Women's Minyan (3 page)

SHAINE RUTH
: That she was a terrible mother, that we didn’t love her, that she didn’t keep a kosher kitchen?! Don’t you even remember that, once, she was the most wonderful mother in the world?

BLUMA
: [
bitterly.
] No. That’s not what I remember.

SHANIE RUTH
: [
grabbing her sister’s shoulders.
] She knew we were lying then. And she’ll know it now. You know it’s impossible to lie to
Ima.

BLUMA
: [
shaken, suddenly frightened and guilty.
] We only did what they told us to do, Rav Aaron, Father…Granny. They said sometimes a lie can be a good deed, like the lie Jacob told to Isaac to get his blessing.

SHAINE RUTH
: It’s her! She’s here! Are you going to open the door?

BLUMA
: [
helplessly.
] If she’d only just disappear! If the earth would just open up and swallow her, like it did to Korach!

SHAINE RUTH
: [
running to the door and opening it.
]
Ima
?

TOVAH
: Why are you pushing me?

ETA
: I’m not; I’m just faster.

TOVAH
:
Er iz, zayt mir moykhl, a mentsh
. (
i.e.
“Her entire personality says please forgive me.”)

ETA
:
Keyner zet nisht zayn eygenem hoyker
(i.e. “We are blind to our own defects.”)

SHAINE RUTH
: [relieved and let down.] Oh, it’s you. Shalom.

TOVAH
: [
with false sweetness.
] Shaine Ruth, sweetheart.

I’m so sorry to bother you. Perhaps, maybe, you have a little cooking oil Eta could borrow?

ETA
: I was just in the middle of making a compote…

TOVAH
: [
elbowing her out of the way.
] What compote?

ETA
: Let me explain. I’m already explaining!

TOVAH
: You’re all mixed up. I’ll explain.

ETA
: I got mixed up because you’re interrupting me. [
to
SHAINE RUTH
] Eta was in the middle of the compote—

TOVAH
: The potato kugel.

ETA
: Yes, right, when suddenly I realized I was running out of vinegar…[
to
TOVAH
.] Why are you pinching me?

SHAINE RUTH
: Vinegar for potato kugel?

BLUMA
: Maybe tell us already what it is you want?

TOVAH
: Oil.

ETA
: Right. That’s what I wanted to say!

SHAINE RUTH
: I’ll go see. [
she turns to go.
]

BLUMA
: [
stopping her.
] There’s no need. We’re also out of vinegar.

SHAINE RUTH
: [
laughing and whispering.
] Oil.

BLUMA
: We’re out of that too.

ETA
: How do you know? You don’t even live here anymore. [
turning with an ingratiating smile to
SHAINE RUTH
] Shaine-leh…

BLUMA
: [
cutting her short.
] Why don’t you try the Goldbergs?

ETA
: No one answers the door over there.

SHAINE RUTH
: (
whispering to
BLUMA
.) Because everyone is too busy looking out of their windows…

ETA
: Right.

TOVAH
: Right what?

ETA
: Right this minute I wanted to go down to Weis in the grocery. My husband, Shlomo, God bless him, loves potato kugel so much—but it’s impossible to get out of the building because of all the men hanging around outside. Could it be, maybe, you might have an idea, why?

SHAINE RUTH
: They were sent by the Rabbi, Rav—

BLUMA
: [
silencing her.
] Please, excuse us. [
as in “excuse me, I’ve got to get going…”
] We’re waiting for our Granny….

SHAINE RUTH
: [catching on.]—and we haven’t finished straightening up yet. So if you’ll excuse us….

TOVAH
: We can help you with something, maybe? [
she picks something off the floor, her eyes roaming for new opportunities.
]

BLUMA
: There’s no need, really. Thank you. [
BLUMA
takes the object out of
TOVAH’S
hand and finds a place for it.
]

ETA
: It must be so hard for you without your Mother.

TOVAH
: [
pretending to be casual, but intensely interested.
] How is she, by the way? Have you heard from her?

ETA
: Outside they are saying—

BLUMA
: We don’t listen to gossip.

TOVAH
: Very good! It’s a terrible sin to listen to loose tongues.

ETA
: Just because all Meah Shearim is talking about her, doesn’t mean a thing.

TOVAH
: By me in my ritual baths, I never allow idle gossip.

ETA
: God forbid! But maybe its best for them to be prepared,
farshteyst
(understand)?

TOVAH
: I, for one, do not believe that Chana is going to come here dressed like a slut—

SHAINE RUTH
: What!!!

TOVAH
:—even though it wouldn’t be the first time. She’s already been seen that way.

SHAINE RUTH
: By whom?!

TOVAH
: People.

SHAINE RUTH
: When?

ETA
: She’s been seen. Walking around in a red mini skirt—and cleavage between her toes in open sandals.

TOVAH
:—with her hair uncovered.

ETA
:—on Ben Yehuda Street.

SHAINE RUTH
: [
shocked.
] Who told you such a thing?

TOVAH
: [
with the pretense of sorrow.
] Rebbitzen Fishbein.

SHAINE RUTH
: And you believe her? You, who had to get mother’s approval on what kind of knot to make in your headscarf? You asked her advice on everything.

TOVAH
: What do you want from me? It’s not me who’s spreading these stories.

BLUMA
: [
aside, sarcastically.
] Of course not.

TOVAH
: [
indicating
ETA
.] She said her husband heard it from Rav Aaron himself!

SHAINE RUTH
: That just can’t be…. We know our mother….

BLUMA
: She wouldn’t dare come here dressed like that!

SHAINE RUTH
: What? You believe them? That mother, our mother, paraded herself down the street dressed like they say?!

TOVAH
: [
triumphant
.] If Rebbitzen Fishbein told Rebbitzen Klein, who is Rivkeleh’s—Eta’s daughter’s—Torah teacher, that her husband, Rav Fishbein, heard it in
synagogue
from a yeshiva boy who is very close to Rav Aaron himself, and he heard it from the assistant beadle who saw her with his own eyes walking down Ben Yehuda street in a red mini skirt, then who are we to doubt it?!

SHAINE RUTH
: The assistant beadle told it to Rebbitzen Fishbein?

TOVAH
: To the yeshiva boy.

ETA
: His friend…

SHAINE RUTH
: The yeshiva boy told it to Rebbitzen Fishbein?

TOVAH
: To the Rav.

ETA
: Fishbein.

TOVAH
: Right.

ETA
: What’s right?

TOVAH
: That’s right,—

SHAINE RUTH
: [
interrupting.
] No! None of it’s right. It’s all wrong, all lies, stories, idle gossip. [
to
BLUMA
.] Don’t you remember how strict
Ima
was with us? How she checked that our elbows were always covered, and our blouses buttoned up to our chins? It just can’t be!

BLUMA
: It can’t be? They are telling you that it came from Rav Aaron himself! Would you accuse Moses of lying? Eliahu the Prophet of lying? We are just women. There are things we can’t understand. We’re just not on their level.

ETA
: Wise like her mother.

TOVAH
: [
to
BLUMA
,
commiserating.
] What
mazal
that he stopped her from coming to your wedding.

BLUMA
: [
angry.
] Mrs. Klein!!

ETA
: After she ruined your match with—[
indicating window.
]

BLUMA
: How do you know about that?!

SHAINE RUTH
: [
surprised.
]
Ima
wanted to come to your wedding? But Rav Aaron and Father told us that she didn’t want to see us!

BLUMA
: [
glowering angrily at
TOVAH
,
to
SHAINE RUTH
.] What she wanted was to ruin it, Shaine Ruth. What she wanted was to put on her festive wig and dance at my wedding like nothing happened.

ETA
: [
to
SHAINE RUTH
.] So Rav Aaron advised your father to take out a restraining order against her,
farshteyst?

BLUMA
: Mrs. Klein! The wise know what they say; fools say what they know.

SHAINE RUTH
: [
confused, broken.
] So she
did
want to come to your wedding…

ETA
:
Avaadah
(of course).

SHAINE RUTH
: She wanted to see us…

TOVAH
: What a racket those men make! You should close the windows. It will frighten the children.

TOVAH
: [
noticing their discomfort.
] Where are the children?

ETA
: Shimmy wasn’t in kindergarten with my Yaakov this morning. Is he sick?