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62
JEWISH BOOK ANNUAL
T h e following story deals
with a devou t man, a Hasid,
who was so poo r as to be over
b o rn e by his poverty , may
Mercy deliver us, bu t who al
ways sat at the holy toil o f the
T o rah , because he kep t his
distance from the cu r ren t af
fairs o f the world; so he had
no commerce no r traffickings
no r dealings like o the r folks,
bu t found his entire delight in
God’s T o rah , both generally
revea led an d th a t which is
held secret, to wit, the lore o f
Kabbala. He served the Name
in awe and fear and love and
never th o u g h t o f acqu iring
hono r th rough study o r being
esteemed a scholar by himself
or others; no r yet o f his own
advantage in assuring himself
a p o r t io n o f the W o rld to
Come. He studied to fashion a
seat fo r the Divine Presence,
and to no o th e r end what
soever.
T he first th ing to note is something which does no t appear in
the translation at all. I t is found at the end o f the book, namely, a
glossary o f what Lask reg a rded as essential term inology fo r a
fundam en ta l unde rs tand ing o f Agnon’s
Bridal Canopy.
A su rp ris
ing num be r o f the term s are found in
Webster's International Dictio
nary,
Second Edition. I f we assume the book was aimed at an
average intelligent reade r o f English, why may we no t also assume
tha t an unab ridged dictionary was also available to him? A pp rox
imately fifty percent o f the term s m ight have been eliminated
since they could have been easily located in the dictionary. O ther
more abstruse ones not in
Webster's
should have been included.
Such words appearing in this passage, as “Hasid ,” “Divine Pres
ence,” “Schechina” and “Kabbala” would have been accessible or
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