 
 places the hat upon her wet hair and surveys 
 herself in the looking-glass.) Just see! If I'd 
 ever come home for the holidays rigged up in 
 this style, and promenade down to the station. . . 
 Goodness! They'd just burst with envy. 
 Wouldn't they? If only I weren't afraid of my 
 father ! 
 
 Reizel 
 Why? Would he hurt you? 
 
 * Pentecost. * 
 
 [51] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Basha 
 He'd kill me on the spot. He's on the hunt 
 for me with a crowbar. Once he caught me 
 dancing with Franek at the village tavern and 
 he gave me such a rap over the arm with a rod 
 {Showing her arm.) that I carry the mark to 
 this very day. I come from a fine family. My 
 father is a butcher. Talk about the feUows that 
 were after me ! . . . {In a low voice.) They tried 
 to make a match between me and Nottke the 
 meat-chopper. I've got his gold ring stiU. 
 {Indicating a ring upon her finger.) He gave 
 it to me at the Feast of Tabernacles.* Maybe 
 he wasn't wild to marry me, — but I didn't 
 care to. 
 
 Reizel 
 Why didn't you care to? 
 
 Basha 
 Because I didn't. . . He always smeUed ox 
 meat. . . Ugh ! His name is Pshorik. Think of 
 marrying Pshorik and having a little Pshorik 
 every year! Ugh! 
 
 RmzEL 
 And how is it any better for you here? 
 
 Basha 
 Here, at least, I'm a free person. I've got 
 my chest of finery, and dress swell. Better 
 clothes, upon my word, than the rich daughters 
 
 * Succoth. 
 
 [52] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 of my village. . . {Fetching from her compart- 
 ment a hrown dress.) When I go walking on 
 Marshalkovski street in this dress they all stare 
 at me. . . Fire and flame ! Mm ! If I could only 
 put in an appearance in my home town dressed 
 iu this fashion, here's how I'd promenade to the 
 station. (Struts across the room like a lady of 
 fashion, raising her skirt at the hack and as- 
 suming a cosmopolitan air.) They'd die of 
 jealousy, I tell you. . . They'd be stricken with 
 apoplexy on the spot. {Promenades about the 
 room playing the grand dame.) 
 
 Reizbl, straightens the folds of Basha's dress in 
 the back and adjusts her hat to a better angle. 
 That's the way! Now raise your head a bit 
 higher. . . Who needs to know that you were 
 ever in a place of this sort? You'll tell them 
 that you were with a big business house. A 
 Count has fallen in love with you. . . 
 
 HiNDEL, from her room, where she is still busy 
 with her chest of clothes. 
 And what's the matter with a place of this 
 sort, I'd like to know? Aren't we every bit as 
 good as the girls in the business houses, eh? 
 The whole world is like that nowadays; that's 
 what the world demands. In these days even 
 the daughters of the best families aren't any 
 better. This is our way of earning a living. 
 And believe me, when one of us gets married, 
 
 [53] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 she's more faithful to her husband than any of 
 the others. We know what a man is. 
 
 Basha, still strutting about the room. 
 Ah ! Do you imagine they wouldn't recognize 
 me right away ? Their hearts would tell them. . . 
 You know, my mother died from the shock. . . 
 She couldn't live through it. . . To this day I 
 haven't visited her grave. . . {Suddenly comes 
 to a halt.) Sometimes she comes before me. . . 
 At night I see her in my dreams. She appears 
 to me in her shroud, covered with thorns and 
 briers, because of my sins. And she pulls me 
 by the hair. 
 
 Beizel 
 Oh, mother! And did you really see her? 
 How does she look, your dead mother? Is she 
 pale? 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 Shut up, will you? Late at night they have 
 to start telling stories about the dead. No dead 
 people can come here. Our boss has a Holy 
 Scroll upstairs. . . (A sudden hush.) What's 
 wrong about our trade, I'd like to know? {She 
 leaves her little room and goes into the cellar.) 
 Wasn't our mistress in a house like this for fif- 
 teen years? Yet she married. And isn't she a 
 respectable God-fearing woman? . . . Doesn't she 
 observe all the laws that a Jewish daughter 
 must keep? . . . And isn't her Rifkele a pure 
 child? And isn't our boss a respectable man? 
 
 [54] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Isn't he generous? Doesn't he give the biggest 
 donations to charity? . . . And he's had a Holy 
 Scroll written. . . 
 
 Eeizel 
 But they say that you mustn't read from 
 such a Holy Scroll, and that the daughter of 
 such mothers become what the mothers them- 
 selves were. . . that something draws them on 
 like a magnet, and that the Evil Spirit drags 
 them down into the mire. . . 
 
 HiNDEL, frightened. 
 Who said so? 
 
 Beizel 
 An old fortune-teller, — a sorceress told it to 
 me. . . it's just as if such a daughter were in 
 the power of an enchantment. . . 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 That's a rotten lie ! . . . Where's the old gypsy 
 who told you that? ... I'd scratch her eyes out 
 for her ! There is a God in heaven, I say ! We 
 have a God in Heaven! 
 
 Manke, steals from her compartment into the 
 cellar. She is half-dressed, with a shawl thrown 
 over her. Her colored stockings are visible, and 
 her hair is in disorder. Her eyes sparkle with 
 wanton cunning. Her face is long, and inso- 
 lently pretty; she is quite young. A lock of hair 
 falls over her forehead. Her eyes Mink as she 
 
 [55] 
 
THE GOD or VENGEANCE 
 
 speaks, and her whole body quivers. She looks 
 about in surprise. 
 What? Nobody here? 
 
 Reizel, to Manke. 
 Is it you, Manke? A good thing you came. 
 (Pointing to Hindel.) She's almost made a 
 Rabbi's wife of me. Where have you left your 
 guest? 
 
 Manke 
 He fell asleep. So I stole out. 
 
 Reizel 
 
 Some generous land-owner, perhaps? Maybe 
 he'll stand for the drinks? 
 
 Manke 
 Bah! He's a fool. Third time he's come. 
 And he keeps asking me, who's my father, who's 
 my mother, — as if he intended to marry me. . . 
 Whenever he kisses me he hides his face in my 
 bosom, closes his eyes and smiles as if he were a 
 babe in his mother's arms. (Looks around. In 
 a low voice, to Hindel.) Hasn't Rifkele been 
 here yet? 
 
 Hindel, with a soft laugh. 
 She was here. . . and her father caught her. . . 
 and maybe he didn't raise a rumpus. . . 
 
 Manke 
 Good heavens! How long since? 
 
 [56] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 HiNDEL 
 
 Quite a while ago. . . He must be asleep by 
 now. (Softly.) She'll surely be down again 
 soon. 
 
 Reizel, to Manke, in a merry mood. 
 Come, Manke, let's go out into the street. It's 
 raining. The drops are like pearls. . . The first 
 May shower. Who's coming out with me for a 
 rain bath? 
 
 Manke, approaching the window. 
 It's raining. And what a thin drizzle. And 
 how sweet it smells. . . Let's go out. 
 
 Basha 
 At home when we have a shower like this the 
 gutters run over and flood the narrow lanes. 
 And we take off our shoes and stockings and 
 dance in the rain barefoot. . . Who's going to 
 take her shoes off? (Removes her shoes and 
 stockings.) Take off your shoes, Manke, and 
 let's dance in the rain! 
 
 Manke, removes her stockings and lets down 
 her hair. 
 There ! Now let the rain soak us from head to 
 foot. . . Standing in a May shower makes you 
 grow. Isn't that so? 
 
 Basha, runs over. 
 Come. Let's splash each other. . . Let's sprin- 
 kle handfuls of raindrops over each other. (She 
 
 [57] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 lets down her hair.) Let's drench our hair just 
 like the trees. . . Come! 
 
 HiNDED 
 
 Wait. "Wait. "Uncle" isn't asleep yet. He 
 might hear us. {All listen, their ears directed 
 to the ceiling.) 
 
 Reizel 
 Come along! Can't you hear him snoring? 
 
 Manke 
 Wait. . . We'll tap softly for Rifkele. (Basha 
 and Reizel go out. .Manke takes a stick and taps 
 in a corner of the ceiling, very softly. From 
 outside comes the noise of the girls skipping 
 about in the water. They take handfuls of 
 raindrops and throw them in through the open 
 door, calling "Come out! Come out!") 
 
 Rifkele, thrusts her head through the window. 
 She is in her night clothes, covered by a light 
 shawl. She whispers cautiously. 
 
 Manke, Manke. Did you call me ? 
 
 Manke, takes a chair and places it under the 
 window; stands upon it and reaches to Rifkele' s 
 
 hand. ' i \ ,-«' 
 
 Yes, Rifkele. I called you. . . Come, we'll 
 stand in the May rain, splash water over each 
 other and grow taller. . . 
 
 [58] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 RiPKELE, from above. 
 Hush ! Speak more softly. I stole out of bed. 
 So that pa wouldn't hear. I'm afraid, — that 
 he'll beat me. 
 
 Manke 
 Don't be afraid of your father. He won't 
 wake up so soon. Come, let's rather stand in 
 the rain. I'll let your hair down. {SJie undoes 
 Bifkele's hraids, reaching through the window 
 to do so.) There. And now I'll wash them for 
 you in the rain. Just like this. 
 
 Ripkele 
 I have only a nightgown on. All night I lay 
 in bed waiting for my father to fall asleep, so 
 that I might steal out to you. I heard your 
 tapping and sneaked away. So softly, barefoot, 
 — so that my father shouldn't hear me. 
 
 Manke, emiraces her passionately. 
 
 ' Come, Rifkele, I'U wash your eyes in the 
 
 rainwater. The night is so beautiful, the rain 
 
 is so warm and the air is so full of delightful 
 
 fragrance. Come. 
 
 RrPKEIjE 
 
 Hush. . . hush. . . I'm afraid of my father. . . 
 He beat me. . . He locked the door. . . And hid 
 the key near the Holy Scroll. I lay awake all 
 night. . . I heard you call me. . . You called me 
 so softly. . . And something drew me so irresist- 
 ibly to you. . . and I stole the key from the 
 
 [59] 
 
THE GOD or VENGEANCE 
 
 Scroll. . . My heart pounded so wildly. . . so 
 wildly. . . 
 
 Manke 
 Wait, Rifkele, I'm coming right out to you. 
 {Jumps down from the chair and runs up the 
 stairs.) I'm coming out to you. Just a moment 
 and I'm with you. (She leaves. Rifkele disap- 
 pears from the window.) 
 
 HiNDEL, from the curtain of her compartment 
 she has teen listening very intently to the con- 
 versation between Manke and Rifkele. She now 
 begins to pace up and down the cellar excitedly, 
 wrapt in thought and muttering to herself 
 very slowly. 
 
 With God's help, if I can only get both of 
 them, Rifkele and Manke, this very night. . . I'll 
 take them directly to Shloyme's. . . And I'll say 
 to him, "Here you are. . . Here's your bread 
 and butter. Now rent a place, marry me, and 
 become a respectable man as well as any other." 
 (Stops abruptly. Raises her hands toward the 
 ceiling.) Father in Heaven, you are a Father 
 to all orphans. . . Mother in your grave, pray for 
 me. . . Let my troubles come to an end. Let me 
 at last be settled in my own home ! . . . (Pause.) 
 If God is only good to me, I'll have a Holy 
 Parchment written in His honor. . . And every 
 Sabbath I'll give three pounds of candles to 
 the House of Study. (A long pause. She is 
 lost in the contemplation of her future pros- 
 
 [60] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 pects.) Yes, he is a good God. . . a good God. . . 
 Father in Heaven. . . Mother, pray in my be- 
 half. . . don't be silent. . . pray for me. . . do 
 your very best for me. . . {She returns to her 
 compartment and begins hastily to pack her 
 things.) I can be ready, anyway. (A long 
 pause. The stage is empty. Soon Manke leads 
 in Bifkele. They are ioth wrapped in the same 
 wet shawl. . . Their hair is dripping wet. Large 
 drops of water fall from their clothes to the 
 floor. They are barefoot. . . Hindel, behind her 
 curtain, listens as before.) 
 
 Manke, speaks with restrained passion and love, 
 — softly, but with deep resonance. 
 Are you cold, Rifkele darling? Nestle close to 
 me. . . Ever so close. . . "Warm yourself next to 
 me. So. Come, let's sit down here on the 
 lounge. {Leads Bifkele to a lounge; they sit 
 down.) Just like this. . . Now rest your face 
 snugly in my bosom. So. Just like that. And 
 let your body touch mine. . . It's so cool. . . as if 
 water were running between us. (Pause.) I 
 uncovered your breasts and washed them with 
 the rainwater that trickled down my arms. 
 Your breasts are so white and soft. And the 
 blood in them cools under the touch, just like 
 white snow, — like frozen water. . . and their 
 fragrance is like the grass on the meadows. 
 And I let down your hair so. . . (Buns her fin- 
 gers through Bifkele' s hair.) And I held them 
 like this in the rain and washed them. How 
 
 [61] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 sweet they smell. . . Like the rain itself. .. {She 
 buries her face in Bifkele's hair.) Yes, I can 
 smell the scent of the May rain in them. . . So 
 light, so fine. . . And fresh. . . as the grass on 
 the meadows. . . as the apple on the bough. . . So. 
 Cool me, refresh me with your tresses. (She 
 washes her face in Bifkele's hair.) Cool me, — 
 so. But wait. . . I '11 comb you as if you were a 
 bride. . . a nice part and two long, black braids. 
 (Does so.) Do you want me to, Rifkele? Do 
 you? 
 
 Rifkele, nodding. 
 Yes. 
 
 Manke 
 You'll be the bride. . . a beautiful bride. . . It's 
 Sabbath eve and you are sitting with your papa 
 and mamma at the table. . . I — I am your 
 sweetheart. . . your bridegroom, and I've come 
 as your guest. Eh, Rifkele? Do you like that 
 game? 
 
 Yes, I do. 
 
 Rifkele, nodding. 
 
 Manke 
 "Wait, now; wait. Your father and mother 
 have gone to sleep. The sweethearts meet here 
 at the table. . . We are bashful. . . Eh ? 
 
 Rifkele, nodding. 
 Yes, Manke. 
 
 [62] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Mankb 
 Then we come closer to one another, for we 
 are bride and bridegroom, you and I. We em- 
 brace. {Places her arm around Bifkele.) Ever 
 so tightly. And kiss, very softly. Like this. 
 {Kisses Bifkele.) And we turn so red, — we're 
 so bashful. It's nice, Rifkele, isn't it? 
 
 RiFKBLE 
 
 Yes, Manke. . . Yes. 
 
 Manke, lowering her voice, and whispering into 
 Bifkele' s ear. 
 And then we go to sleep together. Nobody 
 sees, nobody hears. Only you and I. Like this. 
 {Clasps Bifkele tightly to herself.) Do you 
 want to sleep with me tonight like this? Eh? 
 
 Rifkele, looking ahout nervously. 
 I do. . . I do. . . 
 
 Manke, drawing Bifkele closer. 
 Come. . . Come. . . 
 
 Rifkele, softly. 
 I'm afraid of my father. He'll wake up and. . 
 
 Manke 
 Wait, Rifkele, wait a second. {Beflects for a 
 moment.) Do you want to go away from here 
 with me? We'll be together days and nights at 
 a time. Your father won't be there, nor your 
 mother. . . Nobody '11 scold you. . . or beat you. . . 
 
 [63] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 We'll be all by ourselves. . . For days at a 
 time. . . "We'll be so happy. What do you say, 
 Eifkele? 
 
 RiPKELE, closing her eyes. 
 And my father won't know? 
 
 Manke 
 No. We'll run away this very night, — with 
 Hindel, to her house. . . She has a house with 
 Shloyme, she told me. You'll see how nice 
 everything will be. . . Young folks will be there 
 aplenty, — army officers. . . and we'll be to- 
 gether, all by ourselves, all day long. We'U 
 dress just like the officers and go horseback-rid- 
 ing. Come, Rifkele, — do you want to? 
 
 RiPKELE, trembling with excitement. 
 And papa won't hear? 
 
 Manke 
 No, no. He won't hear. He's sleeping so 
 soundly. . . There, can't you hear him snoring? 
 . . . (Buns over to Hindel' s compartment and 
 seizes Hindel by the arm.) Have you got a 
 place ? Come ! Take us away at once ! 
 
 Hindel, waking with a start. 
 Yes, yes. To Shloyme 's, right away! (She 
 throws a dress over Bifkele.) He'll find us a 
 place quickly enough. 
 
 Manke, hastily dressing Bifkele. 
 You'll see how nice everything 'H be. . . What 
 
 [64] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 a jolly time we '11 have. (All dress, seizing what- 
 ever they happen to lay hands upon. Slowly 
 they ascend the steps. At the door they encoun- 
 ter Beizel and Basha who, drenched to the skim,, 
 are just returning to the cellar. Beizel and 
 Basha look at the others in surprise.) 
 
 Eeizel and Basha, together. 
 What's this? Where are you going? 
 
 Manke 
 Hush! Don't make any noise. We're going 
 for some beer, — and lemonade. . . {Hindel, 
 Manke and Bifkele leave, followed ly the 
 amazed glances of Beizel and Basha.) 
 
 Reizel 
 There's something suspicious about this that 
 I don't like. 
 
 Basha 
 Same here. 
 
 Beizel 
 Something's up. . . Good heavens! 
 
 Basha, stares at Beizel in fright. 
 What? You mean that? 
 
 Beizel 
 
 It's none of our business. Let's put out the 
 
 lamp and go to sleep. We know nothing about 
 
 it. (Turns down the wick of the lamp. The 
 
 stage is hathed in gloom. The girls go to their 
 
 [65] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 respective compartments.) That fortune-teller 
 was certainly right, I tell you. She certainly 
 was right! . . . (She disappears. For a mo- 
 ment the stage is empty and in darkness.) 
 
 Basha, comes running wildly from her room, 
 with a hysterical outcry. She is in night clothes. 
 
 Reizel, thrusting aside the curtain of her com- 
 partment. 
 What's the matter, Basha? 
 
 Basha 
 I'm afraid to go to sleep. I feel that the 
 ghost of my mother, with her thorns and her 
 briers, is hovering about my room. 
 
 Eeizel 
 The Holy Scroll in the room above has been 
 defiled. "We have no one to shield us now! 
 
 Basha 
 I'm afraid this is going to be a terrible night. 
 My heart's thumping. {Suddenly, from above, 
 a din is heard. There is a scraping of chairs 
 and tables. The girls, eyes distended with fear, 
 listen intently. Soon there is the sound of some- 
 thing heavy falling down the outside stairs.) 
 
 Yekel, outside. 
 Rifkele, Rifkele! Where are you? 
 
 Reizel, to Basha. 
 Let's lie down in our beds and pretend we're 
 
 [66] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 fast asleep. . . We know nothing at all, remem- 
 ber! {Both go to their beds and feign deep 
 sleep.) 
 
 Yekel, rushes into the cellar, a burning candle 
 in his hand. His hair is in disorder. Over his 
 nightshirt he has thrown a coat. He shouts 
 wildly.) Rifkele! Rifkele! Is Rifkele here? 
 (No reply. He tears the curtains of the com- 
 partments violently aside.) Rifkele! Where is 
 she? (Waking Beizel and Basha.) Where is 
 Rifkele! Rifkele! Where is she? 
 
 Reizel and Basha, rubbimg their eyes with their 
 sleeves, as if awakened from sound sleep. 
 What? ... We don't know. 
 
 Yekel 
 You don't know? . . . You don't know? . . . 
 (Rushes up the stairs, almost at a single bound. 
 Goes out. Pause. There is a sound outside of 
 something falling down the stairs. The door is 
 suddenly banged open and Yekel stumbles in, 
 dragging Sarah by the hair. Both are in night 
 attire, Yekel pulls Sarah downstairs by the 
 hair. Points to the cellar.) Where is your 
 daughter? Your daughter, — where is she? 
 (Basha and Beizel huddle close to the wall, 
 trembling with terror.) 
 
 QUICK CURTAIN 
 [67] 
 
ACT III 
 
Scene: Same as Act I. The cupboard and 
 the iureau have ieen knocked out of place. 
 Clothes and linen are strewn ahout the floor. 
 The door to Rifkele's room is open, and from 
 within the light of a candle comes across the 
 stage. Sarah, her hair dishevelled and her 
 clothes in disarray, is going about the room 
 picking up the things that lie scattered about. 
 She packs them into a bundle, as if preparing 
 to leave, yet eventually puts most of the articles 
 back into their proper places. 
 
 It is early morning. Through the closed shut- 
 ters penetrates the gray light of coming day. 
 
 [70] 
 
Act III 
 
 Saeah 
 
 Yekel! What's the matter with you, YekelV 
 {Goes over to the door of Bifkele's room and 
 looks inside.) "Why are you sitting there like 
 that? {Turns back and continues to collect the 
 scattered things.) What a misfortune! He 
 wants to bring the whole house to ruin. {Re- 
 turns to Bifkele's door.) Yekel! Why are you 
 so silent? What's come over you? {Turns 
 back, tearfully.) Did you ever see? A person 
 sits down before the Holy Scroll and thinks and 
 thinks. What is there to think about? A mis- 
 fortune has befallen us. Go to the police, see 
 the captain. . . Seek out the man by hook or 
 crook. . . There is yet time. {Returns to the 
 door.) Why don't you say something? {She 
 sits down upon a bundle of clothes near the 
 door, buries her face in her hands and begins to 
 weep.) He sits there like a madman, staring at 
 the Holy Scroll and mumbling. He neither sees 
 nor hears. What on earth can have possessed 
 him? {Arises. To Yekel.) It makes no differ- 
 ence to me, — one place or another. If you 
 want me to leave, all right. I'll go. The devil 
 won't take me. . . I'U earn my bread, aU right, 
 wherever I may be. {Resumes her packing, 
 silently. Pause.) 
 
 [71 J 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Yekel, enters from Bifkele 's room. He is with- 
 out hat or coat; his hair is in disorder. His 
 eyes have a wild glare, and he speaks slowly, 
 with a subdued, hoarse voice. 
 
 I'U go. . . You'll go. . . Rifkele will go. . . 
 Everything and everybody will go. . . {Point- 
 ing to the brothel.) Down into the cellar. . . 
 God won't have it otherwise. . . 
 
 Sakah 
 Yekel, what's possessed you? Have you gone 
 crazy? {Approaching him.) Consider what 
 you're doing. A misfortune has befallen us. 
 Agreed. To whom don't misfortunes happen? 
 Come. Let us hunt out Shloyme. "We'U give 
 him two or three hundred roubles and let him 
 give us back our child. He'll do it, all right. . . 
 "Well, what are you sitting there moping about? 
 What's the matter with you? 
 
 Yekel, in the same hoarse voice, as he paces 
 about the room,. 
 It's all the same to me now. My soul is given 
 over to the devU. Nothing will help. It's no 
 use. God won't have it. . . {He stops before 
 the window and peers through an interstice of 
 the shutter.) 
 
 Sarah 
 God won't have it, you say? You've merely 
 talked yourself into that! It's you that won't 
 have it. Do you love your daughter? Yekel! 
 
 [72] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Yekel! (Dragging him away from the win- 
 dow.) "Wiiat's come over you? Act while there 
 is yet time! He might take her off somewhere 
 while we're wasting time here. Let's be off to 
 him at once. Hindel must surely have taken 
 her to him. What are you standing there for? 
 (Abruptly.) I've sent for Reb Ali. We'U 
 hear what he has to say. (Pause. Yekel still 
 peers through the shutter spaces.) What are 
 you staring at there ? (Pause.) WTiy don't you 
 say something? Good heavens, its enough to 
 drive a woman insane ! (Turns away and hursts 
 into tears.) 
 
 Yekel, pacing about the room as before. 
 No more home. . . No more wife. . . no more 
 daughter. . . Down into the cellar. . . Back to 
 the brothel. . . We don 't need any daughter now 
 . . . don't need her. . . She's become what her 
 mother was. . . God won't have it. . . Back to 
 the cellar. . . Down into the brothel ! 
 
 Sakah 
 So you want to go back to the cellar? — Into 
 the cellar, then! Much I care! (Resumes her 
 packing.) He wants to ruin us completely. 
 What has come over the man? (For a moment 
 she is absorbed in reflection.) If you're going 
 to stand there like a lunatic, I'll get busy my- 
 self! (Takes off her diamond ear-rings.) I'll 
 go over to Shloyme 's and give him my diamond 
 ear-rings. (From her bundle she draws out a 
 
 [73] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 golden chain.) And if he holds back, I'll add a 
 hundred rouble note. {She searches Tekel's 
 trousers pocket for his pocketbook. He offers no 
 resistance.) Within fifteen minutes (Throwing 
 a shawl over her shoulders.) Rifkele will be 
 here. {As she leaves.) Shloyme will do that 
 for me. {Slams the door behind her.) 
 
 Yekel, walks about the room, his head bowed. 
 
 It's all the same to me now. . .The devil got 
 her, too. No more daughter. . . No more Holy 
 Scroll. . . Into the brothel with everything. 
 Back to the brothel. . . God won't have it. . 
 {Long pause. Reizel appears at the door, 
 thrusting in her head. Steals into the room and 
 stops near the entrance. Yekel notices her, and 
 stares at her vacantly.) 
 
 Reizel, stammering. 
 
 I went for Reb Ali. Your wife sent me. 
 He'll be here soon. 
 
 Yekel, with the same empty stare. 
 
 The devil has won her, anyway. No use now. 
 Too late. God won't have it. 
 
 Reizel 
 She was such a nice girl. What a shame! 
 
 Yekel 
 Eyes her with amazement. 
 
 [74] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Reizel, apologizing. 
 Your wife told me to wait here until she 
 came back. 
 
 YiEKEL 
 
 Don't be afraid. I haven't gone insane yet. 
 Not yet. God has punished me. 
 
 Ebizel 
 Who could ever have expected such a thing? 
 She was such a pure child. Oh ! what a heart- 
 breaking pity ! As true as I live. . . 
 
 Reb Ali, enters, carrying a lantern. 
 What's happened, that you had to call me 
 before daybreak? (Going to the window and 
 peering through the shutter spaces.) It's al- 
 most time for the morning prayers. 
 
 Yekel, not looking at Beb Ali. 
 The Holy Scroll has been violated, Reb Ali. 
 Desecrated most foully. 
 
 Reb Ali, frightened. 
 What are you saying? God forbid, the whole 
 town will have to atone for the sin! What has 
 happened? Speak, man! Good Lord in Hea- 
 ven! 
 
 Yekel 
 Down into the brothel. . . (Pointing below. 
 Then to Beizel.) Down below, with the rest of 
 
 [75] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 them. Down into the brothel. No more Holy 
 Scroll. 
 
 Reb Ali 
 Man! What words are these! What's hap- 
 pened here? Speak! 
 
 Reizel, at the door. Reassuring Reb Ali. 
 
 No, Rebbi. Not the Holy ScroU. His daugh- 
 ter. . . Rifkele. The Holy Scroll is undefiled. 
 (Points to Rifkele's room.) Still in there. 
 
 Reb Ail, with a sigh of relief. 
 Blessed be His name. But are you sure that 
 the Scroll is undefiled? 
 
 Reizel 
 Yes, Rebbi. 
 
 Reb Ali, more calmly, spitting out. 
 Blessed be His Name. I feel easier on that 
 score. {To Yekel.) What made you talk such 
 nonsense? {To Reizel, without looking at her.) 
 Did she go away? Isn't she back yet? {To 
 Yekel.) Has anybody gone to look for her? 
 
 Yekel 
 My daughter is holier to me than a Holy 
 ScroU. 
 
 Reb Ali 
 Don't talk nonsense. Just keep quiet and 
 don't make any scenes. Has anybody gone yet 
 to look for her? To bring her back? Well? 
 
 [76] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 What are you standing there for, instead of go- 
 ing after her? 
 
 Beizel 
 My mistress went to get her. 
 
 Reb Ali 
 Do they know where the girl went ? 
 
 Yes. The mistress will soon fetch her home. 
 
 Reb Ali 
 Fine ! Then what's all this commotion about? 
 The whole town will know all about it before 
 long. Such things should be kept dark. They're 
 not nice. If a prospective father-in-law ever 
 got wind of the story, her dowry would have 
 to be raised a couple of hundred roubles. . . 
 
 Yekel 
 It's all the same to me now. Let everybody 
 know. No more daughter. . . No more Holy 
 Scroll. . . Into the cellar. Into the brothel with 
 everything. 
 
 Reb Ali 
 Fie! You're out of your head altogether. 
 True, a misfortune has befallen you. May 
 Heaven watch over all of us. Well? What? 
 Misfortunes happen to plenty of folks. The 
 Lord sends aid and things turn out all right. 
 The important point is to keep it a secret. 
 Hear nothing. See nothing. Just wash your 
 
 [77] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 hands clean of it and forget it. {To Beizel.) 
 Be careful what you say. Don't let it travel 
 any further, God forbid. Do you hear 1 ( Turns 
 to Yekel, who is staring vacantly into space.) I 
 had a talk with. . . {Looks around to see wheth- 
 er Reizel is still present. Seeing her, he stops. 
 After a pause he begins anew, more softly, look- 
 ing at Beizel as a hint for her to leave.) With 
 er, er. . . {Casts a significant glance at Beizel, 
 who at last understands, and leaves.) I had a 
 talk with the groom's father. I spoke to him be- 
 tween the afternoon and evening prayers, at 
 the synagogue. He's almost ready to talk busi- 
 ness. Of course I gave him to understand that 
 the bride doesn't boast a very high pedigree, 
 but I guess another hundred roubles will fix 
 that up, all right. Nowadays, pedigrees don't 
 count as much as they used to. With God's 
 help I'll surely be here this Sabbath, with the 
 groom's father. We'll go down to the Dayon* 
 and have him examine the young man in his 
 religious studies. . . But nobody must get wind 
 of this tale. It might spoil everything. The 
 father comes of a fine family and the son car- 
 ries a smart head on his shoulders. There, there. 
 Calm yourself. Trust in the Lord and every- 
 thing wiU turn out for the best. With God's 
 help I am going home to prepare for the morn- 
 ing prayer. And as soon as the girl returns, 
 notify me. Remember, now. {About to go.) 
 
 * Assistant to the Rabbi, and usually well versed in religious 
 law. 
 
 [78] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Yekel, arises and grasps Reb All's arm. 
 Listen to me, Rebbi. Take your Holy Scroll 
 along with you. I don't need it any more. 
 
 Reb Ali, thunderstruck. 
 "What are you talking about? "What has pos- 
 sessed you? Have you gone stark mad? 
 
 Yekel 
 My daughter has gone to a brothel. The 
 Scroll has been desecrated. God has punished 
 me. 
 
 Reb Ali, trying to interrupt him. 
 "What are you raving about? 
 
 Yekel 
 I am a woeful sinner. I know it well. He 
 should have broken my feet beneath me, — or 
 taken away my life in its prime. But what did 
 He want of my daughter? My poor, blameless 
 daughter ? 
 
 Reb Ali 
 Hear me. You mustn't talk like that against 
 the Lord. 
 
 Yekel, excited. 
 And why not? I may speak everything. It's 
 the truth. Yes, I am "Zekel Tchaftchovitch, all 
 right. The "Uncle" of a brothel. But the 
 truth I may speak even to God. I'm afraid no 
 longer. I went into the House of Study to you. 
 
 [79] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 I told you everything. So you advised me to 
 have a Holy Scroll written. In there I placed 
 it, — in her room. I stood before it night 
 after night, and used to say to it, "You are 
 really a God. You know everything I do. You 
 wiU punish me. Very well. Punish me. Pun- 
 ish my wife. We have both sinned. But my 
 poor, ininoeent daughter. Guard her. Have pity 
 upon her!" 
 
 Reb Ali 
 But no evil has befallen her. She will return. 
 She will yet make a jSne pious Jewish wife. 
 
 Yekel 
 No use. . . The devil has won her. She'll be 
 drawn to it. Once she has made a beginning. . . 
 she'll not stop. . . If not today, tomorrow. The 
 devil has won her soul. I know. Yes, I know 
 only too well. 
 
 Reb Ali 
 Don't speak folly, I tell you. Calm yourself. 
 Pray fervently for the Lord's pardon. Give up 
 this business of yours. With God's help your 
 daughter will yet marry just like all Jewish 
 women, and bring you plenty of happiness. 
 
 Yekel 
 Too late, Rebbi. Too late. If only she had 
 died in her childhood, I should have nothing to 
 complain about. . . Then I 'd know she was dead, 
 — that I had buried an innocent creature. . . I 
 would visit her grave and say to myself, "Here 
 
 [80] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 lies your child. Even if you yourself are a 
 sinner, here lies a pure daughter of yours, a 
 virtuous child. ' ' But as it is, what is left me on 
 earth? I myself am a sinner. I leave behind 
 me sinful offspring. And so passes sin from 
 generation to generation. 
 
 Reb Ali 
 
 Don't speak like that. A Jew must not utter 
 such things. Trust in the Lord, and say "The 
 past is dead and gone." 
 
 Yekel, interrupting. 
 
 Don't try to console me, Eebbi. I know that 
 it's too late. Sin encircles me and mine like a 
 rope around a person's neck. God wouldn't 
 have it. But I ask you, Rebbi, why wouldn't 
 He have it? What harm would it have done 
 Him if I, Yekel Tchaftchovitch, should have 
 been raised from the mire into which I have 
 fallen? (He goes into Bifkele's room, carries 
 out the Sacred Parchment, raises it aloft and 
 speaks.) You, Holy Scroll, I know, — you are 
 a great God ! For you are our Lord ! I, Yekel 
 Tchaftchovitch, have sinned. {Beats his breast 
 with his closed fist.) My sins. . . my sins. . . 
 Work a miracle, — send down a pillar of fire to 
 consume me. On this very spot, where I now 
 stand ! Open up the earth at my feet and let it 
 swallow me ! But shield my daughter. Send 
 her back to me as pure and innocent as when 
 she left. I know. . . to You everything is pos- 
 
 [81] 
 
THE GOD OP VENGEANCE 
 
 sible. Work a miracle! For You are an al- 
 mighty God. And if You don't, then You're 
 no God at all, I tell you. I, Yekel Tehaftehov- 
 iteh, tell You that You are as vengeful as any 
 human being. . . 
 
 Reb Ali, jumps up and snatches the Parchment 
 from Yekel' s grasp. 
 Do you realize whom you are talking to? 
 [Looks at him sternly, then takes the Scroll 
 hack to Bifkele's room.) Implore pardon of 
 the Holy Scroll! 
 
 Ykkel 
 The truth may be spoken even before God's 
 very face! (Follows Bei Ali into Bifkele's 
 room.) If He 's a true God, then let Him reveal 
 His miracle here on this very spot! 
 
 Sarah, runs in excitedly. Hastens over to the 
 mirror and begins to arrange her hair with her 
 hands. Calls. 
 
 Come in, Shloyme. "Why do you remain out- 
 side? 
 
 Shloyme, from without. 
 Where is Yekel? Let him know {Gomes in.) 
 that I'll do anything for one of our brotherhood. 
 Even if he did insult me. 
 
 Sarah, runs over to Bifkele's door. Locks it, 
 leaving Yekel and Beb Ali inside. 
 Let him stay there. (Smiling.) These last 
 
 [82] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 few days he's turned into a saint. . . Seeks the 
 company of pious Jews. {Buns over to the en- 
 trance door and locks it.) And what a bride 
 yoii have picked out! Such a pest your Hindel 
 is, I must say! You can't shake yourself rid of 
 her ! She trails after you as if you already be- 
 longed to her. I'll wager she's tracked you to 
 this place, too! {With a wily smile.) Ah, 
 Shloyme, Shloyme, such goods you've selected! 
 {She goes over to the window and opens the 
 shutters. The room grows lighter.) Why have 
 they closed up the place, anyway? As if in 
 mourning ! 
 
 Shloyme 
 Don't worry, I tell you. Once I've said 
 "yes," I mean it. Whoever else I'd refuse, I'll 
 do it for you. Even if you have treated me 
 shabbily of late. . . Well, never mind. Hindel 
 may go to perdition for all it'll help her. 
 
 Saeah, glides over to him, seizes his hand and 
 looks straight into his eyes. 
 A fellow as young as you, — - how can you 
 take such a scarecrow as Hindel? Who is she? 
 She's roamed around from one brothel to anoth- 
 er. Why, a young chap like you ! And you can 
 make a tidy bit now. Then what do you need 
 her for ? With your couple of hundred roubles 
 why can't you catch some fine, respectable girl? 
 Why not? Aren't you as young and handsome 
 as any other, I'd like to know? {Slaps him 
 
 [83] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 across the shoulders.) You just listen to me, 
 Shloyme. You know I was never unkind to you, 
 even if I haven't been all I might have, lately. 
 But I've always been Sarah to you. Isn't that 
 so? (Looking him straight in the eyes.) 
 
 Shloyme, twirling his moustache. 
 The devil ! Deuce knows ! I let my head be 
 turned by the girl. . . Just for the time being. . . 
 to get a few roubles. . . Do you really think I 
 meant to marry her? My mother would have 
 cursed every bone in my body. I have a respec- 
 table mother. And my sister? 
 
 Sabah 
 Haven't you any better business prospects 
 than to tie yourself to such a fright and open a 
 place with her? Much there is in the business 
 these days, anyway. It doesn't pay to have to 
 do with outcasts of her type. (Gomes close to 
 him and thrusts her ear-rings into his hand.) 
 Here, take these and here's another hundred 
 roubles. Now tell me where Rifkele is. 
 
 Shloyme 
 What's true is true. You were once a good 
 woman. (Winks at her.) Lately you've been 
 spoiled. But that's another matter. Just re- 
 member that Shloyme is one of your own crowd. 
 (Pockets her ear-rings.) 
 
 Sabah 
 
 And now tell me, Shloyme, where she is. You 
 
 [84] 
 
THE GOD OP VENGEANCE 
 
 may tell me everything, even if I am her mother. 
 You know, such things don't affect me. Tell 
 me, — have you led her off somewhere to a. . . ? 
 
 Shlotme 
 She is very near. . . If I say I'll bring her 
 here, you may depend upon me. And listen, — 
 may I have such luck, what a prize she would 
 make ! Such eyes, such motions. And as clever 
 as they make 'em! 
 
 Saeah 
 Ha! Ha! There's life to Sarah yet. . . But 
 tell me, Shloyme, where have you put her? You 
 may speak freely to me. {Places an arm about 
 him and slaps him over the shoulder with the 
 other, looking into his eyes coquettishly.) Come, 
 tell me, good brother. 
 
 Shlotme 
 Not far from here. Not far. . . {A thumping 
 of fists is heard on the door leading to the out- 
 side.) 
 
 HiNDEL, from without, 
 You know nothing about her ! Nothing at aU ! 
 
 Sabah 
 Let her hammer her head against the wall. 
 Goodness me! How she holds him in her 
 clutches ! Ha, ha ! He dare not leave her for a 
 moment! {Making eyes at him.) Shame your- 
 self, to have affairs with trash like that! 
 {Shloyme meditates for a moment. Sarah 
 
 [85] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 seizes him by the arm and draws him aside.) 
 See here. "WTiat do you need her for? I'll get 
 a girl for you. A dream. You'll see. (Winks 
 at him. ) 
 
 HiNDEL, forcing the door open, rushes in. 
 
 What are they pestering him. about? Bad 
 dreams to them ! Their daughter runs away. . . 
 (Seizing Shloyme hy the hand.) He doesn't 
 know where she is. What do they want of you, 
 anyway ? 
 
 Sarah, sits down, glances teasingly at Shloyme 
 and points to Hindel. 
 So that's your style, eh? That thing there? 
 Ha, ha! 
 
 Hindel, looking around. 
 She laughs like an evil spirit ! {To Shloyme.) 
 You know nothing whatever about Rifkele. 
 (Takes him aside. Softly.) Let's be off to 
 Lodz at once. We'll marry there. . . Rent a 
 house. . . With two girls like these we can. . . 
 Consider what you're doing! (Aloud.) What 
 are they pestering you for? You know nothing 
 at aU about her. (Pulling him out.) Come, 
 Shloyme. (He is undecided.) 
 
 Sakah, aloud, with a wily smile. 
 
 Well, why don't you go along with her, 
 
 Shloyme? She's come for you. . . to take you to 
 
 Lodz. . . to get married. . . and set up house. 
 
 Tee-hee! (Comes close to Shloyme and draws 
 
 [86] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 him away from Hindel.) A young chap like 
 you, with a respectable mother, — and your 
 father was a pious Jew. . . What does she want 
 of you? What is she pestering you for? 
 
 Shlotme, resolutely. 
 Come, Sarah. We'll get Eifkele. 
 
 Hindel, clapping her hand across his mouth. 
 You'll not tell. You know nothing about her. 
 (She runs over to the door, shuts it and stands 
 with her back against it.) I won't let you go 
 out. (Runs over to Shloyme and seizes his 
 hand.) Remember, Shloyme. It's all right for 
 them. Then why not for us? Come, Shloyme. 
 We'll leave this place. . . And we'll do such a 
 business — such a flourishing business! 
 
 Shloyme 
 We've heard all that. . . we've heard it before. 
 (Thrusts her away.) We'll talk that over later. 
 I haven't any time now. (Goes out with Sarah, 
 followed by Hindel.) 
 
 Sarah, running back. Opens Bifkele's door 
 and calls to the men inside. 
 Eifkele is here! 
 
 Hindel, from the entry. 
 I'll not let you. You won't tell! 
 
 Shloyme, in the doorway. 
 Come, Sarah. 
 
 [87] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Saeah, runs after him. 
 I'm coming, Shloyme. {Sarah, Shloyme and 
 Hindel leave.) 
 
 Ebb Ali, enters, with Yekel. 
 Praised be the Lord! Praised be the Heav- 
 enly Father! {Following Yekel, who paces 
 about the room.) See how the Almighty, 
 blessed be His Name, has come to your fiid ? He 
 punishes, — yes. But he sends the remedy be- 
 fore the disease. Despite your having sinned, 
 despite your having uttered blasphemy. {Ad- 
 monishing him.) From now on see to it that 
 you never speak such words, — that you have 
 reverence, great reverence. . . Know what a 
 Holy Scroll is, and what a learned Jew is. . . 
 You must go to the synagogue, and you must 
 make a generous donation to the students of the 
 Law. You must fast in atonement, and the 
 Lord will forgive you. {Pause. Beb Ali looks 
 sternly at Yekel, who has continued to walk 
 about the room, absorbed in his thoughts.) 
 What? Aren't you listening to me? With the 
 aid of the Almighty everything will turn out 
 for the best. I'm going at once to the groom's 
 father and we'U discuss the whole matter in de- 
 tail. But be sure not to haggle. A hundred 
 roubles more or less, — remember who you are 
 and who he is. Aiid what's more, see to it 
 that you settle the dowry right away and in- 
 dulge in no idle talii about the wedding. Hea- 
 ven forbid, — another misfortune might occur! 
 
 [88] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Such matters should not be delayed. {Glares 
 angrily at Yekel.) What! You pay no atten- 
 tion? I'm talking to you! 
 
 Yekel, as if to himself. 
 One thing I want to ask her. One thing only. 
 But she must tell me the truth, — the whole 
 truth. Yes, or no. 
 
 Rbb Ali 
 Don't sin, man. Thank the good Lord that 
 He has helped you. 
 
 Yekel, as before. 
 I'll not lay a finger upon her. Just let her 
 answer the truth. Yes, or no. 
 
 Reb Ali 
 The truth. The truth. Heaven will help you 
 . . . Everything will turn out for the best. I'm 
 going to the young man's father directly. He's 
 over at the synagogue and must surely be wait- 
 ing for me. (Looks around.) Tell your wife 
 to put the house in order in the meantime. And 
 you, prepare the contract, and at once, so that 
 he'll have no time to discover anjrthing amiss 
 and withdraw. Arrange the wedding date and 
 have the bride go at once to her parents-in-law. 
 No idle chatter, remember. Keep silent, so that 
 nobody will learn anything about it. (Ready to 
 go.) And cast all this nonsense out of your 
 head. Trust in the Lord and rejoice in His 
 
 [89] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 comfort. {At the door.) Tell your wife to tidy- 
 up the place. (Leaves.) 
 
 Yekel, strides nervously to and fro. 
 Let her only tell me the truth. The plain 
 truth. (A long silence.) 
 
 Sarah, on the threshold. 
 Come in. Come in. Tour father won't beat 
 you. (Pause.) Go in, I tell you. (Pushes Bif- 
 kele into the room. Bifkele has a shawl over her 
 head. She stands silent and motionless at the 
 door, a shameless look in her eyes, hiting her 
 lips.) "Well, what are you standing there for, 
 my darling? Much pleasure you've brought us 
 ... in return for our trouble in bringing you 
 up. We'll square that with you later. (Inter- 
 rupting herself.) Get into your room. Comb 
 your hair. Put on a dress. "We're expecting 
 guests. (To Yekel.) I just met Keb Ali. He's 
 going for the groom's father. (Looks about the 
 room.) Goodness me! How the place looks! 
 (She iegins hastily to place things in order.) 
 
 Yekel, seeing Bifkele, fastens his gaze upon 
 her, approaches her, takes her gently hy the 
 hand and leads her to the table. 
 
 Don't be afraid. I'll not hurt you. (He sits 
 down.) Sit down here beside me. (Pushes a 
 chair toward her.) Sit down. 
 
 [90] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 RiFKEUE, provoked, hides her face in her shawl, 
 I can stand just as well. 
 
 Yekel 
 Sit down. {He seats her.) Don't be afraid. 
 
 RiFKELE, from behind the shawl. 
 Why should I be afraid? 
 
 Yekel, speaks in a faltering voice. 
 Rifkele, tell me, Rifkele. You are my daugh- 
 ter. I am your father. {Points to Sarah.) 
 She is your mother. Tell me, my daughter. 
 Tell me the whole truth. Don't be afraid of 
 me. Don't feel ashamed before me. I know, — 
 not for your sins. . .not for your sins. . . For my 
 sins, mine. . . For your mother's sins. . . our 
 sins. . . Tell me, daughter. . . 
 
 Saeah 
 Just look at the way he's sat down to cross 
 examine her ! "What does he want of her ? The 
 moment she arrives! Let her go in and dress. 
 We'll soon be having company. {Ahout to take 
 Rifkele away.) 
 
 Yekel 
 Let her go, I say ! {Thrusts Sarah away from 
 Rifkele.) 
 
 [91] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEAJSTCE 
 
 Sarah 
 He's gone crazy today. What's possessed the 
 man? {Resumes her cleaning.) 
 
 Yekel, seating Bifkele beside him. 
 I'll not beat you. {Clutching her slender 
 throat with his fingers.) If I had only twisted 
 your neck for you, like this, before you ever 
 grew up, it would have been better for you, and 
 for me. . . But don't be afraid. I won't harm 
 you. It's not for your sins that God has pun- 
 ished us. No. It's for ours. I guarded you 
 like the apple of my eye. I had a Holy Scroll 
 written for you. I placed it in your room and 
 prayed to it for days and nights at a time. 
 ' ' Shield my child from evil ! Visit your punish- 
 ment upon me! On her mother! But spare 
 my daughter!" You'd grow up, I planned, and 
 I'd make a fine match for you. I'd get you a 
 respectable young man for a husband. I'd keep 
 you both here with me, at my expense. You 
 would both live. . . 
 
 RiFKELE, still hidden behind her shawl. 
 There's plenty of time for me to marry. I'm 
 not so old. 
 
 Saeah 
 
 And she has the impudence to argue with 
 him! 
 
 [92] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 BiFKELE 
 
 They want to turn me into a Rabbi's wife.* 
 Why didn't mamma marry early? 
 
 Sabah 
 Hold your tongue, or I'll slap you black and 
 blue ! Just listen to what she 's picked up in a 
 single night! 
 
 EiFKELE, misunderstanding. 
 Yes, I know everything now. 
 
 Yekbl 
 Let her alone! (With nervous haste.) I 
 want to ask her only one thing. One thing 
 only. Tell me the truth. . . I'll not beat you. 
 I'll not lay a finger upon you. You're not to 
 blame. (Almost unable to speak.) Tell me 
 frankly, the — the — whole truth tell me. . . 
 The truth. . . 
 
 Sabah 
 "What truth shall she tell you? What do you 
 want of the girl? 
 
 Yekel 
 I'm not asking you. . . (Arises, seizing Bif- 
 Jcele by the hand.) Don't feel ashamed before 
 me. I 'm your father. You may tell me every- 
 thing. . . Speak openly. . . Are you — are you 
 still as pure as when you left this house? Are 
 
 * Colloquial expresBion signifying extreme piety. 
 
 [93] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 you still a virtuous Jewish daughter? (Shout- 
 ing.) Yes, — a virtuous Jewish daughter? 
 
 Sarah, tearing Bifkele out of Yekel's grasp. 
 What do you want of the girl? The child is 
 innocent of all evil. Let her go. 
 
 Yekel, holding Bifkele firmly, and trying to 
 look straight into her eyes. 
 Jiist tell me the truth. I'H believe you. Look 
 me straight in the face. Are you still an inno- 
 cent Jewish child ? Look me in the face ! 
 Straight in the eye! (Bifkele, despite YekeT's 
 efforts, hides her face in the shawl.) 
 
 Sarah 
 
 Why don't you take that shawl off your head ? 
 
 You don't need it indoors. (Bemoves Bifkele's 
 
 shawl. Bifkele resists, but losing her grasp 
 
 upon the shaivl she hides her face in her gown.) 
 
 Yekel, loudly. 
 
 Tell me now. Don't be ashamed. I'll do you 
 
 no harm. (Holding her firmly by the hand and 
 
 looking her directly in the eye.) Are you still 
 
 a chaste Jewish daughter? — Tell me, at once! 
 
 RiFKELE, trying to hide her face. 
 I don't know. . . 
 
 Yekel, at the top of his voice. 
 You don't know! You don't know! Then 
 who does know? What do you mean, — you 
 
 [94] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 "don't know?" The truth, now! Are you 
 still — 
 
 RiFKELE, tearing herself from Yekel. 
 It was all right for mamma, wasn't it? And 
 it was all right for you, wasn't it? I know all 
 about it! . . . {Hiding her face in her hands.) 
 Beat me! Beat me! Go on! 
 
 Sarah 
 
 Rushes over to Rifkele with arms upraised, 
 ready to strike her. Yekel casts Sarah aside with 
 a single Mow, and falls into a chair, pale and 
 breathing hard. Rifkele sinks to the floor, weep- 
 ing hysterically. A long pause. Sarah, plainly 
 upset, paces aimlessly about the room. After a 
 while she takes a broom and begins to sweep the 
 room; her silence betrays a feeling of guilt . . . 
 She then approaches Rifkele, lifts her by the 
 hand and leads her off stage into the room. Yekul 
 is rooted to his place. Sarah returns, runs over 
 to Yekel, grasps his hand and entreats him. 
 
 Yekel, consider what you are doing, for God's 
 sake ! Who need know anything ? (Pause.) Calm 
 yourself. (Pause.) Rifkele wUl get married and 
 we'U live to have plenty of happiness from her. 
 (Yekel is silent.) Put on your coat, — they'll 
 soon be here. (Abruptly.) "Who need know any- 
 thing at all about it? 
 
 Yekel 
 Silent. Stares vacantly into space. 
 
 [95] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 Sabah, brings in Yehel's coat and hat and 
 places them upon him. He offers no resistance. 
 What a misfortune! What a misfortune! 
 Who could have foreseen such a thing? {She 
 straightens Yekel's coat, then puts the room in 
 order. Buns into Bifkele's room. She is heard 
 hiding something there, and soon returns.) I'll 
 have a reckoning with you later. {Putting the 
 finishing touches to the room.) Terrible days, 
 these. Bring up children with so much care 
 and anxiety, and. . . Ah! {Footsteps are heard 
 outside. Sarah runs over to Yekel and pulls his 
 sleeve.) They're here! For the love of God, 
 Yekel, remember ! Everything can be fixed yet. 
 {Enter Beh AU and a stranger. Sarah hastily 
 thrusts her hair under her wig and goes to the 
 door to welcome the visitors.) 
 
 Reb Ali 
 Good morning. 
 
 Sarah 
 Good morning. Good year. Welcome. 
 {Somewhat confuted, she places chairs before 
 the guests and motions them to be seated.) 
 
 Reb Ali, in a cheerful mood. 
 
 Well, and where is the bride's father? {Look- 
 ing about for Yekel.) 
 
 Sakah, smiling, to her husband. 
 Why don't you show yourself, Yekel? {She 
 [96] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 thrusts a chair toward him. The visitors ex- 
 press their greetings and take their seats.) 
 
 Reb Ali, gesticulating. 
 Let's get right down to business. {To the 
 stranger, pointing to Yekel.) This gentleman 
 wishes to unite families with you. He has an 
 excellent daughter and wants as her husband a 
 scholar well versed in Rabbinical lore. He'll 
 support the couple for life. 
 
 The Stbangek 
 That sounds inviting. 
 
 Yekel, arising. 
 Yes, my friend. A virtuous Jewish daughter 
 ... a model child. . . 
 
 Reb Ali, to the stranger. 
 He's ready to settle upon her a dowry of 
 five hundred roubles cash at the time of the en- 
 gagement. . . And he'll support the couple for 
 life. He will treat your son as his own child. 
 
 The Stranger 
 Well, — there 's little need of my boosting my 
 goods. With two years more of study, he'll 
 have the whole learning at his finger tips. 
 
 Reb Ali 
 Naturally, naturally. This gentleman wUl 
 guard him like the apple of his eye. He'U 
 have the best of everything here. He'll be able 
 
 [97] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 to sit and study the Holy Law day and night, 
 to his heart's content. 
 
 Yekel, indicating Bifkele's room,. 
 
 Yes, he '11 sit inside there and study the sacred 
 books. . . I have a virtuous Jewish daughter. 
 {Goes into the room and drags Bifkele out iy 
 force. She is only half dressed, her hair in dis- 
 order. He points to her.) Your son will marry 
 a virtuous Jewish daughter, I say. She will 
 bear him pure, Jewish children. . . even as all 
 pious daughters. {To Sarah.) Isn't that so? 
 {Laughing wildly, to the stranger.) Yes, in- 
 deed, my friend, — she'U make a pure, pious 
 little mate. My wife will lead her under the 
 wedding canopy. . . Down into the brothel ! 
 Down below! {Pointing to the cellar.) Down 
 into the brothel! {Dragging Bifkele by her 
 hair to the door.) Down into the brothel with 
 you ! Down ! 
 
 Sakah, rushing madly over to Yekel. 
 Good God! He's gone stark mad! {She tries 
 to tear Bifkele away from Yekel; he thrusts 
 Sarah aside and drags his daughter out by the 
 hair.) 
 
 Yekel 
 
 Down into the brothel with you ! {He leaves 
 together with Bifkele, whose cries are heard 
 from outside.) 
 
 [98] 
 
THE GOD OF VENGEANCE 
 
 The Stranger, with amazement and fright. 
 
 What is this ? {Reh Ali beckons to him, pulls 
 him by the sleeve and points to the door. The 
 stranger stands motionless in his astonishment. 
 Reb Ali draws him to the door. They leave. 
 Pause.) 
 
 Yekel, enters, dragging back with him Reb Ali, 
 whom he has met on the stairs. 
 Take the Holy Scroll along with you ! I don't 
 need it any more ! 
 
 CURTAIN 
 
 [98]