Seder at the Home of Leah
Yanke Hennes began to show a more friendly disposition towards Leah and her child, taking the child in his lap playfully quite frequently.
Now came Pesach [Passover], and Yanke Hennes ordered his wife, Hanna, to throw wide their doors and lay plans for an elaborate celebration. It was no easy task for a Jewish woman to bring Passover in the house. It meant four weeks of hard labor. It is the annual housecleaning of the spring season. Some rooms had to be scrubbed and redecorated, and some whitewashed. Washing and ironing had to be done and the entire house was turned topsy-turvy. There would be noise and tumult; even Tina the old servant for the past twenty years, who knew the laws of Kashrut observance to the minutest detail and the traditional rules about “kosher for Passover” this year felt much overworked.
Smukavery the yardsman had his grief too, for the courtyard, which was paved with rough cobblestones, had to be thoroughly cleansed of the winter dirt, and the stable, where the faithful family milk cow was housed, had to be especially cleaned for this week. Her bedding was of hay instead of straw, lest she find a kernel of oats in it, for during the week she had to be fed on vegetable peelings instead of grain meal diet. The old oaken water bucket at the stone plastered well had to be carefully cleansed of the accumulated dark green scum and all rust had to be removed from the iron bands, which had to assume a brighter color.
Yanke Hennes’ heart overflowed with joy at the ending of the war. It seemed to him that even nature had been rejuvenated. At home in Passover time nature bedecked the earth with a beautiful green carpet under which lay cuddled countless millions of new life germs. Zephyrs of perfume floated form fields and forests and swept into the newly cleansed and purified Jewish homes. Even the sky, overcast and cloudy all through the long winter, had cleared its angry brow for the Seder night. The “guarded night” appeared a deep blue with a brilliant moon and myriads of stars parading and illuminating it.
The way I see it, Ben Zion was apparently serving in the army after the official war ended.
The end of the Crimean War was in 1856. Ben Zion comes home after the war is over, but David is already born and a baby. Could he be referring to a different war?
Passover was about to come and Yanke Hennes benignly gave his wife instructions to be more liberal than ever before the Passover celebration.
On the morning before Passover, Yanke Hennes rose early, as was his custom, and went to the synagogue for morning prayers. A heavy snow had fallen during the night and it was still snowing hard and fast. Later the wind came from the north, a 30-mile-per-hour blast, chilling one to the bone. Yanke Hennes had a premonition that something unusual was going to happen in his house this Passover, and with this idea in his mind he was worried all day.
Not sure what "liberal" means. Provide more food?
Coming home from evening prayers in the synagogue, Yanke Hennes closed all the windows and shutters carefully, drew down all shades inside, and bolted all doors of the house before taking his seat at the table, for the “Damascus Blood Accusation” of 1840 was still fresh in the minds of European Jewry—regardless of the untiring efforts of Adolphe Cremieux, the French barrister, Solomon Munk, the Orientalist, and Sir Moses Montefiore of London. Though they had succeeded in averting a general massacre in Asia, there still was a smoldering volcano pouring the hot lava of anti-Semitic hate over all Europe, and local communities had to be very careful so as not to incite and to guard against mob violence which was a favorite pastime during Passover week.
Hesse bed: The expression is actually hesv bet. Hesv is the Hebrew for reclining, the preferred mode of seating at the seder, and bet implies that reclining normally takes place on a couch. It was the custom for the head of the family to use some form of couch for conducting seder.
Yanke Hennes was dressed in his best holiday attire for the Seder. The house was illuminated in royal splendor. Hanna, his wife, was well dressed with all her jewels and the children as well were clad for the occasion. At the head of the table was the “Hesse Bed” with cushions, giving it the appearance of a throne prepared for Yanke Hennes, for on this night he might play the king who conquered the tyrannical Egyptian pharaoh and had survived all dynasties of the kings who had held him in bondage.
No sooner had Yanke Hennes ended his Seder singing than there was a soft thud at the door. Yanke Hennes’ heart leaped to his throat for a moment and his face paled. He rose quickly and with a brave stride went to the bolted door to find out the cause of the alarm. A second, more harsh knock on the door was heard, and a voice was heard saying, “This is Ben-Zion! Open the door, do not be afraid, this is me!”
I don’t know how many poor Russian Jews in the Pale of settlement would have even known that the Damascus Blood Libel had happened, plus in historical time we seem to be in the late 1860s. Maybe we should take his general point that there was a fear of pogroms in general.
This may be one of David's insertions of history to provide back story... i.e., not precisely in the time flow of the storyline.
If you look at the scholarship on the Damascus event, the main idea is that Islamic countries had never had blood libels until 1840, so his phrase "averting a general massacre in Asia" and the "smoldering volcano" seems historically questionable (63 Jews were imprisoned in Damascus and I think freed within a year) and also purple prose.
With a trembling hand Yanke Hennes unbolted the door. He could hardly believe his own eyes when he beheld Ben-Zion standing there before him. There was an outcry in the room and Leah ran to meet him, falling in his embrace. They both wept and covered each other with kisses.
Ben-Zion explained that the breaking of two spokes in a wheel caused the stagecoach to stick in the mire. As the driver had no spare wheel he was forced to unhitch a horse and ride horseback to the nearest blacksmith shop, two miles distant, to bring a blacksmith to repair the wheel. "So we were marooned in the gumbo for six long hours in misery and that is the cause of our delay in getting to town on scheduled time," Ben-Zion explained.
Gumbo! A true Americanism out of place here.
Leah was quickly disillusioned and the light of joy soon left her eyes when she took a good look at her husband Ben-Zion, so shockingly changed and no more the man he was before. His cheeks were sunken, his eyes were dim, his entire frame weak and emaciated from the hunger and privation he had endured while in the service.The only thing he had gained during his four years in the army was knowledge of the tinsmith trade. He had become a good mechanic and, as an honorably discharged soldier, had full right to ply his trade anywhere in the empire. Thus he hoped to begin life anew.
"Four years": This confirms it is 1867 or 1868. David is four or five years old. Interestingly, Ben Zion’s mechanical ability is never mentioned again in the Diary.
Four years have passed in this elision.