The Rarity - the old Hasidic tale  written down by Stanisław Vincenz

The English version of the tale comes from the British edition of "On the High Uplands" published in 1955 in London. From Vincenz letters to a friend Mrs.Barcz we know that the writer wasn't satisfied with the choice of texts in this edition. He complains that nobody consulted the selection with him. Fortunately, there is a beautiful old Hasidic tale from the fourth part of the tetralogy "Barwinkowy Wianek". It is told in the inn of Jaworow by the balagula Bjumen and Mr. Karolcio. 

Bjumen was considered a great storyteller. Suddenly somebody in the inn called him a real rarity. It made Bjumen tell the story about the quiet Jewish tailor Pinkas who really was a rarity but let's listen to the tale:

This was a long ago, but it's true and it is a story over which many wise heads nodded. The point is that in Ostra there lived one quiet little Jew, a tailor named Pinkas. Pinkas believed in his Rabbi and always asked him about advice. Sometimes he even bored the rabbi but the great Rabbi was patient and replied to Pinkas: Yes-no, no-yes, not even raising his head from the book.

Every day Pinkas walked from his little street to the castle to do the tailoring for the illustrious Count. The Count was a good gentleman and very satisfied with Pinkas.

Pinkas made good - he had a wife and an abundance of children, but he always thought of nothing but his work. And Pinkas was satisfied with his Count too, who sometimes asked him politely about new clothes. On that occassions Pinkas answered briefly: Yes-no, no-yes, not even raising his head from his cutting-out.

The count understood: a master's a master and he shone with elegance. The fame of his costumes spread all over the world. Here it is important to mention one point: Pinkas wasn't only swift. He was also careful about folds. Whenever any fold appeared in the cloth he at once tracked it down.

The Count had relations everywhere and even the Emperor of Spain was his cousin. One day the Emperor wrote him a letter: "Dear cousin, God be with you. I have a great request to make of you. It's said that you have a Jew, a real Jew![...] So if it is true bring him along with you and I shall be very grateful. This is very important for me and for my subjects, as the Jew will be a real rarity[...]."

In this moment of the story Mr. Karolcio interrupted and mentioned:

"The striking thing is not so much that the Jew was a rarity, as Bjumen says. It's rather something else, the fact that there are unpleasant and wicked individuals whose very existence forces others in so much self-control, so much tasting of bitterness, so much digestion of unpleasant that they become almost saints. And that is exactly how the Emperor and his people conceived a Jew. They thought the Jew must be a terrible creature- a monster and they needed him for their own mortification."

Then Mr. Karolcio continued that the Count was delighted of the idea of travelling to Spain and presenting his magnificent costumes. Unfortunately, Pinkas wasn't so happy. In fact, he was horrified. He knew how Jews were tortured and exterminated there. In his despair he went for advice to his Rabbi. The Rabbi only smiled and said: "Go and take your death- shirt with you".

So what to do, he said goodbye to his family and departed with the Count more dead than alive. During the long journey Pinkas had an eye on the Count's clothes and kept them in the good condition but the state of his soul was less than miserable.

After many weeks of exhausting travel they came to Spain. The shore was crowded with people and the Emperor himself was waiting too. To the Count surprised everybody turned and pointed to Pinkas only, not on his costumes.

The Emperor took a long look at Pinkas and he seemed to be completely transformed. He thanked the Count for bringing the Jew- the greatest enemy of them - Christians and doing such a blessed service for the salvation of their souls. The Emperor explained that the holy faith commands them to love enemies.

What's more they started to bring Pinkas ducats, jewels, horses, and God knows what else. 

Poor Pinkas didn't realise what is going on. He began to smile, nod and bow without stopping and he melted before all eyes. Then he dropped with exhaustion. Fortunatelly the doctor cared of him and while he was recovering the disturbed Pope came personally to Spain to check Pinkas. With his sharp eye he gazed so piercingly that Pinkas felt pain under his liver. 

"And so this is a Jew"- said the Pope fiercely. - "This is an ordinary cheat, he is surely a fraud, who is sneering at you and your salvation. Your salvation is threatened!"

The assembled people swayed with a groan of horror. Pinkas swore that he was the truest of the Jews but there was no one who could check the truth of it. Only the Count angrily stated that if only anything happened to his own tailor, all his land would go over to Calvinism and he would raise the alarm in the Polish Sejm.

Meanwhile crowds of the poorest people started to cry: "The Jew! Give us the Jew! We want salvation!"

The Pope decided to give Pinkas the last chance to prove that he was a Jew. He made him climb the very high mountain. After coming back safe and sound Pinkas was supposed to tell the truth what he had seen there.

So what to do, Pinkas went up the mountain, into the wilderness. There he really was a rarity, a genuine rarity! There a man generally was a rarity. He kept climbing up days and nights. His death-shirt was wet and dry again and over again. But he didn't die. The higher he went, the more fearful it was as he could not see the hope of return.

Well, no one knows how long he scrambled the rocks, but at last he reached the top. And there, miracle of miracles, he noticed the stones laid carefully, like a table. It looked like the traces of human - it was the tomb of the highest priest Aaron and on the stone the sacred words were written. And something else was written there too, that he who came here would be free to say that word. He fell on his knee in prayer and raised his eyes to heaven. And then, far away he noticed that fold over all Spain and over the world... the terrible fold. Pinkas was terrified. He burst into tears, he prayed and asked God to remove that fold. Let God do with him and his family whatever God willed so long as that fold was unfolded. And - how it happened no one knows - the Lord God looked down on the poor tailor, and heard his prayer. Or perhaps 'He', the Rabbi intervened in the matter. Anyway, the fold spread out, was smoothed away; now all was clear, and joyous, and good in the world. And from this high spot Pinkas could see far, very far over God's world.

Then he calmly went down into the valley to the Emperor, to the Pope and his own Count. When Pinkas told the Pope all exactly to the last detail, the Pope was lost in thoughts and said: "My Jew, yes; that is all quite right. You are a Jew, and everything is in order. You can go your way and leave in peace. There is only one thing. Tell us: What do you desire? All your wishes will be fulfilled."

Pinkas the only wish was coming back home, to Ostra. And that happened. He wished the Emperor and the Pope "Eholem aleichem" and went to Poland.

In Ostra he ran straight to his Rabbi. The Rabbi was not asleep. "He knew all that happened, tore his eyes from his books, raised them to heaven and only said quietly: "But why didn't you wait longer? Don't you know that when that fold is over the world the Messiah is very close to the world?"

But Pinkas just went off to his family to sleep. 

So the old books write; and that is the true story of the Rarity." 

P.S. I shortened a little bit the English version of the tale about Pinkas  from "On the High Uplands" published by Hutchinson in London in 1955 (pages 268-282). I think Vincenz deliberately insisted on publishing this tale at the end of the English shortened edition of his tetralogy. Why? After the experience of WW II, it's pointless to explain.