Page 73 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Wisoka Mazovieck

his back is scratched, so did I enjoy that hot broom on the high
bench where the heat is intense, burning out all the little reddish
spots made by fleas and lice during the week with their proboscises.
The clothes on the line become crisp from the dry heat which, like
the Great Flood, destroys all living things. One feels good on the
Sabbath day with clean clothes and a meal with white challa. Real
happiness can only be found when we lack the things we wish, and
receive them only occasionally.
Most of the boys in the yeshiva came from other towns, far and
near, and returned to their homes at the end of the school season.
Some, who came from a great distance or had no parents, remained
for years. I had been waiting to go home from the day I had arrived
in Wisoka, but I didn’t have the railroad fare. My cousin David
Binshtock had been sent enough money by his parents to come
home, but my family was poor and my father, who did not like me
going away, did not correspond with me. It was the last day of school
when David bought his railway ticket, packed his few belongings, and
made ready to leave by horse and wagon for the station at
Shepetovka, which was about six miles from Wisoka, on the St.
Petersburg line. I went with him to the wagon, feeling abandoned
and lost, wanting to cry for my mama. Homesickness is similar to
stomach sickness: a throbbing around the heart and a drawing-in of
the stomach as if one were starving. At the last moment I made up
my mind to go home and jumped on the wagon. David paid the fare
to the station for me, and when the passenger train from St.
Petersburg made a short stopover at the little station, I stole a ride
home.
Living for six months without my parents’ supervision, eating
charity meals at strangers’ tables, and sneaking onto the train had
changed me a lot. When I got home my mother and sisters found me
a tough guy. Physically I had gained weight, because I had become
accustomed to plain food and had eaten plenty of it. I had become
more of a man of the world. As Bacon says, travel is one-quarter of
education. Meeting strange people where I was eating got me used to
looking straight in a person’s face, which I could not do before I left
Pelcovizna. I also got a lesson in self-reliance and frugal living. My
train rides got me recognized as a daring fellow in the bet hamidrash,
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