Page 149 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

"God is letting it happen," Rivka said. "But there is
a reason. We cannot see it yet. Like the binding of
Isaac. My father always said that the universe is a great
circle and we—we only see a small piece of the arc.
God is no monster, whatever you think now. There is
a reason."
Hannah scuffed the ground with her foot. "We should
fight," she said. "We should go down fighting."
Rivka smiled sadly. "What would we fight with?"
"With guns."
"We have no guns."
"With knives."
"Where are our knives?"
"With—with something."
Rivka put her arm around Hannah's shoulder. "Come.
There is more work to be done."
"Work'is not fighting."
"You want to be a hero, like Joshua at Jericho, like
Samson against the Philistines." She smiled again.
"I want to. be a hero like . . ." Hannah thought a
minute but she could think of no one.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
.
.
"My mother said, before she . . died . . that it is
much harder to live this way and to die this way than
to go out shooting. Much harder. Chaya, you are a hero.
I am a hero." Rivka stared for a moment at the sky
and the curling smoke. "We are all heroes here."

That night Fayge began to speak, as if the words so
long dammed up had risen to flood. She told a story

142