The Unlearned Villager

There was a well-known rabbi, I’ve forgotten his name—I got this story from my father, of blessed memory. This rabbi was once on a journey. It was a Friday, and when he passed the home of a Jewish villager, a yeshuvnik, he decided not to travel any further. So he sent his servant in to ask whether he, the rabbi, could spend the Sabbath there.

“In my house?” stammered the villager. “I don’t know. There’s another yeshuvnik not far from here. The rabbi could certainly spend the Sabbath with him.”

This reply seemed strange to the rabbi. Jewish villagers in the old days were generally very hospitable. In particular it was odd that a Jew wouldn’t feel honored at having such an important Sabbath guest. So the rabbi sent his servant into the anteroom to eavesdrop on the conversation inside the house.

The servant heard the wife cry to her husband, “Fool! Stupid oaf! Where’s the harm in having a saintly guest for the Sabbath?”

And the husband: “Wicked woman, do you want to shame me? You know I don’t know how to make the blessing over the wine.”

The servant reported the conversation to the rabbi. The rabbi said, “Tell the man that I don’t want to spend the Sabbath with the other villager because once, long ago, when I was his guest and made the blessing over the wine, he blessed it again. And I don’t want to stay with a man who isn’t satisfied with the way I bless the wine.”

“Ah,” said the villager happily, “in that case let the rabbi spend the Sabbath here with us.”

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Glossary

yeshuvnik: A Jewish villager.

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Annotations

TELLER/COLLECTOR: Yekhiel Shapiro, (no place recorded), (no date recorded)
SOURCE: V.A. 136:11.
COMMENTS: Jews who lived in villages far from a congregation are frequently depicted in folklore and literature as unlearned boors. Visitors to such out-of-the-way villages were generally most welcome and treated hospitably.