Perspective: An Extra Pair of T'fillin
Grossman, Joel
PERSPECTIVE AN EXTRA PAIR OF T'FILLIN JOEL GROSSMAN It was a bris (circumcision) in Fargo that first brought Reb Itzikel to the Jorgensens. He had been sitting in his tiny synagogue...
...When he returned to Grand Forks he announced his retirement...
...He quickly recited his traditional offer of payment...
...The rebbe needed to take the quickest route to Fargo, even if it meant staying with non-Jews...
...Eight days from birth and no more...
...In spite of the good opinions of Charlie and the Blumenthals, it was with some trepidation that Reb Itzikel knocked on Tom and Inga Jorgensen's door late that afternoon...
...The story he tells is true...
...In addition there were special trips: a funeral here, a wedding there, and once in a while Reb Itzikel's favorite: a bris...
...Yes, Rebbe," Charlie answered, "Nice people...
...Reb Itzikel thought...
...You poor man," she said kindly...
...After that discussion the rabbi never worried about eating at the Jorgensens...
...Good soup," said Sarah, while her husband kicked her under the table...
...They arrived early in the morning on the eighth day of Tom Cohen's life...
...He walked into the yard to pray...
...Tall, muscular, blonde, blue-eyed...
...Inga's curiosity was not satisfied, but she listened to her husband...
...Yes, Rebbe," she said, "you can pay me for your lodging...
...She advised him that she was thoroughly aware of what ingredients she could use to cook the chicken, and showed him her special pots and pans which she kept just for Reb Itzikel's meat meals, and her special set for Reb Itzikel's dairy meals (Reb Itzikel had never been with her for Passover...
...Both Reb Itzikel and Tom Jorgensen were stunned...
...I know, Inga, but I'm tired and now I must rest...
...Rebbe, forgive me, but I must know...
...Reb Daniel's first night at the Jorgensens was as pleasant as Reb Itzikel had promised...
...It had gone on this way, year in and year out, for thirteen years...
...The woman who opened the door was the healthiest woman Reb Itzikel had ever seen...
...But Rebbe," Charlie answered, "I thought you liked staying only by Jews...
...He put aside his plans for a leisurely trip around the circuit and resolved to take the "Jorgensen short-cut...
...After thirteen years of silence she had decided it was now or never...
...At the end of every visit the rabbi would offer to pay for his lodging...
...A short time later the rabbi was prepared to go...
...Shortly after Becky Cohen's wedding Reb Daniel rode out of Fargo heading East...
...She smiled and went to cook breakfast...
...But you see Rebbe, I too have arthritis...
...Never, though, did they ask about his t'fillin...
...His territory covered both the Dakotas and a good hunk of Canada...
...As far as I know not anti-Semites...
...So it began...
...Finally, this was after all 1875, and the Dakotas were not exactly barren of anti-Semitism...
...He showed them his collection of ritual knives—some for kosher slaughtering, some for circumcisions...
...But he spent an especially long time reciting the Traveler's Prayer...
...said Inga Jorgensen, smiling broadly...
...Second, he could do his job— after all he was a rabbi and without Jews to teach, to comfort or to slaughter meat for, he wasn't working...
...Also, they wished to supervise her while she cooked it, to be certain she used only specified ingredients...
...In the morning he lingered in bed, a little worried...
...Tom Cohen's oldest sister, Becky, was to be married in Fargo...
...To say he slept with one eye open would be only half true...
...Please leave me a pair of your arthritis boxes...
...Under the circumstances, however, he had no choice...
...It wouldn't...
...They sent us soup last winter when Sarah was sick...
...Reb Itzikel blanched...
...There were, after all, Jews in the world who needed them...
...As a circuit-riding rabbi he had done much traveling...
...He wired the yeshiva to send a replacement, and a young graduate was quickly dispatched...
...Reb Itzikel and Charlie were offered the warmest spot in the house, next to the fireplace...
...They all shared a big breakfast and, after warm farewells, Charlie and the rebbe set out for Fargo...
...v "But Rebbe," Inga cried out (by now she used the Yiddish version of his title) "You have so much more to teach us...
...He completed the circuit at least once a year...
...Reb Itzikel opened his file box of maps and began to pore over one with Talmudic intensity...
...Those straps and boxes you put on each morning, what are they for...
...Inga surprised him...
...They slept soundly...
...Look Charlie," he said, pointing...
...Reb Daniel was so stunned that he could not speak...
...Forgive me God, he said silently, but I'm in no mood to teach this morning...
...If we cut through this farm here we can save maybe two days...
...While his wife was preparing food and clothing for the trip to Fargo, Reb Itzikel quickly finished checking the t'fillin...
...Another time he explained in detail the laws of kashrut...
...Surely he could find another pair for Tom...
...Now Reb Itzikel was growing old and he would soon retire...
...Finally he rose and dressed and donned his t'fillin...
...Mrs...
...Take them, with my blessing...
...Then he saw her...
...Jorgensen cook it, though the rabbi would slaughter it...
...Tom had told Inga that it was rude to ask a man what he said when he prayed, and just as rude to ask him about what he wore when he prayed...
...Before leaving the next morning, the rabbi remembered where he would be spending his second night, and he asked them about the Jorgensens...
...The Cohen bar mitzvah was a huge success, but all the singing and dancing confirmed Reb Itzikel's feelings that he was, indeed, too old to continue...
...Of course, Inga, it's the least I can do...
...As Becky was due to give birth at any moment, time was of the essence and Reb Daniel needed to take the quickest route to Fargo...
...How could he give this woman a pair of kosher t'fillin...
...Charlie," the rebbe asked, "Do you know these Jorgensens...
...Reb Itzikel hesitated...
...shouted Charlie, whose wife had been expecting any day now for weeks...
...He also told Reb Daniel about all the congregants, the good and the bad...
...Then Daniel remembered that his predecessor, Reb Itzikel, had spent many nights with the Jorgensens...
...It was not too long before Reb Daniel made use of this advice...
...A wedding could be planned, but a bris was something else...
...The rabbi joined Sarah's hearty laughter...
...I know you always carry extras...
...The dinner was delicious, and the conversation delightful...
...Inga went on: "Not money, of course, we'd never take your money...
...Besides, who would ever know...
...Unless they took the shortcut through the Jorgensen farm they might arrive on the ninth, even the tenth day...
...Would they laugh at him...
...Silently he said, *'God forgive me," and handed her the t'fillin...
...When staying with non-Jews he was always nervous...
...Never, ever, had he seen a woman wearing t'fillin, let alone a blonde, blue-eyed shiksa in the middle of North Dakota...
...Inga looked up from her potatoes and turned to Reb Daniel with a look of deep sympathy in her eyes...
...After all, who knows what false friends these anti-Semites can be...
...He embraced Inga and Tom and rode away...
...the names of its people and places have been changed...
...Reb Itzikel spent many hours helping his replacement, Reb Daniel, learn the ins and outs of his circuit...
...His answer was always the same: "Where the shiksas wear t'fillin, who needs a rabbi...
...Ya, but it wouldn't be the same, Rebbe," Inga replied...
...Whenever he traveled Reb Itzikel liked to stay with Jews for three reasons: first, he could get kosher food...
...A new rabbi will be sent to take my place and I'll tell him to stay with you whenever he travels to Fargo...
...He was tired, and it was already late, and he didn't want to make a long explanation...
...To his wife he spoke only one: "Pack...
...After all, who was he to judge...
...These things," he told Inga, "are for arthritis...
...Inga and Tom began to look forward to these visits...
...Joel Grossman is an attorney who lives in Seattle...
...Reb Itzikel spoke only two words to Charlie: "Mazel tov...
...after thirteen years, a mere formality...
...So thoroughly did Reb Itzikel like the Jorgensens, and so thoroughly did they like him, that he began to take the "Jorgensen short-cut" whenever he went to Fargo...
...Jorgensen, fascinated, immediately agreed to these rather bizarre requests...
...She was right...
...In the morning Reb Itzikel put on his t'fillin and recited the morning prayers, to the amazement of Tom and Inga...
...To Daniel's amazement, Inga presented him with a live chicken and asked that he slaughter it properly...
...He was often asked in later years why he left his circuit-riding congregation so soon after arriving...
...Had not this woman fed him and sheltered him off and on for thirteen years...
...Surely they had seen him in his t'fillin...
...Treife, but good...
...He explained his filing system, his catalogue of births and deaths, his collection of maps and his sacred knives...
...Inga and Tom were so full of thoughtful, probing questions and so eager to learn that they reminded Reb Itzikel of the Wise Son at the Passover Seder...
...Finally, he told Reb Daniel about the "Jorgensen short-cut," and the splendid people Daniel might stay with on his way to Fargo...
...At the first town with a train station, he sold his horse and bought a ticket for New York...
...In the morning he woke up a little later than usual...
...Charlie did the talking...
...Pharoah too pretended to love the Jews...
...He reminded himself that many of our enemies had been fair of face but evil-hearted, and he resolved to keep his guard up...
...Some Americans thought her people strange as well...
...They spent the first night of the journey at Moses and Sarah Blumenthal's, where they feasted on stuffed cabbage and fresh chicken, slaughtered by the rabbi himself...
...The Jorgensens would never accept, saying it was a sin to take money from a holy man...
...Let's hope," said Reb Itzikel...
...He had never been seen by non-Jews in his t'fillin...
...Over dinner he told them that this would be his last trip to Fargo, and the last time he would stay with them...
...Worse yet, would they think he was some kind of demon communicating with the dead...
...The extra pair in his saddlebags was to be Tom Cohen's bar mitzvah present...
...They would repeat this discussion each time the rabbi said goodbye...
...It had taken Charlie three days to reach Grand Forks, and if the bris was to be performed on the eighth day they would have to hurry...
...she made him think of a Norse goddess...
...On the other hand, he reasoned, how could he refuse...
...As always, he stopped at the Jorgensens on his way...
...Like good actors, they recited their lines time after time with great sincerity...
...As he walked out of the room he thought to himself, knowing Reb Itzikel, he's probably explained to them what t'fillin are for...
...The travelers and their hosts spoke avidly about their crops, the weather, philosophy and religion...
...He decided that his next trip to Fargo— for Tom Cohen's bar mitzvah— would be his last...
...He stared at her for several moments, but still he could not speak...
...When Inga asked Tom how wearing leather straps could help the rabbi talk to God, Tom shrugged and told her, "That's between the two of them...
...He and the rabbi needed a place to spend the night...
...There's so much more I need to know...
...After all, who was she to judge the strange ways of these wanderers...
...Norwegians...
...To go this way we'd have to stay by Jorgensen...
...Reb Itzikel could only shake his head...
...Nothing excited him more than, as he put it, "turning a little boy into a little Jew with one quick stroke...
...Inga followed...
...After dinner there was more talk and much laughter...
...Seated at the kitchen table, a benign smile on her face while she peeled potatoes, was Inga Jorgensen wearing t'fillin...
...Comforted by this thought, he quickly dressed and donned his t'fillin...
...If he told her the truth—that Jews were commanded to make a sign on their arms and place frontlets between their eyes—she might not understand...
...So young to have arthritis...
...He lingered in bed, trying to delay his departure as long as possible...
...Each time the rebbe came he taught them something new about his strange religion...
...They also wished to purchase a chicken and have Mrs...
...The rabbi was embarrassed as Inga demanded a full, clinical account of the latter, but he gave it to her...
...PERSPECTIVE AN EXTRA PAIR OF T'FILLIN JOEL GROSSMAN It was a bris (circumcision) in Fargo that first brought Reb Itzikel to the Jorgensens...
...Good people, Rebbe, very good," said Moses Blumenthal...
...Convinced of their purity, he threw them and several other pairs into the saddlebags...
...Reb Daniel ate well and slept soundly...
...Reb Itzikel had heard stories of traveling Jews murdered in their sleep by outwardly friendly farmers...
...Reb Itzikel and Charlie Cohen saddled up and set out for Fargo...
...He had been sitting in his tiny synagogue checking a pair of t'fillin when Charlie Cohen rushed in breathlessly: "It's a boy...
Vol. 5 • April 1980 • No. 4
