Monday the Rabbi Took Off

Chapter Three

Miriam opened the door and ushered Marty Drexler into the living room where the rabbi was sitting. "Since it's temple business. Mr. Drexler. I'll leave you two—"

"Well, maybe you ought to sit in on this. Mrs. Small." said Marty. "In my own business when it's family finances like our family plan loan. I always tell the client to come in with his wife. You know what I mean?"

"Of course. Mr. Drexler. if you prefer."

The rabbi had risen, and he now motioned their guest to a chair and then sat down himself. "This has something to do with our family finances. Mr. Drexler?"

Marty Drexler smiled, a beaming loan company smile. "I'd say it has. We voted in the board to give you a contract, and Bert Raymond appointed me like a committee of one to get all the little details ironed out with you."

"That's very kind of them." said the rabbi pleasantly. He leaned back in his chair and looked ceilingward. "Of course. I tend to think of a contract as an agreement between two equal parties since each has something that the other wants, rather than as something that one party confers on the other."

Drexler was determined not to be put out. He nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right at that. I meant I'm here to negotiate it."

"And why at this time?" asked the rabbi.

Drexler looked at him reproachfully. "Rabbi." he said, "we're grown men. We're not a bunch of kids. We got the message. You send us a letter asking for a leave of absence; it didn't take us long to realize that you were tickling us on the contract. After all. we're all businessmen. All right, maybe we been a little remiss. Maybe we been sitting on our fannies— sorry. Mrs. Small— when we should’ve been tending to business. But to tell the truth, we're kind of new to the game. We figured it was just like a matter of form. All right. I'm sorry; we're all sorry. Now let's get down to business. Suppose you tell me what you have in mind, and I'll tell you what the boys figured was fair. Then if there's a gap between us, we'll chin about it. And you feel free to talk up, Mrs. Small, because you're as much concerned as the rabbi is, I guess. Maybe even more because I always say that it's the lady of the house that's the homemaker. She's the one who knows how much groceries the family needs and how much they're going to cost. So. you folks lay it right on me, and then I'll tell you how the board feels. We'll work out something, and if it's different from what we had in mind. I'll discuss it with the board and then come back here and see you about it again until we get it all straightened out. Fair enough?"

"It's fair enough. Mr. Drexler." said the rabbi. He hesitated and tapped the arm of his chair with his fingertips as he marshaled his sentences to explain. "You may find this hard to believe. Mr. Drexler, but when I sent that letter, all I was interested in was a leave of absence. That's still all I'm interested in. I haven't given any thought to the matter of a contract, and I don't think that I'm prepared to think about it right now. A leave of absence I asked for, and it's a leave of absence that I want."

Drexler was still not convinced. He could not help feeling a certain admiration for the rabbi's gifts at dickering. He tried another tack. "All right, you want to play it that way. I'll go along. Let's think about it and see where it leads. You say you want a leave of absence. In your letter you said three months. That's still what you want?"

The rabbi nodded.

"So you go away for three months. And you'll be expecting full pay, I suppose?"

"As a matter of fact, I hadn't thought about it." He considered. "No, I don't think I'd be entitled to any pay under the circumstances."

Drexler was annoyed. How do you dicker with someone who doesn't want anything from you? He had planned to point out that if the temple paid him three months' salary, a sizable sum, they would have to have some agreement that he would make it up to them. But if he didn't expect to be paid...

"Suppose we refuse the leave of absence. Rabbi?" The rabbi smiled faintly. "I'm afraid I'd take it anyway."

"You mean you'd resign?"

"You wouldn't be giving me any other choice."

"Then does that mean if we vote the leave of absence, you're definitely coming back?"

The rabbi was honestly troubled. "I don't know. I don't know how I'll feel or what I'll want three months from now." He smiled. "Who of us does?"

"But look here, that puts us in kind of a spot. I mean, we've got to hire somebody to take your place while you're gone, and if you're not sure you're coming back..."

"I see your problem. Mr. Drexler. All right, why don't we just assume that I'm coming back? And when I do. we can then negotiate a contract that will be mutually acceptable." He smiled. "Of course, if I should not, then we wouldn't have to."

The telephone rang, and Miriam hastened to answer it. She listened for a moment and then said. "It's New York. David. Your mother, I suppose. Why don't you take it on the extension?"

The rabbi excused himself and hurried out of the room. On the phone. Miriam said. "Hello. Mother. Everything all right?...Yes, we're fine...Yes, Jonathan is fine...

Yes, David's here, he's taking it on the other phone." She listened for the click that signaled that her husband had picked up the receiver and said, "I'll say good-bye now, Mother. We’ve got company." She hung up and came back to where she had been sitting.

She apologized to Marty Drexler for the interruption and then went on. "My husband has been in Barnard's Crossing over six years. Mr. Drexler. In all that time, he hasn't had a real vacation—just an occasional weekend. He's tried. He feels stale. He needs to get away from all his regular work so that he can get a chance to think. You think it's easy for me to pick up and leave for three months and live on our savings? You're right, I'm the homemaker. I'm the one who worries about expenses and this trip will be expensive— just the fares—"

"You're planning on a tour or something?"

"We're going to Israel, to Jerusalem."

"Oh, but look here. Mrs. Small, if it's Israel, well. I can ... understand that. I mean, him being a rabbi, naturally he's got to visit the place. He's probably the only rabbi around here who hasn't been yet. But look here. Don Jacobson. who's on the board, is in the travel business. I'll bet he can work out something, maybe a three-week tour where your husband will be the guide and it won't cost him a red cent. I'll talk to him."

The rabbi returned to the room while he was speaking. To Miriam he said. "Nothing important." To Drexler, he said. "It's kind of you to want to arrange something, but we're planning to go there to live for a while, in Jerusalem, not just to visit."

"You mean just in Jerusalem? You're not going touring to see the sights? And for three months? Why?"

The rabbi laughed shortly. "It might not strike you as compelling, Mr. Drexler, but I'll try to explain. The Passover is our basic holiday. We celebrate it not merely with a service but with an elaborate ritual so that its lesson, the philosophy on which our religion is based, will be engraved on our minds."

"Oh, you still bothered about our decision to drop the congregational Seder? Well, there were sound financial—"

"No, Mr. Drexler, I'm not bothered by the board's decision," the rabbi assured him. "There are good arguments on either side, although I might point out that it is a question on which the rabbi of the congregation would normally be consulted. No, I was going to say that the ritual ends with a devout wish 'Next year in Jerusalem.' Well, I’ve made that wish at the end of every Passover Seder, but last year it was for me not a wish but a promise, a religious commitment, if you like."

Drexler was impressed, and for the remaining few minutes of his visit he was subdued and respectful. But by the time he got home his natural cynicism had reasserted itself, and when his wife asked how he'd made out. he replied. "He says he wants to go and live in Jerusalem for a while; it's like a religious commitment with him. Who's he trying to kid? He's just lazy and wants to goof off for a while. He saves up a little money, and now he's going to blow it."

"Well, he'll be getting his salary—"

"He will not."

"You're not going to pay him his salary?" She was surprised.

"Look." said Marty, "he's taking a leave of absence. You don't pay a salary to somebody taking a leave of absence."

"That's kind of mean, isn't it? Is that what the board decided, or was it your idea, Marty?"

"Look. Ethel, it's not my money; it's the congregation's. As treasurer. I'm supposed to use it for their advantage. I can't just throw it away because it's the rabbi. Besides," he said, "he suggested it himself."

She did not answer then or during the remainder of the evening when he made sporadic remarks during the TV commercial to the effect that "Some guys sure have it soft if they can take off for three months and their wives go along with the crazy idea." and. "Of course, by paying his own way, he's got no obligation to us. He's probably writing to a bunch of congregations right now asking about jobs."

But later when they were lying in bed and he was on the point of dropping off to sleep, she said. "You know, Marty, it's crazy and all that, but it's kind of nice, too."

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean throwing up your job and just taking off—"