Once more the rabbi of Satanów stands and shouts something, but no one translates for him, so no one listens. He is shushed by Father Mikulski:
“The time will come for the defense. First the arguments of the other side must be heard.”
And now Krysa, translated by Moliwda, demonstrates in intricate detail that the Talmud demands Christian blood, as the words yain adom are translated by the rabbis as “red wine,” while in the Hebrew script the very same letters (alef, dalet, vav, mem) are used both for the word adom, or “red,” and the word edom, or Christian. The two words differ only at the bottom of the first letter, alef, by dots, called “segol” and “kamatz,” by virtue of which the reader understands now adom, and now edom.
“So what one must know,” Krysa goes on, as Moliwda translates beautifully, “is that the Orah Hayyim Maginei Aretz, in which there is an order to the rabbis to get red wine for Passover, gives these words without any dots, leaving these two Hebrew words ambiguous. Thus rabbis are free to translate them for the general public as ‘yayin adom,’ or ‘red wine,’ but to understand it amongst themselves as ‘yayin edom,’ or ‘Christian blood,’ as an allegory of wine,” explains Moliwda, although it’s actually not clear if he is translating or just talking. His eyes are glued to the paper in front of him, and somewhere along the way he’s misplaced his eloquence and charm.
“What are you all doing?” someone shouts out of the crowd in Polish, and then repeats the same thing in Yiddish: “What are you all doing?”
Krysa goes on to demonstrate that that supposed “red wine” should actually be “blood memento.”
“Let the Talmudists tell us: Of what kind of blood is it a memento?” he shouts, and aims his finger at the rabbis sitting facing him. “And why is it ‘I’m giving you a hint’? A hint of what?” he says, still yelling, his face reddening. The whole church is perfectly silent. Krysa takes in a big breath and says quietly, with satisfaction, “Evidently this was an effort to keep the secret with the rabbis, and have the general public believe that it meant only red wine. And that’s how it all works!”
Now, nudged by his companions, Moshe of Podhajce stands. His eyelids are twitching:
“For their Passover, a Talmudic ceremony has been invented, and everyone is required to participate in it. On the first evening of this holiday, a glass of wine is placed on the table, and each person sitting at that table must dip the little finger of his right hand into it, and then let the droplets fall from his finger onto the ground while enumerating the ten plagues of Egypt: 1. dam, or blood; 2. tzefardea, or frogs; 3. khinim, or lice; 4. arov, or flies; 5. dever, or pestilence of livestock; 6. shchin, or boils; 7. barad, or hail, 8. arbeh, or locusts; 9. hoshech, or darkness; 10. vechoros, or death to the firstborn. This ceremony is described by the author, Rabbi Yudah, who uses three words to indicate those ten plagues: detzakh, adash, be’ahav, which consists of the initial letters of the names of each of the plagues. The rabbis give their simpletons to understand that this abbreviation refers exclusively to those ten plagues. But in these words composed of first initials, we have discovered the secret that they”—here he points again at the rabbis—“keep amongst themselves and hide before society, whereas we can now publicly show that when we put other words underneath those first letters, we actually get something else entirely: ‘Dam tzerikhim kulanu al derekh she-asu be-oto ish hakhamei bi-Yerushalayim,’ which means: ‘Everyone needs blood in the same way they did to this man in Jerusalem, those wise men.’”
There is a silence, people look around at each other, and it becomes clear that few of them are able to follow this. Whispering begins, some murmured commentaries. Some people, those most impatient and disappointed, are now shuffling outside, where—in spite of the heat—there is more air than inside the cathedral. Undaunted, Moshe of Podhajce goes on:
“I will tell you all furthermore that in the Orah Hayyim, point 460, on the baking of matzah on the first night of Easter, notes: ‘Ain lushoin matzes mitzve vailoe oifin oiso al idey akim vailoe al idey obeyreh shoyte veykuten,’ which means: ‘One should not knead or bake the Matzot Mitzvah in the presence of a gentile, a deaf mute, an imbecile, or a child.’ While on other days, as it is written, the Matzot can be kneaded in front of anyone. So tell us, Talmudists, why on that first night it is forbidden to knead and bake in the presence of a gentile, a deaf mute, an imbecile, or a child. But we know what they will say! So the dough won’t ferment. And yet we will ask them, why would the dough ferment? They shall answer that it is because those people would make it sour. But can the dough not be protected? And how exactly are they supposed to spoil it? What is really going on is that Christian blood is being added to the Matzot over Passover, and that is why there should be no witnesses to its kneading.”
Moshe calms down now, having almost screamed out his last words. The rabbi of Jazłowiec, on the other side, holds his head in his hands and starts rocking. At first, Pinkas squirms in his seat as he listens to Moshe’s speech, but then all the blood rushes to his head, and he stands, forces his way forward, grabbed by the sides and sleeves of his coat by those who would stop him.
“Moshe, what are you doing? You’re fouling your own nest. Moshe, we know each other, we were in the same yeshiva. Moshe! Get ahold of yourself!”
Already the garrison guards are putting on their martial airs and moving toward Pinkas, and he retreats. Moshe pretends not to have noticed him at all. He continues:
“And there is a third point. In the Old Order, the blood of animals and fowl is strictly forbidden, and the use of it for food or for drink is not permitted to the Jews. And yet the Book of the Rambam, part 2, chapter 6, says: ‘Dam houdym ain hayuvin ulov,’ which means: ‘No kind of blood is permitted, but for the blood of man.’ And also in the book Masehet Ketubbot 60 it is said: ‘The blood of those who walk on two legs is pure.’ So tell us, then, rabbis, whose blood is pure? Because it isn’t the birds’! There are many such examples, which are not expressed clearly, but this lack of clarity is done on purpose, with the aim of concealing the true intention. We have revealed the truth. The rest—the frequent murders of innocent babes—can be guessed.”
When Moshe finishes, there is an uproar throughout the cathedral, and since it is already getting dark, Father Mikulski ends this session and tells the rabbis to prepare their response for three days hence. He also calls those present to keep the peace. The guards come, but people are dispersing relatively calmly. The only thing that isn’t clear is when and how all of the rabbis are going to leave the cathedral.
Of secret hand and eye signals and hints
On September 13, 1759, the Jewish year 5519, the 21st day of the month of Elul, before an equally great press of the curious, the rabbi of Lwów, Hayim Kohen Rapaport, stands in the name of his co-religionists and in a lengthy speech calls the whole accusation an act of spite, revenge, and plain old blood libel. He describes all the allegations as baseless and against the laws of nature.
Heavy drops hit the cathedral roof—at last the rain has come.
Rapaport speaks in Polish, slowly, carefully, as if he has learned this speech by heart. He cites testimonies from the Holy Scriptures and opinions on Jews issued by Hugo Grotius and Christian scholars. In a low, very calm voice, he assures those gathered that the Talmud does not command any harm to Christians. He finishes with a rhetorical turn that appeals to the grace and the protection of administrator Mikulski, that with the deepest gravity of his reason he might see fit to understand the allegations of the Contra-Talmudists concerning Christian blood as merely an excuse for their own bad actions, made in bad faith.
Now his secretary hands him a stack of papers, and Rabbi Rapaport begins to read in Hebrew. After every couple of sentences, Białowolski reads the Polish translation. It says, regarding the question of red wine, that the Talmud tells Jews to drink at Passover four portions of wine, and that in the scripture red wine is considered the best, thus it is appropriate to consume it. However, should the white be better, t
hen it is permitted to drink white. This is done in memory of the blood shed by the Pharaoh from the children of Israel, because though it is not written distinctly in the scripture, it is tradition. It is also done in memory of the blood of the sheep killed in Egypt for Passover, with which the doors were painted, that the angel killing firstborn sons might pass over the homes of the Israelites. The term hint does not appear at all in the Talmud; evidently the Contra-Talmudists’ Hebrew is poor. In the same manner, the translation of the word adom as edom, which does not mean Christian, but rather Egyptian, is a poor one.
The argument that the three words detzakh, adash, and be’ahav, made up of the first letters of the names of the ten plagues, might mean what the Frankists suggest is completely baseless. For these words are set merely as a memory aide for the plagues, not for the designation of Christian blood. This is what is known as a mnemonic device, in other words, a technique to better remember.
The matzah baked for Passover is protected so that it is not fermented through any carelessness, for the scripture forbids consuming at that time any leavened bread. Meanwhile, the Orah Hayyim does not forbid kneading and baking in the presence of a gentile, a deaf mute, an imbecile, or a child, but rather by a gentile, a deaf mute, an imbecile, or a child. Again, then, the Frankists have translated this Talmud passage very poorly, and from there they make the inaccurate claim that somehow this prohibition is in the interest of obtaining Christian blood. As for the allegation that the Book of Rambam “allows for the consumption of human blood,” that is also false, since the book says exactly the opposite about this; the Frankists could really use a Hebrew lesson or two.
As it is getting very dark now inside the cathedral, a darkness only barely pierced by candlelight, Father Mikulski orders the disputation be paused and postpones the verdict until a later date.
Katarzyna Kossakowska writes to Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk
. . . My Nose errs rarely, and it is sensing that Your Excellency has begun to lose Interest in our Cause, having more important Issues on your Mind in your new episcopal Capital. But I consider myself stubborn and will permit myself to disturb Your Excellency with regard to this Matter, given how heavily it weighs upon my Heart. It rouses in me equal parts maternal and paternal Feeling, since these Puritans of ours remind me of orphaned Children, and at the same Time, I consider how much good it would do them to leave behind their mistaken Religion and pass over into the bosom of our Polish Church!
As our Puritans did before, so, too, did the rabbis submit their written Defense before the consistory Court. On those present the Defense did not make at all the same Impression that the Accusation itself did. It was considered to be weak—not a well-reasoned or a proper Answer. Particular Attention was paid to the Fact that the rabbis defended the Talmud either with Citations from the scripture or with unqualified Denial. And in the End, it was all about some minor Detail, whether some Rabbi David in his Talmud gave some secret eye Signal, or hand Signal, some Hint about why the Talmudists were supposed to consume red Wine. Anyway, that is not the Point. To that no one was really listening.
The Truth is that all of us assembled there had already rendered our Judgment. Thus we derived great Satisfaction when the Verdict came. The Administrator, Father Mikulski, announced to those assembled that with respect to the first six Theses, the Talmudists were to be considered vanquished and convicted by our Puritans, and with respect to the seventh, on Christian Blood, upon the written Advice of the Nuncio Serra, the consistory Court would prefer to defer the Matter for further, closer Consideration, not taking a final Decision quite yet. I consider that to be proper. The Matter itself is too sensitive, the Passion it brings out too great, thus the Judgment of the Church Authority recognizing the Accuracy of our Charges’ Accusation, and in Turn the Truthfulness of the age-old Accusations, could have threatened the Jews with the worst Consequences. Despite some Disappointment on the Part of the Public in this Respect, everyone took the Decision to Heart and duly departed to their respective Homes.
Therefore I have to report to Your Excellency that the Matter of Baptism is already determined, and the Date has already been set for Jacob Frank himself, which pleases me greatly. What does he have to offer us? Much, indeed! He says—which I know through my Cousin, MoliwdaKossakowski—that if our Commonwealth were to offer him the right Conditions, several thousand People would follow him into the Catholic Faith, not only from Poland and Lithuania, but also from Wallachia, Moldova, Hungary, and even Turkey. He also argues intelligently that this whole Population, not knowing our Polish Customs, cannot be parceled out like so many Sheep, for without their own kind they will waste away, and so they must be settled all together in a sort of extended Flock.
I am thus on my Knees in the extreme Hope that Your Excellency will prepare the Foundations for these Baptisms and put your full Authority behind our Cause.
In the meantime I shall try for the support of the Nobles and the Inhabitants of Lwów while I am in this Place. What we need is financial Support, or any kind of material Support, for this enormous Multitude of Jewish Wretches who are camping out on our Streets. I assure Your Excellency that it is reminiscent of those sprawling Gypsy Caravans, and that eventually the City will cease to be able to deal with these street Encampments. Unfortunately, apart from the Lack of Food, there are also far less pleasant physical Exigencies, and this is slowly becoming a Problem. It is difficult to pass through the Halickie Przedmieście without covering your Nose, and it is very hot again, which renders those Odors all the more upsetting. And although the Shabbitarians seem very well organized themselves, I still wonder if we ought not to provide them some other Place to stay outside the City, with which I turn to you, and also to His Excellency, Bishop Załuski, and I shall deliver a Letter on this Matter to our Primate as well. I myself am considering lending for a time my Manor in Wojsławice to Frank’s Family and closest Associates, while they await a more permanent Residence. My Place, however, requires Repairs to the Roof and the Introduction of many Amenities . . .
Of the troubles of Father Chmielowski
This year of the comet is a year of problems for the priest. He thought that in his old age he would take refuge in his presbytery among the mallow and the bittercress (which help with his joints), but instead there is always some tumult, some clamor. Now there is also this runaway, and Roshko’s aversion to him. The priest is putting up a fugitive with a frightening face and has no intention of turning him in to the authorities, although he should. He is a good man, gentle and so unfortunate that even looking at him breaks the Father’s heart and makes him think very intently upon divine mercy and goodness. Roshko, meanwhile, is as hard on the runaway as ever, and the priest worries that eventually he’ll spill their secret to someone. Father Chmielowski is sure that Roshko is jealous, which is why he has been making an effort to be kinder to him and has started paying him an extra grosz, yet Roshko has continued to stomp around in a foul mood. So now, while he is in Lwów for a few days, Father Chmielowski wonders whether they are at each other’s throats. Of this, however, he does not tell Mrs. Drużbacka in his occasional letters, the writing of which brings him great pleasure, because it gives him the impression that someone is actually listening to him at last, and not on some scholarly subject, but rather a human one. Sometimes he composes them in his head for days on end, like now, as he sits almost falling asleep in morning mass with the Bernardines. Instead of praying, he thinks about what to write. Maybe something like this:
. . . My case with Prince Jabłonowski will end up in court. I will defend myself, which is why I am now writing my remarks, in which I attempt to prove that the books and the information therein contained are a common good. For they belong to no one, and at the same time to everyone, just like the sky, the air, the smell of flowers and the beauty of the rainbow. Can you steal from someone the knowledge he has amassed for himself from other books?
Now that he finds himself in Lwów, he has ended up in the very center of the disputat
ion. The bishop is busy, the whole town is eagerly preparing, and no one has the time to work on behalf of Father Benedykt’s cause. So he has stayed here with the Bernardines, going to every hearing of the Jews, taking notes, and writing them up bit by bit in his letters to Mrs. Drużbacka.
. . . You were asking what I have actually witnessed myself, and so I ask you in turn, Your Ladyship, would you have been able to stand, or even to sit, in one place for as long as I sat there? You can take it from me that the hearing was incredibly boring, and that everyone was only interested in one thing: Are the Jews in need of Christian blood?
Father Gaudenty Pikulski, a learned Bernardine of the Lwów order, a professor of theology, and a gentleman “highly trained in the Hebrew tongue,” did a wonderful job. He and Father Awedyk wrote up the whole Lwów hearing and added to it all the information we have these days from all kinds of books and records. With evident erudition, he put the question of ritual murder to detailed analysis.
In support of the accusation of these Contra-Talmudists, he attempted to provide further evidence, drawn mainly from the manuscript of one Serafinowicz, the rabbi of Brześć Litewski, who in 1710 in Żółkiew was baptized and, having publicly confessed that in Lithuania he himself twice committed ritual murder, described all the evils and blasphemies that the Jews commit throughout the year, according to the order of their holy days. These secrets of the Talmudists were already fully published by Serafinowicz himself, but all copies were bought up and burned by the Jews. The beginning of the agonies of Christian children with the distribution of their blood for consumption occurred just after Christ’s death, for the reason that I put to you here in a direct quote from Fathers Pikulski and Awedyk, Your Ladyship, lest you think I am inventing it all:
The Books of Jacob Page 57
