Satan in Goray Read Online Free PDF

of Israel... at the gates of the Holy Temple."
    A traveling man who used to visit Goray yearly even before 1648 passed along the news that in Volhynia Jews were dancing for joy in the streets. They had stopped buying houses and sewing heavy overcoats, since it would be warm in the Land of Israel. In-laws-to-be were postponing weddings, so as to be able to raise the bridal canopy in Jerusalem. In Narol the young men had begun to study the Jerusalem Talmud, in preference to the Babylonian, and a rich man in Masel-Bozhitz had divided his possessions among the poor.
    An ascetic who ate no meat, drank no wine, slept on a hard bench, and journeyed over the world on foot, related that a prophet named Reb Nehemiah ha-Cohen had arisen in Poland Minor. He wore a haircloak over his bare skin, and, prophesying, would fall face down to the earth, emitting cries that were more than human. Reb Nehemiah foretold that the Jews were soon to foregather from all the corners of the earth, and the dead would rise from their graves. The greatest rabbis and men of genius believed in this prophet and gave him tokens of their esteem.
    But he who raised the tumult in Goray to its highest pitch was a certain rabbinical legate, a Jew from Yemen.
    It was midwinter, early one January evening. All day a wind had been blowing, driving hills of snow and piling them up in front of the houses--blue, glassy, filling the air with dust, as in a field. Crows waddled about on their short feet, picked at a frozen cat, cawed with their crooked beaks, and flew low in the air to exercise their wings. Few windowpanes remained whole in their frames, and on these grew complicated frost patterns of trees that seemed to have been turned upside down by the storm, their stocks broken. The roofs hung low, stooping to the earth, and a column of milk-white smoke spiraled from every chimney, as though boring into the sky. God's stars trembled brighter and larger than usual, sparkling green and blue in the atmosphere. Circled by three pearl halos that reflected all the colors of the rainbow, a yellow moon, like an eye, looked down at the Jews hurrying to their afternoon prayers. Suddenly the sharp clanging of a bell was heard in the market place, and a sleigh drove up. A man with a snow-covered beard and long earlocks got out. He was wearing a red turban and a fur coat turned inside out. Darting fiery glances everywhere with his black eyes, he asked: "Where is the study house?"
    The newcomer appeared in the holy place between the afternoon and evening prayers. His arrival created a sensation. He stopped at the threshold, where he pulled off his felt shoes and stood in stockinged feet. Afterward, lie removed his outer garment, revealing a long smock black-striped like a prayer shawl, and girdled about with an embroidered sash. Washing his hands and feet for a long time at the copper water tap, the newcomer recited a benediction in a language that sounded like Aramaic. Then, ascending the dais with measured step, he turned his face to the eastern wall, and cried out in a trembling voice: "Judeans, I come to bring you good tidings! >From Jerusalem our holy city!"
    The newcomer's arrival immediately became known in town, and a throng came running to the study house. Womenfolk mingled with menfolk, young men and girls stood up together on reading stands and tables. Everyone gaped and listened. The stranger spoke in a broken voice, one that seemed to be full of tears: "Judeans," he said, "I come from our holy land. I am a pure-blooded Sephardi. I have been sent by my brothers into the Exile, to tell you that the Great Fish that lurks in the river Nile has succumbed at the hands of Sabbatai Zevi, our Messiah and holy king.... His kingship will soon be revealed, and he will take the sultan's crown from off his head.... The Jews from the other side of the river Sambation are ready and waiting for the battle of Armageddon.... The lion that dwelleth on high will descend from Heaven, in his