As a last resort to check if the Rabbi is really mad, and cannot contact his surrounding - Pavlov decided to invite an event that might break his dumbness and crack his mental equilibrium; in short: shake his pretense, if it had really existed:
In Natalya’a next visit, before she had entered the ‘Pavilion for meeting the mads’ Pavlov invited her to his office. He and another doctor convinced her, that there should be a method to shock him, by weakening his self confidence in his insanity. “That method had an enormous success in Russia and in Western countries as well. If it will benefit us, very well. If not - it cannot harm him; because we’ve found that he totally lacks an interest or a wish to live”, so they said. Natalya liked the idea. First, she would not believe in the Jewish idea of “a bad eye. That means: if you say something about a person- in that case: the crippled boy- he would surely die because your mouth has uttered such a prophecy.”
“So, let us rehearse what you will tell him”, said the two psychiatrists to Natalya. She had prepared a wonderful scene of announcing to the Rabbi about the dreadful death of Raf’l, his poor son, “due to his permanent starvation in the boarding school. The pupils’ keepers there had been drunkards. They did not care much about their invalid pupils…Three young poor souls - were found dead in one day.”
She played her role in the announcement, while arriving to Rabbi’s ‘behind bars’ place with Pavlov and Haimzon (that was the other psychiatrist’s surname; he was Jewish).
Rabbi Aaron heard the whole tragic story, and saw his wife’s tears. He heard his doctors mumble - as well as his buddy Aliosha, (who had joined the others this time, according to the asylum’s instructions) who demonstrated his sorrow by wet eyes and severe face. The Rabbi had felt like in abyss – while listening to the doctors’ talk about what happened to Raphael. But he had a stubburn force of will and a decisive mind, that had still whispered to him: ‘Beware, it may be a trap. Say the Kadish Prayer(for the dead) in your heart; don’t show that you suffer or being sore.’
He began to meditate about that prayer ‘kadish’, in which the word ‘death’ is not mentioned at all, Jews use to pray it a whole year, after the death of a relative. It includes only a praise of God!
Rabbi Aaron’s mouth began to mumble. As usual, his visitors had not understood his words. He continued to concentrate in himself like in the previous days, and Pavlov’s right palm clapped the wall in nervous despair. He said to Natalya, to his assistant and to Aliosha: “Let’s move.” Natalya had tried to catch a last look of Aaron, that maybe would tell her he understands that the whole story is not true; but he had not turned to gaze at her. She sobbed again and again, in truthful tears. Then she told herself decisively, that it was God’s will: Any further intervention of human beings in this insanity – would be in vain.
Of course, in the following days Rabbi Aaron meditated about his son. He hardly believed he had been dead. ‘If death had really happened, I should visit his grave one day. I remember what my wife Natalya had told me - that she had put flowers on his grave. I have to be convicted in Heaven, because while teaching her our tradition – I had not mentioned to her that we, religious Jews- despise that tradition of bringing flowers to a grave. Maybe Hasidim Jews enjoy that, as also they get drunk – in the annual memorandum day of a dead beloved person. They believe that rejoicing his memory – would ensure him to be merry in Paradise. I am with the Vilner Goen(Genius Rabbi of Vilnius) who had hated such ceremonies, and that was one of his reasons of fighting against the Hasidim. No flowers, no joy, nothing but saying the prayer that praises God’s Greatness. We read in Torah, that Moses had no stonegrave and no statue (except his statue in Rome, sculptured by Da Vinchi, as I was told by Mendelevitch). I really appreciate Hasidim for their daily joyfull way of life, as I had written once to Natalya. But I hate their habit of memorizing the dead by joy… As a man should not rejoice and get drunk on Yom Kippur or in Temples Destruction Day - so he won’t rejoice in any Memorial Day…Now it’s enough for me to meditate any more about my son’s grave. . .And I know,’ reflected Rabbi Aaron, and became decisive to stop meditating - ‘because whatever had happened to Raphael– is not my own responsibilty, but God’s business…’
A month after Rabbi Aaron was brought to Smolensk, Pavlov was desparate about his unresolved case. ‘It’s a riddle,’ he said to his colleague Haimson, ‘I could not find a lot in psychiatric literature about such case: of a young man, becoming dumb and deaf after a shock of losing a child so dear to him.’
Pavlov’s pity on Rabbi caused him a quite risky decision: In order to try a further research, in a pure scientific purpose, for the sake of future development of Psychiatry – he requested the asylum’s management: “To allow the Rabbi remain in his room without any more frequent inquiries by the asylum doctors.” Simply, only Pavlov would enter his room, very occasionally, for the sake of continuing ‘gaining an insight process’. Therefore Rabbi’s hospitalization will proceed.”
“I am writing his anamnese”, explained Pavlov to the Asylum Director, “in the knowledge that, on one hand he is advancing toward a senile phase. Yes, he can still move by his own willpower, eat by his own hands and walk by his own feet. I hope he would not easily go astray- if left alone on a way outside, for example. . . We have to hold him here, as this Institute may achieve an international recognition - due to the new mental malady that we have discovered. What is more interesting and important: We may be on a way to begin its remedy…”
Dear reader, please remember that at those times – no sophisticated cameras were available, no detection accessories, no cellphones, no Emergency Buttons to push for calling help for a confused person on the verge of unconsciousness. So, a permanent keeper for the Rabbi could have been the best solution for such a person like him, in his seemingly severe condition. Natalya, his wife, could be that keeper. But she had to work, to make a living. And the Ministry of welfare would not help such a man as Rabbi Aaron, and pay an extra salary to a special keeper for him- had he been sent back home,( a phenomena quite common nowadays in many welfare States, that old seniles –even half paralytic persons, are helped by a private Philipine or Indian or Afro-American caretaker). . .
Now- of course Gepau could continue to withold Tall Aliosha in his job as the Rabbi’s private keeper, not caretaker. But in his sincerity and integrity- the young man fully reported about all that to Antonov. This boss did not thank him for his candid reveal, but said sympathetically:”Well, I have for you other tasks, Alioshinka”.
So the buddy left Smolensk, and the Rabbi really missed him and longed for him, (so he told somebody after many years).
CHAPTER 43