From The Wedding by Joseph Levine Chapter 13

From The Wedding
Chapter 13
by Joseph Levine

I arrived at Grodna and looked for a tailor.
I fell in with a poor countryman.

I inquired around Grodna about my father and his brother, my uncle. When I found my uncle, he took me into his home. He had several children, so I had to sleep on the ground.

Since my uncle was a small town tailor, right after Yom Tov, he took me into town where he worked. He intended to teach me the trade there. He would not have the expense of feeding me because they fed the tailors there. We worked the few days until Yom Kippur.

I saw that my uncle was very poor, so I realized that I could not stay there. My uncle's cousin, who lived in a small town, came to my uncle for the holidays. Afterward, when she went home, she took me along. I stayed with her until after Succos.

After Succos I told her that I had arranged to return to Grodna where I would become an apprentice to a tailor. I accepted the fact that I would not be a teacher so it would be best if I were to become a skilled worker. The Talmud says that tailoring is an easy and clean occupation.

I remembered that my parents had had a tenant who was a tailor. He sewed women's dresses and it looked like an enjoyable profession.

I arrived in Grodna and proceeded to look for a tailor. I entered a women's tailor's shop and asked if they needed an assistant. They said that they did not. Then I went to a shop that sold men's clothes. Again I announced,
"Is anyone looking for a young trainee?"
He told me,
"Yes, we are looking for someone. Bring him in."
I said,
"I don't have to bring him in. I am him."
He looked me up and down and asked,
"From where are you and what do you want?"
So I told him my story. I also told him that I was not settled. I told him that my uncle was a small town tailor and that I wanted to train to become a professional tailor.

The gentleman called over a young trainee who worked for him and said,
"Here is a young man who is perfect for your father. Take him to your father. He will be perfectly suited for him."

The boy took me to his father on Sinai Street in a small home. Actually, the house itself would not be considered so small, had it not been divided into four divisions. The first portion was a "ladegair". A simple, long wooden bench was placed in that room for the three women who did the cooking. It was a sort of kitchen. Next to this were an open doorway and a second section. In that room was a bed and a table. The table occupied the width of the room. At the door there was a shoe repair table and two benches for the owner and for his young worker. His wife was a small, dark-haired woman with small, dark eyes. She was toothless. She had a child in her arms.

The tailor that I was to work with was found in the third section of the house. There was a bed in one corner. In the other corner there was a "kanapke". In the middle of the room was a long table that occupied the entire width of the room. In the length was only one way to get in. Once you were in, you were forced to sit down by the table to work. There was no room to move around. I stayed there to work. I ended up sleeping on the "kanapke". The woman with the three-year-old slept in the bed. The man slept on the table.

The fourth section had a large oven. There was something made of wood that was used as a bed for the other woman and her 12 year old son. The woman was a very attractive woman whose husband was working in Odessa. He seemed to have forgotten her address.

The tailor I was working for was a tall, thin man with a long face, an orange beard, and pretty, smart eyes. He immediately took to me. His wife was a sight to behold. She had very strange colored hair. It was neither dark nor light. She was practically blind and had to squint to look at you. In general, she was very unappealing to look at.

I stayed with this tailor, which meant that I finally had a place to stay. So I immediately sent a letter to my mother telling her that I had arrived in Grodna and was staying with this tailor for a while. I hoped to wait a while before going to get my "pass". I also asked her if she could possibly send me 5 rubles. As soon as she received the letter, she immediately sent me the 5 rubles.

When the tailor saw that I received 5 rubles from home, for which he had to work at least two whole weeks to earn, he realized that I was not just anybody. He also saw that I was learned in Talmud. He was also quite learned. We used to get up at 3 A.M. to go to the synagogue to study and pray. After praying, we would return to the house to begin working. We hit if off very well.

He made sure that I did everything perfectly. He was very pleased with my work. This resulted in my receiving one ruble a week, plus food.

The food that he gave me was really food money. He gave me three kopecks every morning. I went out and bought white bread for two kopecks. I really could not stand black bread and never ate it. In fact, I rarely ate bread at home, but here I was forced to eat bread. With the third kopeck, I bought a herring or some butter or, sometimes, cheese. At night I ate a warm meal prepared for me by his wife. But, G-d forbid, there was never any meat. If you were not a millionaire, you did not eat meat during the week (except for Shabbos) in Lithuania.

The first two nights, I slept on the "kanapke" on regular wood. For a pillow, I used the cutaway fabric from our work. The three women started to eye me strangely. Also the shoemaker's wife. They finally told me straight out that it was not proper for me to be sleeping on the "kanapke" and allow the tailor to sleep on the table. What was I supposed to do? So I ended up sleeping on the floor by the kitchen door. It was pretty darn cold! I put down some sort of a rug on the wet ground and for a pillow I again used some of the material from work. If there was no fabric around, I used whatever I could find. I covered myself with my coat. The wind would blow so hard that my feet would sometimes get frozen. This is how all the poor Lithuanian tailors lived.

This is how the first "prizivv" and they still had not called me. In a few weeks, we heard that in Amdur, three miles from Grodna, a Commissioner would be arriving on Shabbos to determine everybody's age. This Commissioner would travel to all the poor towns in the area.