Profession - Parisian.
It's midday. It's hot. A blockhouse issituated near the entrance
to Beitar-Elite. David had asked to be sent to the "The Territories"
to really guard Israeli borders, left by the "Tanah" .
Everywhere around him the white-gold Judaic Desert.
The feeling of the constant safety damps the ardour of danger. David
is the only one wearing the bulletproof vest among the four members
of the detail. He is sitting in the first floor of the blockhouse,
next to the machine gun. The rest of the soldiers are watching TV
in the ground floor. David is proud that he is performing his duties
near the last citadel of Bar Kohba , who was recognized as Mashiah
by Rabbi Akiva . "Isn't it careless that the guys are so relaxed?"
David is thinking. "There are 25 thousand citizens in Beitar.
Now all the men are off work, all armed. Beitar is a residential
town, just 5 kilometers from Jerusalem. And isn't it careless, that
such town is guarded only by 12 soldiers? 4 near each entrance,
and another for patrolling the perimeter."
An old Seat-pickup is approaching their barrier. One of the soldiers
is heading unwillingly for the car to check the documents. The pickup
knocks the soldier down and drives into the ground floor of the
building. An explosion!
David is not willing to return back to life. He is also kind of
knocked out. His eyes are not opening, although nothing is holding
them shut.There is a pain in his backbone. His ears are starting
to hear some noise. A jeep, belonging to a tourist firm called "Rimon"
is flying past the almost destroyed blockhouse. The car is breaking
into the perimeter! A machine gun is already installed on its roof.
The jeep is heading straight for Beitar.
"The Arafat's disciples" David realized not feeling his
own pain. He is turning his machine gun after the car. Without aiming
carefully David is pushing both triggers. A couple of cartridge
belts are swiftly feeding the machine gun. In front of the double
barrels the serpentines of death are winding. The citizens of Beitar
are lucky, that the first burst goes through the jeep. David's feet
can't support him due to the pain in his backbone. He is falling
back into unconsiousness again.
After the rehabilitation course David is demobilized. His backbone
is injured and so is his central nervous system. Where should he
go now?
At the reception unit he is told:
- We are not dealing with the demobilized
- Why are you brawling? Go back to Russia! - Says a Jerusalem Arabic
clerk named Betuah Leumi. - Was it me, who sent you to "The
Territories"?
David hasn't got a place to live or a profession. He is decides
to go to yeshiva again. David is lucky, because the headmaster of
yeshiva is a member of the "Moledet" party. He takes this
offence of the shell-shocked soldier as his own. With the help of
Rohavam Zeevi , David obtains a sufficient compensation and a pension.
Following the rabbi's advice David put the compensation into a bank,
with the possibility of getting dividends before Peisah and Sukkoth.
Then the proposals started.
David and Inbar are sitting with the door open. The word "inbar"
means "amber". The girl is wearing a dark-green calf-long
dress and white stockings. David and Inbar are silent. Suddenly
it seems to David that the girl is cross-eyed. But no. It only seems.
It's just a birthmark in the corner of an eye. Inbar's ears are
covered with long hair, which is gathered into a pony tail. David
can't imagine what to talk about. The girl is taking the initiative.
- My name is Inbar. I have four brothers and a sister.
David is silent.
- I'd also like to have 6 children, and I've already chosen their
names
- I have a profession - a teacher in the younger classes. You'll
be able to study in the kollel all the time
Another girl. Pnina - the pearl. David is silent again.
- My name is Pnina. My ancestors had written the following religious
books
- I'm 23. I work as a tutor. You won't even have to work, just study
Torah.
- I'd like to have 7 children and I've already chosen their names
Yeshiva destroys the will to take care of oneself, sucks oneself
into it, doesn't make work, feeds and tries to give a wife, who
would make living. There's no free time from shaharit to maariv
. And all the time there is something to study: Mishna, Gemara
Still another girl. Alyuma - the jewel. She had said everything
she could. A long pause.
- Alyuma! Let's just meet each other in a cafe, - David offers,
- we could understand each other better
- It isn't modest, and, actually, there's no such necessity. Your
rabbi and my father think, that everything will go well. They don't
wish us anything bad.
- Alyuma, all the people are different!
- All the same, everybody needs a family! I'll be a good wife. You'll
just study Torah.
David doesn't feel like accepting this predefined life. But where
to go, if there's neither work, nor place to live? Where can life
be easy and light-minded? Using his saved pensions David decides
flying to Paris.
In a small synagogue he told the bearded rabbi about his shell shock
and offences in Israel.
- Rabbi! Please, help me to stay in Paris forever - David is asking
at the end of their conversation.
- Paris is worth hupa , - replied the bearded rabbi, - only Mashiah
himself and the geula will bring release to Israel. I'd advise you
to find a Jewish woman, who would marry you.
It turns out, that it's a good business here. For a hundred dollars
David is introduced in the synagogue to a Jewish woman - a French
citizen. She is honest and talkative:
- I don't feel like working, but I'd like to live a normal life.
We will have a hupa. A real Jewish marriage for 2 years. You get
a residence permit and a right to obtain donation, then we separate.
I won't marry for about half a year after that.
Then, a stout, 50-year-old Geula will tell her price
It isn't an easy way to obtain the French passport. Geula is a Moroccan
Jew. She cries loudly if anything goes wrong. However, she performs
family dutes properly. She cooks kosher food and washes everything.
The conditions of ktuba guaranteed her sexual satisfaction. Geula
hungers. Unfortunately, she is fat, like most of the Moroccan Jews.
Without French citizenship no one would dare screw her. David is
filled with laughter when Geula lies down: her cheeks become unraveled,
when the back of her head touches the pillow. Sides and bottom also
become unraveled and look like already used condoms But he shouldn't
laugh - if Geula doesn't restore her good form, David won't get
the residence permit.
Sometimes he doesn't even want to laugh. Ktuba is hanging in the
bedroom. Geula demands love.
- Come on, sweetheart
Sometimes in a more rude way:
- If you are ill - take medicines!
Geula has got a never-ending desire. It wasn't so scary even at
the blockhouse.
At the end of the second year, all of a sudden, the officials of
the emigration police come. David and Geula are questioned separately.
- Messier David, you are 23. What can she attract you with?
- I'm unnatural, - says David, - to screw an old lady is my pleasure.
- I see Messier, - agrees the official without any irony, - what
is the color of your wife's toothbrush?
The rabbi is smiling. The witnesses, also smiling, are verifying
the end of the marriage. David with the long desired passport is
heading for the Russian Center in Le Bourgais. Having entered the
nearby cafe he is joining a woman, reading "The Russian Idea"
newspaper.
- Miss! Would you like to get a real French passport in 3 years?
David successfully forged a profession using marriages. However,
he marries only very beautiful women, and that's his business. In
three years he separates from his still attractive wife. The emigration
police is not a threat, their interrogations only give pleasant
varieties.
- Messier David, you are registering the fourth marriage in 11 years.
- Am I breaking any laws?
- No, not at all. But we are keeping an eye on you, because all
your wives are from abroad. What's the reason for the last divorce?
- I'd like to have children, and my wife won't become pregnant.
- I'm sorry, Messier. I listened to the tape with an old interrogation.
You stated, that you like old ladies, but all your sweethearts are
very young. Could you explain, please?
- I'd like to have children - there should be a piece of truth,
so that they would believe his lies, - Marriage isn't just pleasure.
I'd like to have children.
At Peisah and Sukkoth David visits Israel. He stays not in Tel-Aviv
or Jerusalem, but in safe Zfat. When a young lady, wearing a long
black dress, is going along the windy street, with 3 or four children,
David feels sorry about the time spent. He could have been happy,
if a pretty religious girl could meet him in a cafe, wearing jeans
and blouse, with a Russian newspaper in the ridicule, and the same
vagueness in the head, as he had.
|
