torpor was
not so deep as that into which my new friend appeared to fall, for
though as we approached a village another vehicle dashed towards us,
my shouts and the other driver's cries only roused him in time to
escape losing a wheel.

"You must have been thinking of a knotty point of Torah (Holy Law),"
said I.

"Knotty point," said he, shuddering; "it is Satan who ties those
knots."

"Oho," said I, "though a _Shochet_, you do not seem fond of rabbinical
learning."

"Where there is much study," he replied tersely, "there is little
piety."

At this moment, appositely enough, we passed by the village
Beth-Hamidrash, whence loud sounds of "pilpulistic" (wire-drawn)
argument issued. The driver clapped his palms over his ears.

"It is such disputants," he cried with a grimace, "who delay the
redemption of Israel from exile."

"How so?" said I.

"Satan induces these Rabbis," said he, "to study only those portions
of our holy literature on which they can whet their ingenuity. But
from all writings which would promote piety and fear of God he keeps
them away."

I was delighted and astonished to hear the _Shochet_ thus deliver
himself, but before I could express my acquiescence, his attention was
diverted by a pretty maiden who came along driving a cow.

"What a glorious creature!" said he, while his eyes shone.

"Which?" said I laughingly. "The cow?"

"Both," he retorted, looking back lingeringly.

"I understand now what you mean by pious literature," I said
mischievously: "the Song of Solomon."

He turned on me with strange earnestness, as if not perceiving my
irony. "Ay, indeed," he cried; "but when the Rabbis do read it, they
turn it into a bloodless allegory, Jewish demons as they are! What is
the beauty of yonder maiden but an emanation from the divine? The more
beautiful the body, the more shiningly it leads us to the thought of
God."

I was much impressed with this odd fellow, whom I perceived to be an
original.

"But that's very dangerous doctrine," said I; "by parity of reasoning
you would make the lust of the flesh divine."

"Everything is divine," said he.

"Then feasting would be as good for the soul as fasting."

"Better," said the driver curtly.

I was disconcerted to find such Epicurean doctrines in a district
where, but for my experience of Baer, I should have expected to see
the ascetic influence of the Baal Shem predominant. "Then you're not a
follower of the Baal Shem?" said I t