Monday the Rabbi Took Off

Chapter Thirty

Hey, how come the tan, V. S.? You been in Florida, or did you buy one of those sun lamps?"

"Florida? No. Katz and I were in Israel."

"Israel? No kidding. Hey, guys, V. S. was in Israel. When did you get back?"

"Day before yesterday. We just went over for ten days— on business."

It was the Sunday morning Brotherhood Breakfast, and the members were still drifting in, still standing around greeting one another, as the members of the committee set up the round tables, laid the tablecloths and silverware — quite unlike Sisterhood affairs where everything was made ready the day before.

They crowded around Markevitch. "How was it there, V. S.?"

"How was the weather?"

"Any Arabs take a shot at you, V. S.?"

"You starting a branch in Israel. V. S.? You becoming one of these international financial wizards?"

"Tell me. are the people worried? Are they scared?"

"Scared?" boomed V. S. Markevitch. "Let me tell you something: You can go out walking, any city there, anytime day or night. We'd go out for a walk after midnight, me and Katz, and on dark streets, and nobody thought anything of it."

"Did you get to see all the sights? Where'd you go?"

"Oh, most of the time we were in the hands of the Ministry of Industrial Development guys. They showed us around, and they introduced us to some of the big shots in the government. It was quite a trip."

"Did you get to Jerusalem? Did you see the rabbi?"

"Yeah." said V. S., "we saw him. We were with him pretty much all one day. He showed us around."

"Did he show you King David's Tomb?"

"How about the Chagall windows? That was the first thing I saw when I went."

"You went to the Hadassah Hospital, didn't you?"

"I hope you visited Meah Shearim."

"The most impressive place we saw when we went over was the Yad Vashem. You got a chance to see that?"

Markevitch. grinning from ear to ear. turned from one questioner to the other. Finally, he held up both hands as if in surrender. "To tell the truth, guys, we didn't get a chance to see any of those places. Like I said, the rabbi was showing us around. He figured we'd want to see the Wall, which we did. And he showed us through the Old City, which we could have done without. I mean, as far as I'm concerned it's just a bunch of smelly little alleys. And then we went over to take a look at the university, and that took up pretty much the whole day. To tell the truth"— he lowered his voice to a loud whisper—"I got the impression that the rabbi didn't know half the places you guys mentioned."

"Yeah? By now I would’ve thought he'd know every little nook and cranny."

Markevitch shrugged. "That's what we figured. To tell the truth, that was one of the reasons we called him. We figured he'd know what there was to see."

"I guess maybe he just hasn't had time to go sightseeing. I suppose he's at the university library all day long—■

"You kidding?" Markevitch was scornful. "When he took us out there, he admitted he'd only been there a couple of times before."

"So what's he do there?"

"As near as we could make out. he just loafs, maybe takes a walk, stops in at a cafe for coffee— like that."

"I know he's no ball of fire, but I figure in Jerusalem and all— say. did he mention when he was coming home?"

Markevitch shook his head slowly. "Not a word. And that's kind of funny when you come to think of it. I mean, you’d think that saying good-bye, he'd say something like 'See you in Barnard's Crossing.' But not a word. Just good-bye."

"What are you getting at, V. S.?"

"Well, you know that idea I talked about at our last meeting, you know, about us having two associate rabbis. Well, I kind of sounded him out on it."

"You didn't, V. S.!"

"Sure. I did. You know my motto: If you don't ask. you don't get to know. Why shouldn't I? Maybe I'm not a board of director, but I'm a member in good standing. My dues are paid up."

"All right, so you asked. What happened?"

"Nothing!" said Markevitch triumphantly. "He wasn't happy, and he wasn't sore. He just wasn't interested one way or the other. Just kind of polite."

"Maybe he was playing it cozy."

Markevitch gave the other a prod with his elbow and winked knowingly. "Maybe he was, and maybe he just wasn't interested one way or the other. To tell the truth, we were kind of a little annoyed with our rabbi. I mean if he's our rabbi, we got a right to expect him to rabbi for us. You go to Washington, and you tell your Congressman you're there, and he'll be interested in your problems.

He'll try to help you. or at least he'll make you think he's going to help you. The least he'll do is have someone from his office show you around. Right? Well, we figured we could count on the rabbi the same way. Take like for instance we went to the Wall. Right? So you expect you're with your rabbi right there, he'll say a prayer for you at the Wall. That's the holiest place we got, and if you got a chance to have a prayer said there, well that's something you wouldn't want to pass up. Right? So when we asked him. he says he'd rather not, and we should do it on our own. Well, of course we did. me and Katz, but you know it isn't the same thing. We had to say it in English for one thing—"

From the head table came the sharp rap of the gavel, and the chairman called out. "Will you take your seats please? Will everybody please be seated?"

There was a scurrying to take places, while those still engaged in conversation automatically lowered their voices.

"That sure is funny. What do you figure it means, V. S.?"

Markevitch dropped his voice to a whisper that could not be heard much beyond the six or eight tables in the immediate vicinity. "Let me put it this way: Markevitch is not one to shoot off his mouth, but Markevitch has a sawbuck which he'll bet against anybody's V-note that our rabbi when he took off for Israel took off for good."