Women's Minyan (12 page)

GITTE LEAH
: What does it matter what happened between them? A woman has to remain at home. As it is written: “Your wife like a fruitful vine surrounding your house.” In absolutely no case do you break the sacred marriage bonds. The home is above everything. I vote “no.”

FRUME
: And I. Tovah? Eta?

ZEHAVA
:
NO
! Wait! There’s no choice. You can’t hold back any more. Tell them!

GITTE LEAH
: [
to
ZEHAVA
.] A degenerate helps a degenerate. The “dress store” was your idea, wasn’t it? And it wasn’t to make a living, was it? It was so you could come there at night and be with Chana. We all know what for!

FRUME
: And now she makes up stories about her husband to cover for you, unnatural woman!

ZEHAVA
: [
pleading.
] Tell them. Chana!

CHANA
: Please…. How can I speak of such things? [
looking at her daughters
.] My daughters are here, and his mother…. I can’t….

ZEHAVA
: You have to! Or you’ll lose your children!

CHANA
: Oh, God in Heaven! You have no idea—[
clutching
ZEHAVA
.]

ZEHAVA
: Courage, Chana! Tell them everything.

CHANA
: The words won’t come…. they are stuck in my throat…please, you do it….

ZEHAVA
: The store was Chana’s refuge. She escaped there to save her body from the pollution of his unnatural acts, the sickening things he forced on her, things he learned from videos he brought home from Tel Aviv. [
straightening as she faces them
.] He forced her even when she was impure.

TOVAH
: [
shocked
.] During her period, her unclean days? Even to hand her a plate, to sit on the same couch is a terrible sin! To do the act, would sever your soul from God. You would lose your World to Come!

ADINA
: Did the store help?

ZEHAVA
: [
shaking her head no.
] He found others.

FRUME
: Others?

GITTE LEAH
: What do you mean? What “others”?

ZEHAVA
: Other women. There was a woman he touched in a taxi on the way to B’nai Brak. She was going to go to the police. He sent Chana to talk her out of it. And then there was his mistress…

CHANA
: It went on for years. I followed him once. They would meet in a library. She was young, with bare arms and a pony-tail…She led him to a corner of the room. And when he kissed her, she took off his black hat and ran her fingers through his hair. I saw her wedding ring…

ETA
and
TOVAH
: Adultery. With a married woman? A crime deserving of death.
Gevalt
!

ZEHAVA
: [
to all.
] Do you see now? Years she covered for him. For your sake, for the children’s…..

GITTE LEAH
: She’s desperate, and her Sephardi “friend” will say anything..

ETA
: [
confused. Distancing herself from
CHANA
.] I don’t know what to believe anymore!

TOVAH
: [
same. Piously.
] Even if what she says is true, it’s a sin to listen to such evil talk.

CHANA
: When it was about me, you listened. But when it’s about my husband, a man, suddenly you don’t want to hear. This is what my husband did! Already at the beginning of our marriage he asked all kinds of things from me…. physical things…. I was so innocent, I didn’t understand I had a right to refuse. That my body belonged to me…. Every time I think of it, I want to die.

SHEINHOFF
takes out a prayer book with trembling hands. To lose herself in prayer, to stop the flow of information that is destroying her world.

FRUME
: How can you speak like this in front of your innocent daughters?

CHANA
: [
with effort
.] I was also innocent once…. Forgive me, Mameh Goldie. I never wanted to hurt you. [
SHEINHOFF
prays as if possessed
.
CHANA
turns to her daughters
.] Girls…

BLUMA
: [
to
CHANA
.] I don’t believe a single word you say. Our father is a…a saint. Our father is pure!

CHANA
: Did I ever lie to you? Didn’t I teach you to lie was to go against God?

SHAINE RUTH
: But you say everything was a lie! Your whole life, your marriage!

CHANA
: Yes, I lived a lie. But as God is my witness, I’m telling you the truth now. Yankele Sheinhoff-–the saint, the diligent, modest God-fearing scholar—was my invention. I created him. Please, Bluma, Shaine Ruth. You were both there that day. You know I’m not lying….

GITTE LEAH
: [
to
CHANA
.] Leave them be! It’s enough! Enough of your sick fantasies and inventions. Come girls, let’s go. Let’s leave the crazy woman alone here with her friend. We have husbands and homes to take care of.

TOVAH
: Come Eta, I have to prepare the ritual baths for the evening.

ETA
: And my husband will soon be home soon, and I haven’t even peeled the potatoes….

CHANA
: [
shouting.
] If you go, you will break your sacred oath!! You will forfeit your portion in the World to Come!

ADINA
: Mother! We swore! It’s forbidden for any of us to leave until we come to a decision.

SHEINHOFF
: I never took any oath, and I’m leaving. I’ve heard enough.

CHANA
: [
surprised
.] Mameh Goldie, you took the holy Bible…

SHEINHOFF
: I took nothing. What? Take an oath against my own child?!

ADINA
: Mother, don’t leave!

SHEINHOFF
: I know my son better than any of you! I raised him. He wouldn’t do such things…. My son is pure…my son is innocent…[
the prayer book falls from her hands. She bends to lift it. Kisses it with piety. Her legs wobble beneath her.
]

ADINA
: [
in a whisper.
] Mother, you know that isn’t true!

SHEINHOFF
: [
denying.
] My son is pure like his father before him.

ADINA
: [
in growing anger
.] It isn’t true, Mother. It’s a lie! Don’t you remember what happened in the yeshiva?

SHEINHOFF
: [
equally angry
.] What happened? Nothing happened! Child’s play. A game….

ADINA
: A game?! A child’s game!? May God forgive me, I have no choice. [
loudly, to all.
] Years ago when my brother was learning in the yeshiva the principal caught him with another boy in the bathroom…The boy’s parents threatened to call the police…

SHEINHOFF
: Those parents misunderstood! They were fools. It was just a foolish game between youngsters.

ADINA
: [
to all.
] He was thrown out of the yeshiva.

SHEINHOFF
: [
like a lioness
.] It’s not true, Adina! Yankele himself asked to transfer to another yeshiva. No one threw him out!

FRUME
: What is Adina talking about?

GITTE LEAH
: She says Yankele was thrown out of the yeshiva….

FRUME
: How? When?!

ETA
: Oy, a disgrace! A scandal!

TOVAH
: What was that about the yeshiva? I didn’t understand….

ADINA
: If your family would have investigated, you would have found out. But who investigates such a well-connected bridegroom from such an honorable family. And our [
with irony
]
honorable
family did everything we could to hide it from the bride’s family…

SHEINHOFF
: Keep quiet!

ADINA
: You have to defend him, Mother, I understand that. But Chana is also family. Why should she have to continue sacrificing herself? Hasn’t she taken his black deeds on herself for enough years, so that he could play the saint? Admit it, Mother! The time has come for all of us to cleanse ourselves of his sins!

SHEINHOFF
: Don’t you dare say a bad word about him! He gave me grandchildren, and
nachas
(pride), and what have you done? Rejected one perfectly good marriage offer after another for no good reason. So it’s better for you to hold your tongue, Adina, the way I’ve held mine all these years. I’ve dragged your shame around with me like a disease, like a hump on my back, eating myself up alive. Crying and holding my tongue, guarding your honor because you are my daughter. So now you hold your tongue, Adina! For once in your life, do something for your family!

ADINA
: He did the same thing to me!

ADINA
: He…did the same thing to me.

SHEINHOFF
: [
beats her chest with a closed fist. Keening.
] “For I have sinned, transgressed, perverted, been criminal…” [
taken from the
Yom Kippur
prayer
].

ADINA
: Haven’t you ever asked yourself why I don’t marry? Why I reject suitor after suitor? Because I don’t want to live with a lie in my soul, to deceive some decent young bridegroom, to pretend my whole life. Yes, I heard you crying at night Mother, but I choked back the words and held my tongue the way you always taught me women should…. But it’s not possible anymore. Too many lives have been destroyed. Chana’s, the children’s, mine…