"I beg pardon?"
"For instance, carry a few cans of water every day toward evening into the house-of-study, so that the students may have something to drink."
"Rabbi," he inquired further, "and my wife?"
"When a man sits on a chair in Paradise, his wife is his footstool."
———
When Chaïm went home to say Havdoleh, Hannah was sitting there reciting "God of Abraham." And when he saw her he felt a tug at his heart.
"No, Hannah," he flung his arms around her, "I won't have you be my footstool! I shall bend down to you and raise you and make you sit beside me. We shall sit both on one chair, just as we are doing now. We are so happy like that! Do you hear, Hannah? You and I, we are going to sit in a chair together ... the Almighty will have to allow it!"