273 FRISCHMANN
of those who had died in the course of the last few days. But how long it lasted! How many names he men- tioned ! The minutes fly one after the other, and the Rabbi has not finished ! Will the list of souls never come to an end ? Never ? And it seems to me the Rabbi had better call out the names of those who are left alive, because they are few, instead of the names of the dead, who are without number and without end.
I shall never forget that night and the praying, be- cause it was not really praying, but one long, loud groan rising from the depth of the human heart, cleaving the sky and reaching to Heaven. Never since the world began have Jews prayed in greater anguish of soul, never have hotter tears fallen from human eyes.
That night no one left the Shool,
After the prayers they recited the Hymn of Unity, and after that the Psalms, and then chapters from the Mishnah, and then ethical books. . .
And I also stand among the congregation and pray, and my eyelids are heavy as lead, and my heart beats like a hammer.
"U-Malochim yechofezun and the angels fly around."
And I fancy I see them flying in the Shool, up and down, up and down. And among them I see the bad angel with the thousand eyes, full of eyes from head to feet.
That night no one left the Shool, but early in the morning there were some missing two of the congre- gation had fallen during the night, and died before our eyes, and lay wrapped in their prayer-scarfs and white
