Page 76 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Makova

Bialystok, Vilna, Grodno, and other towns with large Jewish
populations at that time, known to Jews the world over, were on the
route. Vilna, Lomza, Slobodka, and Kovna were then great centers
of Jewish learning. Like Salamanca in Spain, known for its
universities, youth converged on these towns to acquire knowledge.
Wisoka and Makova were minor schools, branches of the great yeshiva
of Lomza. After being in Wisoka for six months, we decided to travel
to Makova, considered a higher institution. My cousin David was not
of such a sharp mind, and neither was I so bright as to have to search
for higher teachers; it was just the restlessness of the young mind,
which does not know where to turn or unconsciously seeks a
foundation for its future existence. I never hoped, wished, or
anticipated making my Talmudical knowledge the means for making
a living through the rabbinical profession as my mother prayed and
hoped, or by marrying a girl whose parents would support me while I
sat and studied in the bet hamidrash. After the first six months away
from home, meeting boys from different cities, where Chasidism is
not as prevalent as in Warsaw and piety not as strictly observed, the
seeds of inquiry and questioning had been planted in my mind. To be
away from home meant more freedom to act and not follow
scrupulously all the laws of religious orthodoxy.
David and I had decided to go to Makova. That city was not on a
railroad line, so we watched for wagons going there, the cheapest way
to travel. The highway that passed by the front of our dwelling was
traveled by covered wagons, heavy schooners pulled by four horses,
hauling foodstuffs and general merchandise to towns north of
Warsaw. The roads in that country were not paved, as we see in this
country. They were of cobblestones or crushed rock, and full of
potholes which, at every turn in the road, would throw one’s body
from one side of the wagon to the other, as the creaking vehicle
shook the life out of its human cargo—for, beside freight, the
wagons carried dozens of passengers who would sit on the soft sacks
of rice, buckwheat, beans, rice, and raisins. The owners of those
wagons were all hard-working strong Jews, who themselves loaded all
the heavy sacks and barrels of kerosene, paint, and other wares for
the stores in towns bordering the highway.

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