Then I
would go on eying him until he bribed me off with a piece of the
tidbit. If staring alone proved futile I might try to bring him to
terms by naming all sorts of loathsome objects. At this it
frequently happened that the prosperous boy threw away his
cookie from sheer disgust, whereupon I would be mean enough to
pick it up and to eat it in triumph, calling him something
equivalent to "Sissy."
The compliments that were paid my brains were ample
compensation for my mother's struggles. Sending me to work was
out of the question. She was resolved to put me in a Talmudic
seminary. I was the "crown of her head" and she was going to
make a "fine Jew" of me. Nor was she a rare exception in this
respect, for there were hundreds of other poor families in our town
who would starve themselves to keep their sons studying the
Word of God
Whenever one of the neighbors suggested that I be apprenticed to
some artisan she would flare up. On one occasion a suggestion of
this kind led to a violent quarrel
One afternoon when we happened to pass by a bookstore she
stopped me in front of the window and, pointing at some huge
volumes of the Talmud, she said: "This is the trade I am going to
have you learn, and let our enemies grow green with envy.
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