THE PASSOVER GUEST 155
My father :"Nu?" (That means, "Won't you please say Kiddush?")
The guest: "Nu-nu!" (meaning, "Say it rather your- self !")
My father: "Nu-0?" ("Why not you?") The guest: "0-nu?" ("Why should I?") My father: "1-0 !" ("You first!") The guest: "0-ai !" ("You first!") My father: "E-o-i !" ("I beg of you to say it!") The guest: "Ai-o-e!" ("I beg of you!") My father: "Ai-e-o-nu?" ("Why should you refuse?") The guest: "Oi-o-e-nu-nu !" ("If you insist, then I must.")
And the guest took the cup of wine from my father's hand, and recited a Kiddush. But what a Kiddush ! A Kiddush such as we had never heard before, and shall never hear again. First, the Hebrew all a's. Secondly, the voice, which seemed to come, not out of his beard, but out of the striped Turkish robe. I thought of my comrades, how they would have laughed, what slaps would have rained down, had they been present at that Kiddush.
Being alone, I was able to contain myself. I asked my father the Four Questions, and we all recited the Haggadah together. And I was elated to think that such a guest was ours, and no one else's.
II
Our sage who wrote that one should not talk at meals (may he forgive me for saying so !) did not know Jewish life. When shall a Jew find time to talk, if not during
