The Last - Stanisław Vincenz' Hasidic story about the man who loved too much

Eugene Burnand- The Prodigy son / źródło: http://www.eugene-burnand.com

Stanisław Vincenz wrote seven Hasidic stories. They were his own versions of the legends and stories he probably heard from Jewish friends in his homeland the Hutsul region in the Eastern Carpathians but not only.

Vincenz is regarded to be the humanist of the 20 th century and as an erudate scholar he was an expert on the Jewish tradition and culture. According to dr Dorota Burder - Fischer, his Hasidic stories are unique and it is hard to find the equivalent ones in the literature. 

One of such a story is "The Last". It is about the man whose mercy and kindness were so enormous that could save the world.

This story is told in the last part of tetralogy "On the High Uplands" by the balagula Bjumen.

The Last used to have a lot of jobs. He was a tailor, a shoemaker, a glazier, a water-carrier. Everything he did, he did his best. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep these jobs because he was always too zealous, too polite, to merciful, too trustful, too humble ...

He was just the man who loved to much but let's listen to Bjumen's story: 

"The man who was last had turned his hand to everything - to water-carrying, cobbling, tailoring, and glazing; and everything was bad. Not at all bad really, only he was hot and impatient, and so he was the greatest of worriers. He worried terribly: this one's thirsty, that one is naked, the other's barefood, and the wind blows into another's room. He worried more and more; he worried over everything. Everything, you know that's not nothing. And so he became the most patient, and that made him the last.

At first he was a water carrier, he had to earn his living somehow. He walked stoutly, but he was the last, because he carried the water from a long way off, from the purest of springs[...]. He earned enough to live, for he ate as little as possible, and he was the last in that too. Nobody thought anything of him; not only the girls show no interest in him, even illness had no appetite for him. He was tall, thin and all bones. 

Finally he bought skins, some glass, and cloth. And what of it? He trusted people; they stole all the skins from him. He was polite and he stepped out of the way; so he fell under a cart, and all his glass was broken. Lambs came down shivering with cold from the upland, and he made them jackets. What sort of tailor was he? For lambs. He was the very last."(s. 259)

Everybody laughed at him. Meanwhile his playmates grew up, became masters and went into the world even to Kołomyja; but he went the other way. Others were hurrying along in order to chase after the fashion and after the Satan too. As a consequence all the generation perish, except the Last.

"Then the Lord God made up the accounts, and looked: The Last was left, because he had made the best.[...] He painted the glass in heavenly azure such as God needs; for Him everything is transparent, He alone is veiled. On the glass he paints fishes, birds, stars, to the design of the Creator.[...]"

But the Satan Samael also had a look and was upset. He went to the Heaven and teased the God: "Shall mortal man be more pure than his Maker?". The Lord only laughed at Samael but he let him test the Last like Job had been. 

The problem was that the Last was not like Job. He had nothing.

He could be tempted with a gift only so Samael flew down the earth and started his trial:

"Good morning Reb Last, and good New Year, he said politely. I'd like to give you something for the New Year.

Thank you, Rabbi Samael, and excuse me, said the Last. I can't accept anything, for I have nothing to repay you with."

The Satan knew how to play a trick on the Last. He offered him to study in the Chassid school of walking. The Last agreed and promised to show his gratitude by being a bright student and he was.

But then the Last remembered that it isn't quite right either to go only on the left as Samael taught everybody in his school. He went in every posssible direction and this way he avoid to be lost in the hell like the others from his generetion. 

Finally, he was quite last on earth; he remained the Last and live long life. 

At the end of the story Bjumen added:

"Someone must be the last [...]the one who's really last is not afraid, the wind doesn't carry him away, the devil doesn't entice him, he's not rubbish. Such a man lies on his cart with his navel upward and gazes at Leviathan."(s. 262) 

P.S. I shortened a little bit the tale about the Last from the English edition of "On the High Uplands" translated from Polish by Henry Charles Steven and published by Hutchinson in London in 1955 (pages 259-262).