Chapter 2 - House on Gorham Street
Rabbi Sadowsky
Our immediate neighbors, the family living in the other half of the house at 22 Gorham St were the Sadowskys - Rabbi Solomon Sadowsky and his family. The rebitzin, the rabbi's wife, would come and talk with Mom just about every day. We would see the rabbi every day, too, but we didn't talk much with him. When he came to our house it was because he wanted (to borrow) one of Pop's cigarettes. (While Pop smoked cigars at home and cigarettes at the market, he kept the cigarettes in his desk.) So, one of us would go into Pop' s desk and get a cigarette for the rabbi.
Indirectly, the rabbi was a source of funds for the boys in the Jewish Home across the street. Couples would come to him to be married in his study, and he would need four Jewish men or boys to hold the chupah, the ritual canopy, over the heads of the bridal couple during the ceremony. If the couple being married did not bring four male witnesses with them, the rabbi would call across the street to the Home for four boys to hold up the chupah and to act as witnesses. After the ceremony was completed the bridegroom would then tip the boys who held the chupah, sometimes as much as a quarter each. If boys from the Home were not available, other Jewish boys in the neighborhood would be found, even us every once in a while. (He was an Orthodox rabbi, and because he was Orthodox he wouldn't use girls to hold the chupah.)
During the Passover seder (the ceremony in which we recount the story of the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt), we would have our seder the same time the Sadowskys were having theirs. We used to have a dozen or more people at our seder, and the Sadowskys probably had a similar number at theirs. At the end of the seder, before leaving the table, the people at the seder sing some of the traditional songs. Our seders were lively, happy events, and we sang the songs. We sang them loudly, if not well. But when the Sadowskys sang, it was no contest. We heard them clearly, the sounds coming right through the walls. They put significant effort into their singing.
Being next door to the rabbi did not affect how we lived our lives. We, too, were Orthodox, but it didn't seem to bother the rabbi when we broke some rules, perhaps because he did too, but he didn't lecture us.
Two short anecdotes concerning the rabbi:
1) The rabbi had a reputation as a woman chaser. Pearl and Ethel and their girl friends used to be uncomfortable when the rabbi was around; they felt he was always leering at them. It so happens that at one time he was interested in Mom. Lou was present, Pop was not, when Mom told what happened. Lou doesn't remember how she put it into words, but the meaning was quite clear: the Rabbi had propositioned her in some way. Lou asked what she said to him, and he does remember her exact words in reply: "Rebbe, sei nit a narr". (Rabbi, don't be a fool.) And that apparently ended it.
2) Ruth, Mitch's wife, was head over heels in love with him. Every one who knew them knew that. Life without Mitch would be unbearable for her, and she did commit suicide shortly after Mitch died. Her wish was to be buried alongside Mitch. But a person who commits suicide cannot be buried in the consecrated ground of an Orthodox Jewish cemetery; she would have to be buried outside of the walls. Rabbi Sadowsky to the rescue. He said that since she died with her shoes on, she could be buried in the cemetery. (Maybe he said off, we're not sure, but in any case the reasoning used is not apparent; perhaps the answer can be found in Jewish law.)
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