l, his father employed him in his
pawn-shop, and for recreation there was always the synagogue and the
study of the Bible with its commentaries, and the endless volumes of
the Talmud, that chaos of Rabbinical lore and legislation. And when he
approached his thirteenth year, he began to prepare to become a "Son
of the Commandment." For at thirteen the child was considered a man.
His sins, the responsibility of which had hitherto been upon his
father's shoulders, would now fall upon his own, and from counting for
as little as a woman in the congregation, he would become a full unit
in making up the minimum of ten men, without which public worship
could not be held. And so, not only did he come to own a man's
blue-striped praying-shawl to wrap himself in, but he began to "lay
phylacteries," winding the first leather strap round his left arm and
its fingers, so that the little cubical case containing the holy words
sat upon the fleshy part of the upper arm, and binding the second
strap round his forehead with the black cube in the centre like the
stump of a unicorn's horn, and thinking the while of God's Unity and
the Exodus from Egypt, according to the words of Deuteronomy xi. 18,
"And these my words ... ye shall bind for a sign upon your hand, and
they shall be as frontlets between your eyes." Also he began to study
his "Portion," for on the first Sabbath of his thirteenth year he
would be summoned, as a man, to the recitation of the Sacred Scroll,
only instead of listening, he would have to intone a section from the
parchment manuscript, bare of vowels and musical signs. The boy was
shy, and the thought of appearing brazenly on the platform before the
whole congregation was terrifying. Besides, he might make mistakes in
the words or the tunes. It was an anxious time, scarcely redeemed by
the thought of new clothes, "Son-of-the-Commandment" presents, and
merry-makings. Sometimes he woke up in the middle of the night in a
cold sweat, having dreamed that he stood on the platform in forgetful
dumbness, every eye fixed upon him. Then he would sing his "Portion"
softly to himself to reassure himself. And, curiously enough, it
began, "And it was in the middle of the night." In verity he knew it
as glibly as the alphabet, for he was infinitely painstaking. Never a
lesson unlearnt, nor a duty undone, and his eager eyes looked forward
to a life of truth and obedience. And as for Hebrew without vowels,
that had long since lost its t