Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 78 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week. Click here for previous chapters.
Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications.
Rambam, Sefer Hamada, Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, Ch. 5:5
…If the idol worshipers said to them, “Give us one of you and we will kill him, and if not, we will kill all of you,”…and they should not give…one of Am Yisrael. And if they specified and said, “Give us Ploni or we will kill all of you,” then if he is guilty…they should give him to them. And they are not instructed to do this l’chatchilah. And if he is not chayav misah…and they should not hand over…one of Am Yisrael.
Binyamin put the open sefer into David Elkovitz’s hands, his eyes flitting all around. “It seems that Wangel has specified me, because they are looking for the one who spoke on the device, and that’s me. The thing is that I didn’t really do anything that makes me deserving of death!”
“And even if you were deserving,” David answered, after slowly reading the relevant lines, “it says here that ‘they are not instructed to do this l’chatchilah’! But go and explain that to my father-in-law.”
“Thank you for warning me.” Binyamin’s face was ashen as he leaned on the tree. “In any case, this is what it says regarding everyone in the camp. But what am I, for my part, supposed to do now? The Rambam doesn’t say anything here about that.” He reached out, closed the sefer, and gave it a kiss. “I wouldn’t want to think that everyone will be punished because of me. Maybe it’s better if I go now to speak to your father-in-law. I won’t tell him, of course, who came to warn me.”
“You’ll go to him?”
“I’m seriously thinking about it.”
“Look,” Elkovitz said hesitantly, “I would want to tell you that he will certainly act like a gentleman, and will let you choose what to do. But I’m afraid that if he decides that you’re endangering everyone else, he won’t go to check, like you did, what the halachah says.” His eyes blinked rapidly. “Not to mention the fact that they may try to get out of you where you got the device from.”
“I won’t say a word, and I’m not bringing the phone with me in any case,” Binyamin said firmly, swallowing hard. “You said they threatened that if they discover that it’s an actual telephone, and not an internal communications device, they will kill everyone!”
“Well, that’s something that Wangel shouted in a moment of fury.”
“And can anyone guarantee what he will or won’t do in another moment of fury?”
David was quiet.
“The phone will stay where I buried it. I would want to ask Rav Schwartzbrod what to do, but I’m assuming that your father-in-law is doing a house-to-house search for me, and I don’t want to get the Rav in trouble, and have them blame him for being part of all this.”
Binyamin took a deep breath, and his voice trembled. “The danger to the entire camp is too big, David, and based on what I know, even if you are not allowed to turn me into them, I am allowed to turn myself in. And it will be a good, fair, and noble thing for me to turn myself in.”
“I don’t know if the Nazis will suffice with that. They will want to see which device you spoke on, and they will demand to know who you spoke to.”
“If I would know which part of the conversation they heard, I’d make up a story.” He sighed and looked back. “But regarding the device they’ll demand to see, maybe you can rustle up something else for me? You once said you have all kinds of electronic parts in your house.”
“I think that the old communication radio from the office, the one that they used until a few years ago, is still in our house. My children used to play with it when they were little,” Elkovitz said, perking up a bit. “My wife is probably at the factory now with everyone else, but I’ll check if I can give you something that will look plausible.”
“Excellent. I’ll wait for you here in this area.” Binyamin squinted. They both heard talking in the distance. “I’ll climb up one of the trees and try to hide. When you come back, I’ll come down to you.”
“Fine.”
“And daven for me.”
“For sure. And don’t forget that the tefillah of the sick person for himself is favored.”
“I won’t forget.” A genuine smile crossed Binyamin’s face, as he looked from side to side to find a good tree. Elkovitz turned away and broke into a run. He bypassed a few trees and headed down the hill. He had no time to check if he was leaving footprints in the dry ground. He heard more noises, and presumed that his father-in-law had sent some workers to search for Binyamin. He himself was not considered a suspect, but if he would be discovered in a place where he wasn’t supposed to be right now, especially running frantically as he was, it would be very suspicious.
Less than five minutes later, he was standing behind his house, trying to catch his breath. He opened the door and entered; it was empty, as expected. He locked the inside bar of the door and ran to the place where the tools and parts had been stored for all the years. After rummaging quickly, he found the old walkie-talkie device from the office. He saw that the back cover was missing and that the thin wires inside were partially torn. No one would believe that Binyamin had actually been able to speak on this device just a short time before. It hadn’t worked for at least ten years.
He had no time to think or to find another solution. Every minute that passed increased the danger. He slipped the device deep into his pocket and walked outside again. A tense silence filled his ears.
Some distance away, he noticed his father-in-law, standing in the middle of the path and looking every which way. His face was white. Something about the sight aroused a strong sense of compassion in David.
But the thought of Binyamin huddled high in a tree, trying to stay hidden by the foliage, filled him with even more compassion.
“What’s going on, David?” Leo asked him in a stable tone. “Did you meet any of those who I sent out to find Schvirtz?”
“No, but I’m going to join them now.” Elkovitz glanced at the man who suddenly looked much older than his sixty-seven years, and a thought came to mind. “By the way, I don’t think we have to worry too much,” he said quietly, and added to himself, “Please, Hashem.”
“What did you say?”
“I said…I said I don’t think we need to worry too much. I think I know where Binyamin is, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to turn himself in. I’m going to speak to him now, on condition that no one comes and tries to grab him with force.”
“What?” Leo grasped his son-in-law’s hand. “David, do you realize what is going on? Our lives are in danger!”
The younger man nodded. “I realize. And that’s why I’m going to get Binyamin.”
His father-in-law looked at him, and his eyes suddenly darkened. “You were also in the group that he organized,” he said. His breathing started coming in rapid spurts, and he emitted a wheezy, whistling sound. “I heard something about it, but I thought that the person who told me that he had also identified your voice was just trying to cause discord between us. Tell me the truth: You ran to the clinic before. Did you do that to warn him about me?”
“Not exactly.” David shifted in his place. “The minute the news reached the clinic that you had been summoned to the manor house, he figured out what happened and left the clinic right away, himself. I met him near the shul; he went to find out what halachah says that he should do.”
“Halachah!” Leo tossed his head. “And then you warned him.”
“You could say.”
Leo’s wheezing continued, sounding worse than a harsh winter wind shrieking in the night. David hoped he wasn’t going to hit him now—or, alternatively, collapse right there. “But what are you doing, David?! You don’t care to kill everyone?!”
“We are not killing everyone, Papa,” David whispered. “On the contrary. We are going to save everyone. I know where the device that Binyamin used is, and he and I are going to say that he tried to call our office, and I was there and I answered him. And that is what the young Nazi, yemach shemah, heard.”
“Don’t speak that way about people who have been saving our lives for decades!”
“They are not saving us; they are exploiting us.”
Leo breathed hard. “He’s convinced you, too, of all his crazy fantasies?! Are you also one of the planners of this uprising?!”
“We didn’t plan any up—”
“I don’t believe that this is what my son-in-law was doing behind my back!” He fixed David with a long, sharp look, and then his eyes narrowed. “But that’s not true! You didn’t answer him in the office! I asked Eva, who stayed in the office during the funeral, and she told me that no one was using the device in the office at that time!”
“Then she’ll have to change her mind, for the sake of peace and all of our lives. Do you know that it’s allowed, Papa?” David’s voice was trembling, and he didn’t know if it was emotion or fear or the tremendous responsibility he had just taken on his shoulders. He just hoped that Suzy wouldn’t faint. And that nothing bad would happen to her. Or to him. Or to anyone else. Please, Hashem.
“What are you whispering there again?” Leo’s voice was trembling now.
“I was praying,” his son-in-law said. “And tell Eva that if they ask her, she should say that the device in the office beeped, and that I was there and answered the call. She can say she wasn’t standing nearby, so they won’t grill her about how long we spoke and about what.”
“But why, David, why?” Leo began to walk, zigzagging a bit, toward a tree trunk on the side of the path. David hurried after him and offered a hand to help him sit, but Leo sharply shook off the outstretched arm.
“Because for the benefit of us all, it is better that the Wangels should think that this is what happened than to know the truth.” David fingered the device in his pocket.
Leo’s thick eyebrows rose. “The truth? Which truth?”
“The truth that Binyamin tried to tell you: that he has spoken on a telephone with Jews who live in freedom in Vienna. Halevai they picked up on his distress, and that they understand that we need help urgently, and that they think of a clever and safe way to come and save us. But I’m afraid that over the course of the conversations, he only stressed that they shouldn’t do anything before we ask clearly for their help, because it’s so dangerous. In short, we’re more or less on our own to deal with this.”
Leo gaped at him.
“Not on our own,” David corrected himself. “With Hashem’s help. Now I am going to Binyamin, and we will try to come back to you as fast as possible with a solution.”
And he ran toward the forest, not allowing himself to turn back to look at his father-in-law, who remained sitting on the tree stump, his eyes open wide in shock.
thenextpage-israelbookshop.com 