Yom Kippur - Berl the tailor

It is the eve of Yom Kippur at the Berdichev synagogue. Night falls. The old people have finished their prayers. Rabbi Levi stands before the lectern. The time has come for him to chant the Kol Nidre - but he remains silent, wrapped in his kittl, a linen prayer-robe, and his tallith, a prayer shawl.
What does it mean?
Have the gates of prayer been shut? Does he lack the strength to knock upon them? He stands there, somewhat bent, one ear cocked, as if listening to something up above. Is he trying to hear whether the gates will open?
Suddenly Levi turns toward the congregation and calls to the sexton - "Shammes""
The shammes hurries over. Levi ask him, "Berl the tailor, is he here yet?"
"No. Berl is not here, he´s stayed home"
"Go to the house and tell him to come here! Say that it is I, Rabbi Levi, who calls him"
So the shammes goes.
It takes only a minute to get there. He comes, without the kittl and his tallith, in his workday clothes, half-angry, half-frightened. He goes up to Levi: "You sent for me, Rabbi, so I came to you".
Levi smiles. "Tell me", he says, "Berely, why are they talking about you so much up there? You´ve created such a commotion! All they do up there is talk about Berl the tailor"
"Aha"
"You have a complaint, perhaps?"
"Of course"
"To whom?"
"The Almighty"
" What it´s all about? Speak"
 And Berl the tailor speaks: "All summer long there wasn´t a stitch of work, not from Jews, not from peasants. You might as well lie down and die".
" It´s hard to believe. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are merciful fathers, you should have confided in them".
"No, not about this. I don´t ask and I don´t take..." .What he did was to send his daughter to work as a servant. And he, Berl, sits at home, waiting to see what His Beloved Name will bring.
 It is just before Sukkoth. The door opens, and there enters a messenger from the nobleman. They want him to reline a coat.
Good! The Almighty provides a sustenance. So Berls sets out and comes to nobleman´s palace. He is taken to a chamber, where they give him wool and fur pelts. 
" I realined the coat..and three pelts remained".
" So what did you do?"
" I went into the kitchen and asked them to let me take home a loaf of bread for eating. I took it back, cut it open and knead the insides until it was all soaked with sweat. Dogs, you know, like human sweat. And meanwhile I stuff the three pelts into the empty loaf. And I´m off".
At the gate of the palace the guard cries: "What are you carrying there, Jew boy?
I showed him: "A bread".
I hurry along..
Suddenly the earth starts trembling under me. I hear a sound. A guard is chasing me. I´m scared to death. My sould drops to my boots.
"You forgot to sew a hook onto the coat", the nobleman´s little Cossack says to me. He helps me onto his horse, and we´re off.
"I sew on the hook, and go back. But when I reached the place that I´ve marked - it´s not there. No bread! No one is in the fields. Not a creatured has passed by, no bird could lift up such a load. So I soon figure out who is at the bottom of all this".
" Who?", asks Levi.
" He. The Almighty! The Master of the Universe doesn´t want His servant to steal.."
 "Of course...", murmurs Levi, "it´s the law..."
" If the Almighty is such a great and proud lord, and doesn´t want even His poorest servant of servants to steal, then let Him provide livelihood! Let Him give us a piece of read, the way a lord should. But He neither gives bread nor permits us to take it. And therefore", concludes Berl, " I no longer want to serve Him".
In a gentle voice, Levi asks: "Well, and what else?"
"Nothing else! I come home, I don´t wash, I eat withouth saying the blessing. I go to bed withouth prayers. My lips want to recite the words automatically, but I grit my teeth. In the morning - no blessing, no washing of hands, no prayers. No sukkah, no Kiddush on the holidays. 
Comes the Days of Penance, it gets a little depressing. The shammes knocks, my heart knocks. But I close my ears and bear it. Comes Rosh Hashanah - I don´t budge. The time comes for blowing the shofar, I stuff my ears with cotton. My heart yearns...I´m sick of myself, I go unwashed, unclean. I hear people going to Tashlikh, the casting out of sins at the river, but.."
He stands there for a while, then cries out: "But I´m right, Rabbi! I won´t be put off with just anything".
Levi meditates a little. "And what do you do, Berl?Livelihood?"
Berl is offended. "The devil with livelihood! Livelihood He should ha"ve given earlier. Livelihood is due to everyone, even the bird in the air, the worm in the ground. No, I want something more".
"What it is, Berl? Tell us..
And Berl speaks out: "Isn´t it true that Yom Kippur atones only for the sins between man and God?"
"It´s true"
In a high, strong voice, he says: "Then Berl will not submit to Him. I will not serve the Lord again until He agrees, this year, to forgive the sins of man against man".
"Am I right, Rabbi?"
Levi turns back to the Ark, looks up, listens for a few minutes, and then reports: "You have prevailed, Berl" Go home - go and get your kittl and your tallith!".

Selected Stories, I.L. Peretz