When the visitors came in, our teacher, "Reb" Zorach, did not know what to do, or where he was to seat them. He took hold of the kitchen stool on which his wife salted the meat, and first of all spun round and round with it several times, and went up and down the whole length of the room. After this, he barely managed to place the stool on the floor when he sat down on it himself. But he at once jumped up again, greatly confused; and he caught hold of the back pocket of his long coat, just as if he had lost a purse of money.
"Here is a stool. Sit down," he said to his visitors.
"It's all right! Sit down, sit down," said my father to him. "We have come in to you, 'Reb' Zorach, only for a minute. This gentleman wants to examine my son—to see what he knows of the Bible."
And my father pointed to Hershel the Tax-collector.
"Oh, by all means! Why not?" answered the teacher, "Reb" Zorach. He took up a little Bible, and handed it to Hershel the Tax-collector. The expression on his face was as if he were saying: "Here it is for you, and do what you like."
Hershel the Tax-collector took the Bible in his hand like a man who knows thoroughly what he is doing. He twisted his little head to one side, closed one eye, turned and turned the pages, and gave me to read the first chapter of the "Song of Songs."
"Is it the 'Song of Songs'?" asked my teacher, with a faint smile, as if he would say: "Could you find nothing more difficult?"
"The 'Song of Songs,'" replied Hershel the Tax-collector. "The 'Song of Songs' is not as easy as you imagine. One must undehstand the 'Song of Songs.'" (Hershel could not pronounce the letter R but said H.)
"Certainly," put in Shalom-Shachno, with a little laugh.
The teacher gave me a wink. I went over to the table, shook myself to and fro for a minute, and began to chant the "Song of Songs" to a beautiful melody, first introducing this commentary on it:—