Minyan (2020) - full transcript
In rapidly changing New York of the 1980s, a Russian Jewish teenager wrestles with his identity, faith, and sexuality, all of which seem irreconcilable until he befriends two closeted men in his grandfather's senior housing complex. MINYAN is a tender portrait of self-discovery set in a rapidly changing 1980s New York. David is a 17-year-old yeshiva student living in Brooklyn with his Russian Jewish immigrant family: an overbearing mother and an abusive father. Though he has tender relationships with the senior citizens around him - a doting grandfather and a pair of elderly closeted Jewish men - David is stifled by the constraints of his conservative religious community. He seeks solace in James Baldwin books, nips of vodka, and eventually an East Village gay bar and the dashing bartender who works there. As David experiences a sexual and spiritual awakening, he begins to confront his intersecting identities as immigrant, Jew, and homosexual.
[speaking in foreign language]
- So I can't stay here.
Too many memories.
- Papa?
- It's too expensive for one
person.
[speaking in foreign language]
- [Rivka] Yes, but she only
believed you.
- Give me your jacket.
- They don't mean it.
- Of course they mean it.
Give it to me.
Here.
I just stopped listening
to them a long time ago.
They're very smart,
especially your mother,
but what do they know of love,
those two?
You will see.
So fast?
- Kaddish.
- [Josef] What about Kaddish?
- Who taught you Kaddish?
- No one taught me Kaddish.
- Your father?
- No, my father,
my father was not a very good
teacher.
I listened.
I listened to the old men in
shul.
- The words.
- To tell the truth.
I don't even know if I'm
saying the right words.
Okay.
We've moved past on this--
- I want to go with you.
- I can't go very far.
- When you move.
I want to go with you.
- Oh.
Papa sit.
For subsidized housing,
there are forms to fill out.
There is list, waiting list.
- Okay, you go.
Always list.
[soft music]
- The rule of minyan is
laid down in the Mishnah.
David, read.
[speaking in foreign language]
- Because the Gemara states
every act of sanctification
requires
at least 10 men.
These are the rules.
The rabbis found support
for the rules in the Torah
from a story in the book of
Numbers.
[speaking in foreign language]
- David.
Where are you, David?
[speaking in foreign language]
[boys laugh]
Hashem is in the words,
and the words are in the Torah!
- It's not so hard,
just tell them what they wanna
hear.
Whatever is in the book, it must
be right
even if it's wrong.
David.
David, God is in the word,
David.
[chuckles]
- Give me that.
Your grandfather looks thin.
- He is thin,
the same thin.
- No, look closer.
He's not getting enough to eat.
Neither are you.
- Neither am I.
- And your mother,
she likes new house?
- It's okay.
- That is all?
She couldn't wait to get away.
- It's only a few blocks away.
- For her, that is enough,
practically another country.
- Practically another country.
[train rumbling]
- [Rachel] No, I won't have it.
- What's wrong with normal
school, regular high school?
- David, please.
- He knows already language.
He can recite all the prayers.
- Recite? What does this mean to
recite? Like parrot?
- If he wants to leave, he could
leave.
- [Rachel] Do you understand any
of it?
- Do you?
- No, not a fucking word.
But this is not about me.
- At his age I was already
working.
- Take the money out of my
salary.
- [Simon] Did I say anything
about money?
- Take the money out of my
salary.
Not so easy as a few prayers
in Hebrew, you will see.
Do you remember school in
Russia?
- Yes.
- Every morning--
- It's not so bad.
- Every morning I sent you to
school
and every afternoon you
came back with your books,
muddy and ripped,
and a little body was covered
with bruises and welts.
Maybe this was not so bad
for you, but for a mother,
there is no worse torture you
can imagine.
You cannot turn your back on
education,
chance to learn.
- Public school is in education.
- But in Jewish school,
no one can beat you for being a
Jew.
[soft music]
- Hello, my friend, come, get
in.
- We can wait.
- Too cold for old man.
- No, cost is--
- No cost.
A mitzvah.
Where are you going?
[speaking in foreign language]
- To Brighton Beach.
[speaking in foreign language]
- What about you?
[soft music]
- She would have made
something special for you.
- And for you.
- No, this is all that I need.
Your mother once asked your
grandmother
why she didn't leave Russia
when she was young woman,
before the war, during the war,
- When she was waiting
for you to come home?
- Your mother always thought
about this
as if there were options.
As if you can just run away from
yourself.
- What did Bubbe say?
- Look into my eyes,
that's what Bubbe said.
So your mother looked in Bubbe's
eyes
since she didn't see anything.
Exactly, said Bubbe,
because I have nothing to hide.
[phone rings]
I'll get it, I'll get it.
Hello?
Yes, yes.
Right.
Okay, yes, thank you, thank you.
Yeah.
- Who was that?
- This was an opportunity for
apartment,
but it didn't come through.
Who is that?
That is me.
I don't know very well
the man that was then.
Grandmother had this photograph
taken
because she did not think
that I would survive.
Still, I don't.
Memories no substitute for love.
- You have no bills for today.
And then we will see you again
July 21st.
Doctor, before you go,
I have something, I'll
have you sign right here.
Thank you.
- He can sleep in my room.
I can sleep on the couch.
- Your grandfather is a war war
hero.
He is proud and pious man.
Besides, he cannot manage
stairs.
- You have to do something.
He's just waiting there.
- I'm already paying portion of
his rent.
[door buzzes]
Don't tell him.
The doesn't know this.
And don't tell your father.
Mr. Zeydenbaum, you know my son?
- Hello.
- We have some work to do.
[soft music]
[train rumbling]
- One donut.
Need a place to crash?
- That's okay.
They don't usually last that
long.
- Your mother knows what she's
doing, huh.
- Here you go, sir.
[indistinct audio]
[soft music]
- [David] It's so much davening.
So many rules.
- I didn't have such an
education.
There were hardly any books.
The fact that I can read
Hebrew is a miracle enough.
I was hoping that whatever you
learned,
that you would teach me.
- What I learned?
Doesn't really matter?
The rabbi says you can
eat an orange on Shabbos,
but the peeling is labor.
- What?
What, perhaps I have eaten
an orange on Shabbos.
If that's what he said,
I want to know it.
- That's what's written.
- David.
Come here.
The evening before his bar
mitzvah,
a boy runs up to a rabbi and
says,
rabbi, I am afraid.
Rabbi says, it's only natural
to be nervous [mumbles].
No, Rabbi.
You don't understand.
I am afraid.
What are you afraid of?
I am not yet certain
that I believe in God.
The rabbi gives the boy a
big shake in the shoulders
and he says.
- What?
You forget?
- I am not yet certain
that I believe in God.
That's what rabbi says to boy.
I am not yet certain.
No one should force you, David.
No one.
- You know where you're going.
You don't know what's going to
happen.
- [Boy] He's a pig fucker.
[laughs]
- You're scared, but you're,
you're doing good, you're
adrenalin is pumping, you know.
[interposing voices speaking]
And the waiting's the worst
part,
because you don't know--
- [Boy] Your stupid little
friend back to Siberia.
- My apologies, Mrs. Levitan.
I will be right with you.
You can go change.
Yeah, your robe is there.
Okay.
[speaking in foreign language]
Hello.
[train rumbling]
[siren blaring]
[muffled music]
- What can I get you?
- Vodka.
- [Bartender] You got ID?
- Come on, can't you see
the boy needs a drink.
I mean,
look at him.
You know what, nevermind.
I will have a vodka.
On the rocks?
No, neat.
[muffled music]
Okay, maybe on the young side of
legal,
but he drinks like one of us.
Tell me, do you know the
difference
between the good stuff
and the crap that he just poured
you?
- I'm a Russian.
- Get them one from the top
shelf then.
[muffled rock music]
- Sorry.
[muffled rock music]
- This is why we cannot
find him apartment.
That is three people who
die in this apartment.
- Don't say that.
- I don't wish it.
- Then don't say it.
- Only that when he goes, he
goes quickly.
I have already spent too many
nights
sleeping on his floor.
- The couch is worse.
- Of course it was.
This is why I slept on floor.
[soft music]
- Where have you been?
I get call from school.
Then from your father.
What happened to you?
Who did this to you?
- I'll be here.
- David.
All the answers are in the book.
Everything.
It's all in the book.
- My daughters tried everything,
rabbi.
Like there are no apartments.
- Listen to what I'm telling
you.
You should speak to Zalman.
He is the Gabbai.
He's a good man.
You should speak directly to him
and give him this letter.
- Rabbi.
- The building has its own
small synagogue inside.
Not as grand as this one,
but it doesn't matter.
Zalman cannot draw a minyan for
Shabbat,
and if no minyan,
it serious problem for him.
People will go somewhere else.
You are pious man.
And you should be excellent
attendant to this place.
- Thank you, rabbi.
- Okay.
[speaking in foreign language]
- Put this on.
- Holocaust day is tomorrow.
- Today you will take your
grandfather to his appointment.
- Today we have to set up the
things. All the stuff has been
in the basement since last year.
It's only gonna get dirty.
- Then don't touch anything.
Make sure he wears his new suit
also.
And take bus.
- It's not so far.
He can walk.
- If you walk, it will take
forever.
And he will find a way of
talking himself out of the
running along the way. This is
what he does
before he even gets there.
He should not be breathless.
If he has to pass selection
process,
he should seem healthy.
Why would manager pick someone
who looks to be on his death
bed?
He would have to go through
process all over again.
- Probably used to it by now.
- Make sure he impresses this
Zalman
the high level of his
religious commitment.
He is more committed to
God than to anyone else.
I know this.
You will see.
And give the man this.
This is finest Russian vodka.
- He's Romanian.
- Romanians don't drink?
[group chatter]
[soft music]
[whistle blows]
[soft music]
[glass breaks]
- You know you can't walk that
far.
It's not like the man's going
anywhere.
Where would he go?
- David, I'm telling you, we
should walk.
This meeting is a waste of time.
- You don't know that.
- I do know that.
It's a waste of time.
[horn honks]
- Here.
- Besides, we have nothing to
give him.
Not even vodka.
- What?
What are you looking at me for?
- I have ice.
Here.
- I'm fine.
- Take.
Take ice.
[siren blaring]
[singing in foreign language]
[speaking in foreign language]
- Atheists.
One is a product of Stalin,
the other of Hitler.
What do you say to a man that he
asks
where God was when the Germans
were shooting his parents,
throwing them into a hole?
They teach you the answer
to that in your Yeshiva?
I didn't think so.
But to here has it lost
someone to the Nazis?
And I lost my grandparents,
three beautiful sisters,
aunts, uncles, cousins.
What am I supposed to do?
My problem is
one man.
- He who saves one man saves the
world.
- One man.
It's not enough
to make the minyan here.
I need two men.
You must both come.
Then I am sure I can make an
apartment available to you.
It may take a little time,
even a few months,
but what are a few months.
In Brighton Beach.
[singing in foreign language]
[speaking in foreign language]
- Good man.
I don't understand one
fucking word of Hebrew
but I thanks God it takes
only one arm to pour,
one arm to drink.
So there is no disadvantage
to my situation,
except with the women.
The women don't like it.
But it takes only one hand to,
your grandfather has all his
parts.
- Uh huh.
- Gut Shabbos.
[bell rings]
[speaking in foreign language]
- How did you know?
[speaking in foreign language]
[coughing]
- He will accept no help.
Once a soldier,
always a solider.
- Gut Shabbos.
- Gut Shabbos.
[speaking in foreign language]
Or the stories of Peretz?
- Peretz?
- Peretz.
Babel, everyone loves Babel.
Itzik has a real voice for it,
but he loses his breath
nowadays.
My voice is not so entertaining,
but we are always glad for the
company.
You are invited as well.
- It was at this moment
precisely
that he found he could not rise.
Something had happened to his
arms,
his legs, his feet.
He began to scream
in his great bewildered
terror and felt himself
indeed begin to move.
Not upwards towards the light,
but down again,
a sickness in his bowels,
a tightening of his loin
strings.
He felt himself turning
again and again
across the dusty floor
and though God's toe
had touched him lightly.
[group chatter]
- Where'd you come from?
- I don't know, it's a, it's a
long story.
- You talk, that's a start.
Tell me later.
[group chatter]
[speaking in foreign language]
- It's very nice.
Comfortable.
Still, I prefer the old one.
It fit in better.
But tell me, how did
you get this upstairs?
Furniture's not supposed
to go through the lobby.
- Your neighbors.
- Ver?
- You know, the soldier and the
poet.
They said it would be okay.
- The two men who live next
door,
they've were neighbors in the
building
where they lived before.
Their wives had been friends.
Herschel's wife survived
the war in a cellar.
In Poland, I believe.
A few years ago, Itzik's wife
died
and they put themselves on the
list
for the subsidized housing.
- So you boys will stay for
dinner?
- I only made for two.
- They work so hard.
- We'll make due.
- okay.
A short time after Itzik's wife
died,
Herschel's wife also died.
And he put himself on the same
list.
He's the small one.
Itzik had suitcases
full of cash, I'm told.
And a son in Chicago
who is very successful.
So for him there was no urgency.
But for Herschel,
he's an intellectual, you know.
What value is fancy ideas and
pretty words
if you have only a few
coins in your pocket?
Without his wife's government
check,
Herschel could not afford
where he was to live.
So he moved in to Itzik's
apartment.
- It's a mitzvah?
[speaking in foreign language]
Who's helping who?
[speaking in foreign language]
- But Itzik, his name
came up first on the list.
- Have you been to their
apartment yet?
- No, not yet.
Herschel extended many
invitations, but--
- And?
- Well, there was always
something
that needed to be done.
- Done?
What needed to be done?
- The food is delicious.
- Yes.
It's very tasty.
- Yes.
- So Nathan, how's your mother?
- She's not talking to me.
I told her I was joining the
army.
The IDF.
- [Mrs. Greenberg] She
wanted you to be a soldier,
she could have moved to
Israel to begin with.
[soft music]
- This way's nice.
[soft music]
- [David] You're crazy.
[soft music]
Who talked you into this?
The Yeshiva?
- Do you remember the airplane?
When the plane took off,
when we're over the clouds,
over the ocean,
I thought it was gonna be like
that here.
When we got here.
But it's just this.
Only this.
[soft music]
- And then you come back, right?
[soft music]
[slow suspenseful music]
[speaking in foreign language]
[singing in foreign language]
[coughing]
[singing in foreign language]
- You, young person.
Get me some water.
The devil has me by the throat.
[coughing]
- How tall are you?
- Oh, look, the workman has
arrived.
- He is joking with you.
This is how he jokes.
- When you are done moving the
light,
you could take a look at the
toilet.
- Itzik would have done,
but it is not a good idea now,
now that he is not feeling so
well.
Oh what wonders.
When you can do something,
it takes only a minute.
And when you can't, you
stay in the dark forever.
- Do you want me to fix the
toilet?
- You are a plumber too?
[chuckles]
My brother,
he was strong like you, but not
as big.
In the shtetl, there was not
so much nutrition in cabbage.
He was a fighter
when it was not a good idea to
be one.
In our town, it was a
blacksmith.
A pole.
He had arms like legs.
For fun, he'd crack my
skull with his hammer.
My brother,
he broke that Pole's arm
as if it were a birch branch.
- I'm not that strong.
- [Herschel] We surprise
ourselves.
- Where's your brother now?
- You smell
like a real Russian.
Worse.
It's a good smell.
In the army, we all
slept together in a pile.
Heads buried in the warm
parts of another man's body.
Our commander would find
us like that every morning.
Get up.
Get up, he would kick us
and then make us march.
That way he could tell who
would live and who would die.
He looked to see if there was
still life left in our legs.
- Such a man.
A real Odessa character right
out of the pages of Babel.
Do you know Babel?
- Not really.
- What a writer.
- The wisdom of my
grandfather sat in my head.
We are born for the pleasure
of work, fighting, love.
We are born
for that and nothing else.
- For that and nothing else.
Here.
You will enjoy it.
Itzik grew up on Babel Street.
- Really?
- When I was your age,
I was already [coughing].
- You like the fights?
Itzik knows all Ukrainian
fighters.
- My father was a boxing coach
in Russia
at the local clubs,
but he trained many of the
champions
when they were first starting
out.
- But once they started winning,
they take them away,
give them to other coaches.
- Yes.
So now he's a physical
therapist.
- He gives a massage.
- To lots of middle-aged women.
- He likes that?
[chuckles]
- My brother, for him,
my survival was the
reason he had to survive.
Many were the times
when he might've been able to
get away
to slip through the holes.
I know this now.
He was strong.
They were ways.
But he stayed
for me.
Hmm.
When the ghetto was being
liquidated,
we were put on a train.
He pushed us towards the big
door where there was more air
and a chance for water.
And when the big door opened,
he must have been able
make deals with the kappos
so that he and I would be
selected for work and not
the showers.
Or maybe it was only luck.
My mind is full of tricks now.
I don't know how we survived,
or why,
except whenever I
was hungry he found food,
whenever I was cold,
he wrapped me in his arms.
[singing in foreign language]
Being alone
was also a cause of
death in and of itself.
[soft music]
[rock music]
♪ The sun is high
♪ And I'm surround by sand
♪ For as far
♪ As my eyes can't see
♪ I'm strapped into a rocking
chair ♪
♪ With a blanket
♪ All over my knees
♪ I am a stranger to myself
♪ And nobody knows I'm here
♪ When I looked into my face
♪ I wasn't myself I'd seen
♪ But who I've tried to be
- Hey.
Want some coffee?
It's not fresh.
- What?
Thanks.
That's mine.
- You bring a lot of books in
the club.
- [David] I wasn't really
planning on going out.
- It just ind of happened?
- [David] Yes.
- What about the time before
that?
What was that?
A rehearsal?
- I didn't know what was inside.
- You can crash here for a
while.
- [David] I don't think I can
sleep.
- [Bruno] Then read.
- I saw you reading this.
- Hmm?
- At the bar that other day,
you were reading it.
That tickles.
[groaning]
[pleasureful moaning]
- He smiled up at Elisha,
and his tears ran down.
And sister McCandless began to
sing,
Lord I ain't no stranger now.
- She's singing.
Keep reading.
- Rise up Johnny, said Elisha
again.
Are you saved boy?
Yes, Said John.
Oh yes, and the words came
upward it seemed to themselves
in the new voice God had given
him.
- [Teacher] What does
Baldwin mean by all this?
- About being saved, you
know, like born again.
- I don't think he's been saved.
- What do you mean?
- John knows
he has to talk
about being saved
with his father but
the music he hears in his ear
is what he feels inside as a
secret still,
that he isn't a stranger
to himself anymore.
He can see inside himself.
- Revelations.
- See you guys later.
So smart all of a sudden
- Just really liked the book a
lot.
- That part where his
brother gets in a fight.
- Ah, so vivid.
- I can't stop thinking about
it.
And when he picks up his
little sister and tells her--
- Tells her to
escape and.
[soft music]
She was a dentist
where we lived.
A lot of good Soviet, you know,
bureaucrats were her patients.
They didn't want her to leave,
so when we did leave,
they took all of her documents,
her license, her diplomas.
- That sucks.
- It wouldn't have really
mattered.
She had to pass all the
tests again here anyway.
So she took this job.
- [Alicia] As a receptionist.
- [David] After the dentist
leaves,
she sees patients of her own.
[soft music]
- Shiksa.
I've been waiting your whole
life
to use these words.
Goyte.
Sheygetz.
Shiksa.
[laughs]
[pleasureful moaning]
[laughs]
- Are these your boyfriends?
- [Bruno] Come on, sit down.
- Who are they?
- People.
Men.
Men I know.
- I'm Jewish.
Why the list?
- Stop it.
- Why?
- You don't understand?
Do you know anything?
When someone gets sick,
I write his name down
and then he gets sicker,
and then he dies.
[soft music]
- I'm here, I'm sorry.
You don't need them, I'm here.
[soft music]
[singing in foreign language]
[speaking in foreign language]
[singing in foreign language]
- Itzik loved donuts.
Now he can hardly eat a single
one.
[bell rings]
[muffled speaking]
- Still, it's wonderful
that Itzik's son has returned.
No matter what happens,
in the end,
a father is a father,
and the son is a son.
- You and your wife
never had any children?
- No.
The war, after the war,
there were two kinds of people.
There were those who felt
such a responsibility
to ensure the future of the
Jewish people.
And then there were people like
my wife,
people who were convinced
that the world itself
was irrefutably evil.
These were the two kinds.
I was neither one or the other.
For me, if joy exists in the
world,
then joy certainly exists even
if you don't have children.
- After the war,
there was only one kind of
people,
the kind that lived.
She was one of the lucky ones.
- She did not think so.
[muffled speaking]
Her father had a good
business tanning leather
in his village.
He made plans with the Polish
man
who owned the other tannery.
He offered him all his
inventory,
all his tools,
if that man would hide them.
- The kindness of strangers.
- They were not strangers.
They were neighbors.
When the time came,
the man said it was impossible
to hide a whole family.
Only the little girl, my
wife, could stay in the attic.
- So she didn't see them again?
- That men visited her
many times in attic.
Sometimes he even let her out at
night
after his wife fell asleep.
- [Man] Go ahead, choke
yourself to death [mumbles].
[soft music]
- This is true story. You must
never tell your parents this
because I will go to prison.
- [Woman] I want to meet your
parents.
- Anyway, look at this girl.
Look how beautiful this girl is.
She's so beautiful.
I was so happy.
I can tell this story in front
of David.
I was laughing so hard.
Not as hard as the time
they came to dentist office
and I gave them laughing gas.
Do you want drink?
- Sure, thank you.
- David, get us drink.
Get us drink.
Ridiculous.
[women laughing]
[train rumbling]
[rock music]
- He is handsome, I will give
you that.
Slightly mean way.
♪ People like us
Was it the book?
You think he's smart too?
[laughs]
You think he actually reads?
[rock music]
We all have our props.
These little things.
He's not worth it.
You'll understand some day.
Still wet behind the ears.
[rock music]
The good ones are all gone
anyway.
Most of 'em.
[rock music]
[muffled music]
- Go home, David.
[muffled music]
- What did I do?
- Just go home.
[soft music]
[Herschel sobbing]
[soft music]
- You don't have to do that now.
- Itzik's son is coming
tomorrow.
I don't want there to be any
fighting.
In Auschwitz,
there were small mountains of
shoes.
Shoes that had walked countless
miles
in untold humiliations.
What was the value in these
shoes?
Shoes without soles?
The Jews, they buried in
ditches,
and turned into ash,
but the shoes, the
German's wanted to keep.
- Can I
do anything?
- Yes.
I do think that that Itzik
would have wanted his son
to have this.
Perhaps he,
perhaps he didn't want
me to see it either.
- I liked her.
She's a very nice girl.
Alicia,
Alicia,
- Alicia.
- Stop saying her name like
that.
- Like what?
- Like she's--
- Her father is very
successful business man.
- He sells cars.
- He has car dealerships on
Long Island that he owns.
- What is their home like?
- I don't--
- Big house, I'm sure.
- I haven't been.
- [Rachel] Go there, meet her
parents.
- Listen to you.
- What, I should not like her?
Her father can be big help for
you too.
- Really, there's no point
in talking about this.
- Okay, okay.
Okay, I like her too.
She's very pretty girl.
- Think so?
- Yes
[soft orchestral music]
[speaking in foreign language]
- Itzik was an unusual man.
What sort of life he had in
Odessa,
I cannot say in the slightest.
He came to this country
already an older man,
and then became successful
in the transport business.
He supported his family.
He made jobs for other
immigrants,
helped them get on their feet.
Only in his last few years
did he rediscover Judaism.
But then he never missed a
Shabbat prayer, Shabbat service.
And he gave generously to our
community.
He was a man of few words.
So perhaps few words need to be
spoken.
But is there anyone here
who would want to say
anything more about Itzik?
If someone has something to say
and sit in silence,
they will feel regret.
- Living a long life is a
blessing.
Today it is a curse.
Itzik was my last,
my dearest
friend.
Every word that he said,
he meant.
He liked to listen to me read.
He understood only a few words
of Hebrew
but all of the prayers
were like music in his ears.
As a father has mercy on his
sons,
so the Lord has mercy
on those who fear him.
For he knows our devisings.
Recalls that we are dust.
Men's days are like grass,
like the bloom of the field
thus he blooms.
When wind passes over him, he is
gone,
and his place will no longer
remember him.
But the Lord's kindness is
for ever and ever over those
who fear Him.
These were the words of David.
King David.
[speaking in foreign language]
- Thank you for helping to bury
my father.
Look at them.
Who knows how many they have
robbed and cheated and screwed.
He spent seven years in jail, my
father.
Did you know that?
- I have half brothers and
sisters all over Russia.
I don't know how many.
For him, nothing was forbidden.
That was my father, you
understand.
He was like this.
Like this.
- How very kind of you.
A mitzvah.
- It's nothing.
- Itzik always said how pretty
you were.
Always very well made up.
- I am so sorry.
[speaking in foreign language]
- David.
- You must make her stop.
- Well, I thought it was very
nice
that she brought some food.
She's already trying to
put him out on the street.
- What to expect from old Jews,
David?
- Better.
You can expect better.
- Old people are no
better than the children.
David, everyone knows someone
who's on the waiting list.
So not to act with guarantee
that someone
with less scruples
will succeed in getting Itzik's
apartment.
- Where did you learn this, the
Torah?
- No, David.
I learned it in life.
- Zalman.
- Zalman.
Zalman will do what Zalman does.
- Let him sit shiva.
- Listen, my bother-in-law's a
good Jew.
And his Hebrew is excellent.
You will see.
And he has a grandson.
A good yeshiva boy.
[somber music]
- Examine all of it.
Travel your road again
and tell the truth about it.
Sing it or shout
or testifying or keep it to
yourself.
But know whence it came.
[bell rings]
- You okay?
- Something for you.
[soft music]
[singing in foreign language]
[group chatter]
- And I think if she comes--
- Her mother was married to--
[group chatter]
- Light the first light of
evening
as in a room in which we rest,
and for small reason,
think the world imagined
is the ultimate good.
This is therefore the
intensivist rendezvous.
It is in that thought
that we collect ourselves
out of all the indifferences
into one thing
within a single thing,
a single shawl wrapped tightly
around us.
Since we are poor, a warmth,
a light, a power,
the miraculous influence here,
now.
We forget each other and
ourselves.
We feel the obscurity
of an order, a whole,
a knowledge that which
arranged the rendezvous
within its vital boundary in the
mind.
We say God and the imagination
are one.
How high the highest
candle lights the dark.
Out of this same light,
out of the central mind,
we make a dwelling in the
evening air
in which being there together is
enough.
- [Herschel] Is enough.
- Come my friend.
Let me give you a ride.
You're studying?
- Herschel gave them to me.
- Gave?
[speaking in foreign language]
How is he doing?
- He's losing his apartment.
- No?
It cannot be.
I knew Itzik
for many years,
when he was still married.
He was a good man.
Good looking too.
For a boss, not too demanding.
I've wanted to be a nurse.
Itzik never complained
when I asked him to study or to
take exam.
He let me keep driving after,
some test I passed flying
colors.
But,
other test I cannot pass now.
- So many books.
You will be reading long time.
- I like reading.
- I can see that.
But can you make life?
Wife?
- A living?
- Okay.
- I don't know.
You'd rather I sell cars?
- I wanted to be doctor
a long time ago.
I was smartest girl in my class.
Your grandfather suggested
I become dentist.
He was told I would never be
accepted to medical school.
My mother, she wanted me to be
married,
like this would solve all my
worries.
Does your father know about
this?
All of this?
[soft music]
[singing in foreign language]
- David,
is your grandfather all right?
- Yes.
Yes he's okay.
- Then what can I do for you?
- Not for me.
I didn't come from me.
I need to speak to you about
Herschel.
I know the people in the
building are talking about him.
- Yes, of course they talk about
him.
- Ms. Greenberg--
- [Zalman] And your grandfather.
They have become close,
intimate.
I told you what this place
would be good for him.
- No. Ms. Greenberg,
that one-arm Russian,
they have their sites
on Herschel's apartment.
- [Zalman] It was Itzik's
apartment.
- People keep saying that.
- It was his name on the
lease and mine, as witness.
- Herschel lives there.
He's lived there for,
have you been to their
apartment?
- Why should I have gone there?
I was never invited.
- [David] There's almost nothing
left.
- I understand Itzik's son
took most of the furnishings.
- Everything.
He took everything except the
books.
- I imagined the books
would be Herschel's.
- Yes, and even those he's
giving away.
- He was always generous.
He's a smart man.
A teacher.
- Meanwhile, all the
neighbors are scheming
to have their relative,
skip to the top of the list
that they can take his
apartment.
- Just as you and your
grandfather did
not too long ago.
- Aren't you worried about him?
- About Herschel?
- Yes, goddamn it!
He has nothing.
He's all alone.
- He has you.
You are here on his behalf,
aren't you?
- He doesn't know that I'm here.
He believes God will watch out
for him.
- Don't you?
- Shabbat begins--
- Please.
You can't throw him out.
- David.
- No.
You know what he's been through.
You know what he survived.
- Yes.
Far worse than this.
[soft music]
- I wasn't sure you would come.
- I wasn't sure you'd be alone.
I'm glad you're alone, not
really.
- I know.
- You don't understand.
- What's so hard to understand?
King Solomon didn't ask
Hashem for a long life,
or riches, or revenge.
He asked
for an understanding heart.
- It's not Herschel.
- It's not only Herschel, I
mean--
- Group of wandering men
looking to find a place
to lay down their head in peace.
The pharaohs, Hitlers, Stalin,
all the foot soldiers in the
world
who tried to wipe out our little
tribe
century after centuries.
Number of Jews
left in the world is small
David,
so small,
but those terrible armies
no longer exist at all.
Book of wisdom, it says,
keep turning the Torah over and
over again
because everything is in it.
Look in it,
grow old and gray with it,
but don't turn away from it
because there is nothing greater
than it.
I believe the Torah is the word
of God.
But even I know that
it was written by men.
- Come.
- The others?
- They should have known
I would never put the Jew
who comes to the synagogue
out in the street.
Thieves, adulterers,
homosexuals,
I take them all.
Without them, we would
never have a minyan.
Come.
[soft music]
It was you.
- What?
- You. I was never worried
about Herschel,
or about your grandfather.
[soft music]
- So I can't stay here.
Too many memories.
- Papa?
- It's too expensive for one
person.
[speaking in foreign language]
- [Rivka] Yes, but she only
believed you.
- Give me your jacket.
- They don't mean it.
- Of course they mean it.
Give it to me.
Here.
I just stopped listening
to them a long time ago.
They're very smart,
especially your mother,
but what do they know of love,
those two?
You will see.
So fast?
- Kaddish.
- [Josef] What about Kaddish?
- Who taught you Kaddish?
- No one taught me Kaddish.
- Your father?
- No, my father,
my father was not a very good
teacher.
I listened.
I listened to the old men in
shul.
- The words.
- To tell the truth.
I don't even know if I'm
saying the right words.
Okay.
We've moved past on this--
- I want to go with you.
- I can't go very far.
- When you move.
I want to go with you.
- Oh.
Papa sit.
For subsidized housing,
there are forms to fill out.
There is list, waiting list.
- Okay, you go.
Always list.
[soft music]
- The rule of minyan is
laid down in the Mishnah.
David, read.
[speaking in foreign language]
- Because the Gemara states
every act of sanctification
requires
at least 10 men.
These are the rules.
The rabbis found support
for the rules in the Torah
from a story in the book of
Numbers.
[speaking in foreign language]
- David.
Where are you, David?
[speaking in foreign language]
[boys laugh]
Hashem is in the words,
and the words are in the Torah!
- It's not so hard,
just tell them what they wanna
hear.
Whatever is in the book, it must
be right
even if it's wrong.
David.
David, God is in the word,
David.
[chuckles]
- Give me that.
Your grandfather looks thin.
- He is thin,
the same thin.
- No, look closer.
He's not getting enough to eat.
Neither are you.
- Neither am I.
- And your mother,
she likes new house?
- It's okay.
- That is all?
She couldn't wait to get away.
- It's only a few blocks away.
- For her, that is enough,
practically another country.
- Practically another country.
[train rumbling]
- [Rachel] No, I won't have it.
- What's wrong with normal
school, regular high school?
- David, please.
- He knows already language.
He can recite all the prayers.
- Recite? What does this mean to
recite? Like parrot?
- If he wants to leave, he could
leave.
- [Rachel] Do you understand any
of it?
- Do you?
- No, not a fucking word.
But this is not about me.
- At his age I was already
working.
- Take the money out of my
salary.
- [Simon] Did I say anything
about money?
- Take the money out of my
salary.
Not so easy as a few prayers
in Hebrew, you will see.
Do you remember school in
Russia?
- Yes.
- Every morning--
- It's not so bad.
- Every morning I sent you to
school
and every afternoon you
came back with your books,
muddy and ripped,
and a little body was covered
with bruises and welts.
Maybe this was not so bad
for you, but for a mother,
there is no worse torture you
can imagine.
You cannot turn your back on
education,
chance to learn.
- Public school is in education.
- But in Jewish school,
no one can beat you for being a
Jew.
[soft music]
- Hello, my friend, come, get
in.
- We can wait.
- Too cold for old man.
- No, cost is--
- No cost.
A mitzvah.
Where are you going?
[speaking in foreign language]
- To Brighton Beach.
[speaking in foreign language]
- What about you?
[soft music]
- She would have made
something special for you.
- And for you.
- No, this is all that I need.
Your mother once asked your
grandmother
why she didn't leave Russia
when she was young woman,
before the war, during the war,
- When she was waiting
for you to come home?
- Your mother always thought
about this
as if there were options.
As if you can just run away from
yourself.
- What did Bubbe say?
- Look into my eyes,
that's what Bubbe said.
So your mother looked in Bubbe's
eyes
since she didn't see anything.
Exactly, said Bubbe,
because I have nothing to hide.
[phone rings]
I'll get it, I'll get it.
Hello?
Yes, yes.
Right.
Okay, yes, thank you, thank you.
Yeah.
- Who was that?
- This was an opportunity for
apartment,
but it didn't come through.
Who is that?
That is me.
I don't know very well
the man that was then.
Grandmother had this photograph
taken
because she did not think
that I would survive.
Still, I don't.
Memories no substitute for love.
- You have no bills for today.
And then we will see you again
July 21st.
Doctor, before you go,
I have something, I'll
have you sign right here.
Thank you.
- He can sleep in my room.
I can sleep on the couch.
- Your grandfather is a war war
hero.
He is proud and pious man.
Besides, he cannot manage
stairs.
- You have to do something.
He's just waiting there.
- I'm already paying portion of
his rent.
[door buzzes]
Don't tell him.
The doesn't know this.
And don't tell your father.
Mr. Zeydenbaum, you know my son?
- Hello.
- We have some work to do.
[soft music]
[train rumbling]
- One donut.
Need a place to crash?
- That's okay.
They don't usually last that
long.
- Your mother knows what she's
doing, huh.
- Here you go, sir.
[indistinct audio]
[soft music]
- [David] It's so much davening.
So many rules.
- I didn't have such an
education.
There were hardly any books.
The fact that I can read
Hebrew is a miracle enough.
I was hoping that whatever you
learned,
that you would teach me.
- What I learned?
Doesn't really matter?
The rabbi says you can
eat an orange on Shabbos,
but the peeling is labor.
- What?
What, perhaps I have eaten
an orange on Shabbos.
If that's what he said,
I want to know it.
- That's what's written.
- David.
Come here.
The evening before his bar
mitzvah,
a boy runs up to a rabbi and
says,
rabbi, I am afraid.
Rabbi says, it's only natural
to be nervous [mumbles].
No, Rabbi.
You don't understand.
I am afraid.
What are you afraid of?
I am not yet certain
that I believe in God.
The rabbi gives the boy a
big shake in the shoulders
and he says.
- What?
You forget?
- I am not yet certain
that I believe in God.
That's what rabbi says to boy.
I am not yet certain.
No one should force you, David.
No one.
- You know where you're going.
You don't know what's going to
happen.
- [Boy] He's a pig fucker.
[laughs]
- You're scared, but you're,
you're doing good, you're
adrenalin is pumping, you know.
[interposing voices speaking]
And the waiting's the worst
part,
because you don't know--
- [Boy] Your stupid little
friend back to Siberia.
- My apologies, Mrs. Levitan.
I will be right with you.
You can go change.
Yeah, your robe is there.
Okay.
[speaking in foreign language]
Hello.
[train rumbling]
[siren blaring]
[muffled music]
- What can I get you?
- Vodka.
- [Bartender] You got ID?
- Come on, can't you see
the boy needs a drink.
I mean,
look at him.
You know what, nevermind.
I will have a vodka.
On the rocks?
No, neat.
[muffled music]
Okay, maybe on the young side of
legal,
but he drinks like one of us.
Tell me, do you know the
difference
between the good stuff
and the crap that he just poured
you?
- I'm a Russian.
- Get them one from the top
shelf then.
[muffled rock music]
- Sorry.
[muffled rock music]
- This is why we cannot
find him apartment.
That is three people who
die in this apartment.
- Don't say that.
- I don't wish it.
- Then don't say it.
- Only that when he goes, he
goes quickly.
I have already spent too many
nights
sleeping on his floor.
- The couch is worse.
- Of course it was.
This is why I slept on floor.
[soft music]
- Where have you been?
I get call from school.
Then from your father.
What happened to you?
Who did this to you?
- I'll be here.
- David.
All the answers are in the book.
Everything.
It's all in the book.
- My daughters tried everything,
rabbi.
Like there are no apartments.
- Listen to what I'm telling
you.
You should speak to Zalman.
He is the Gabbai.
He's a good man.
You should speak directly to him
and give him this letter.
- Rabbi.
- The building has its own
small synagogue inside.
Not as grand as this one,
but it doesn't matter.
Zalman cannot draw a minyan for
Shabbat,
and if no minyan,
it serious problem for him.
People will go somewhere else.
You are pious man.
And you should be excellent
attendant to this place.
- Thank you, rabbi.
- Okay.
[speaking in foreign language]
- Put this on.
- Holocaust day is tomorrow.
- Today you will take your
grandfather to his appointment.
- Today we have to set up the
things. All the stuff has been
in the basement since last year.
It's only gonna get dirty.
- Then don't touch anything.
Make sure he wears his new suit
also.
And take bus.
- It's not so far.
He can walk.
- If you walk, it will take
forever.
And he will find a way of
talking himself out of the
running along the way. This is
what he does
before he even gets there.
He should not be breathless.
If he has to pass selection
process,
he should seem healthy.
Why would manager pick someone
who looks to be on his death
bed?
He would have to go through
process all over again.
- Probably used to it by now.
- Make sure he impresses this
Zalman
the high level of his
religious commitment.
He is more committed to
God than to anyone else.
I know this.
You will see.
And give the man this.
This is finest Russian vodka.
- He's Romanian.
- Romanians don't drink?
[group chatter]
[soft music]
[whistle blows]
[soft music]
[glass breaks]
- You know you can't walk that
far.
It's not like the man's going
anywhere.
Where would he go?
- David, I'm telling you, we
should walk.
This meeting is a waste of time.
- You don't know that.
- I do know that.
It's a waste of time.
[horn honks]
- Here.
- Besides, we have nothing to
give him.
Not even vodka.
- What?
What are you looking at me for?
- I have ice.
Here.
- I'm fine.
- Take.
Take ice.
[siren blaring]
[singing in foreign language]
[speaking in foreign language]
- Atheists.
One is a product of Stalin,
the other of Hitler.
What do you say to a man that he
asks
where God was when the Germans
were shooting his parents,
throwing them into a hole?
They teach you the answer
to that in your Yeshiva?
I didn't think so.
But to here has it lost
someone to the Nazis?
And I lost my grandparents,
three beautiful sisters,
aunts, uncles, cousins.
What am I supposed to do?
My problem is
one man.
- He who saves one man saves the
world.
- One man.
It's not enough
to make the minyan here.
I need two men.
You must both come.
Then I am sure I can make an
apartment available to you.
It may take a little time,
even a few months,
but what are a few months.
In Brighton Beach.
[singing in foreign language]
[speaking in foreign language]
- Good man.
I don't understand one
fucking word of Hebrew
but I thanks God it takes
only one arm to pour,
one arm to drink.
So there is no disadvantage
to my situation,
except with the women.
The women don't like it.
But it takes only one hand to,
your grandfather has all his
parts.
- Uh huh.
- Gut Shabbos.
[bell rings]
[speaking in foreign language]
- How did you know?
[speaking in foreign language]
[coughing]
- He will accept no help.
Once a soldier,
always a solider.
- Gut Shabbos.
- Gut Shabbos.
[speaking in foreign language]
Or the stories of Peretz?
- Peretz?
- Peretz.
Babel, everyone loves Babel.
Itzik has a real voice for it,
but he loses his breath
nowadays.
My voice is not so entertaining,
but we are always glad for the
company.
You are invited as well.
- It was at this moment
precisely
that he found he could not rise.
Something had happened to his
arms,
his legs, his feet.
He began to scream
in his great bewildered
terror and felt himself
indeed begin to move.
Not upwards towards the light,
but down again,
a sickness in his bowels,
a tightening of his loin
strings.
He felt himself turning
again and again
across the dusty floor
and though God's toe
had touched him lightly.
[group chatter]
- Where'd you come from?
- I don't know, it's a, it's a
long story.
- You talk, that's a start.
Tell me later.
[group chatter]
[speaking in foreign language]
- It's very nice.
Comfortable.
Still, I prefer the old one.
It fit in better.
But tell me, how did
you get this upstairs?
Furniture's not supposed
to go through the lobby.
- Your neighbors.
- Ver?
- You know, the soldier and the
poet.
They said it would be okay.
- The two men who live next
door,
they've were neighbors in the
building
where they lived before.
Their wives had been friends.
Herschel's wife survived
the war in a cellar.
In Poland, I believe.
A few years ago, Itzik's wife
died
and they put themselves on the
list
for the subsidized housing.
- So you boys will stay for
dinner?
- I only made for two.
- They work so hard.
- We'll make due.
- okay.
A short time after Itzik's wife
died,
Herschel's wife also died.
And he put himself on the same
list.
He's the small one.
Itzik had suitcases
full of cash, I'm told.
And a son in Chicago
who is very successful.
So for him there was no urgency.
But for Herschel,
he's an intellectual, you know.
What value is fancy ideas and
pretty words
if you have only a few
coins in your pocket?
Without his wife's government
check,
Herschel could not afford
where he was to live.
So he moved in to Itzik's
apartment.
- It's a mitzvah?
[speaking in foreign language]
Who's helping who?
[speaking in foreign language]
- But Itzik, his name
came up first on the list.
- Have you been to their
apartment yet?
- No, not yet.
Herschel extended many
invitations, but--
- And?
- Well, there was always
something
that needed to be done.
- Done?
What needed to be done?
- The food is delicious.
- Yes.
It's very tasty.
- Yes.
- So Nathan, how's your mother?
- She's not talking to me.
I told her I was joining the
army.
The IDF.
- [Mrs. Greenberg] She
wanted you to be a soldier,
she could have moved to
Israel to begin with.
[soft music]
- This way's nice.
[soft music]
- [David] You're crazy.
[soft music]
Who talked you into this?
The Yeshiva?
- Do you remember the airplane?
When the plane took off,
when we're over the clouds,
over the ocean,
I thought it was gonna be like
that here.
When we got here.
But it's just this.
Only this.
[soft music]
- And then you come back, right?
[soft music]
[slow suspenseful music]
[speaking in foreign language]
[singing in foreign language]
[coughing]
[singing in foreign language]
- You, young person.
Get me some water.
The devil has me by the throat.
[coughing]
- How tall are you?
- Oh, look, the workman has
arrived.
- He is joking with you.
This is how he jokes.
- When you are done moving the
light,
you could take a look at the
toilet.
- Itzik would have done,
but it is not a good idea now,
now that he is not feeling so
well.
Oh what wonders.
When you can do something,
it takes only a minute.
And when you can't, you
stay in the dark forever.
- Do you want me to fix the
toilet?
- You are a plumber too?
[chuckles]
My brother,
he was strong like you, but not
as big.
In the shtetl, there was not
so much nutrition in cabbage.
He was a fighter
when it was not a good idea to
be one.
In our town, it was a
blacksmith.
A pole.
He had arms like legs.
For fun, he'd crack my
skull with his hammer.
My brother,
he broke that Pole's arm
as if it were a birch branch.
- I'm not that strong.
- [Herschel] We surprise
ourselves.
- Where's your brother now?
- You smell
like a real Russian.
Worse.
It's a good smell.
In the army, we all
slept together in a pile.
Heads buried in the warm
parts of another man's body.
Our commander would find
us like that every morning.
Get up.
Get up, he would kick us
and then make us march.
That way he could tell who
would live and who would die.
He looked to see if there was
still life left in our legs.
- Such a man.
A real Odessa character right
out of the pages of Babel.
Do you know Babel?
- Not really.
- What a writer.
- The wisdom of my
grandfather sat in my head.
We are born for the pleasure
of work, fighting, love.
We are born
for that and nothing else.
- For that and nothing else.
Here.
You will enjoy it.
Itzik grew up on Babel Street.
- Really?
- When I was your age,
I was already [coughing].
- You like the fights?
Itzik knows all Ukrainian
fighters.
- My father was a boxing coach
in Russia
at the local clubs,
but he trained many of the
champions
when they were first starting
out.
- But once they started winning,
they take them away,
give them to other coaches.
- Yes.
So now he's a physical
therapist.
- He gives a massage.
- To lots of middle-aged women.
- He likes that?
[chuckles]
- My brother, for him,
my survival was the
reason he had to survive.
Many were the times
when he might've been able to
get away
to slip through the holes.
I know this now.
He was strong.
They were ways.
But he stayed
for me.
Hmm.
When the ghetto was being
liquidated,
we were put on a train.
He pushed us towards the big
door where there was more air
and a chance for water.
And when the big door opened,
he must have been able
make deals with the kappos
so that he and I would be
selected for work and not
the showers.
Or maybe it was only luck.
My mind is full of tricks now.
I don't know how we survived,
or why,
except whenever I
was hungry he found food,
whenever I was cold,
he wrapped me in his arms.
[singing in foreign language]
Being alone
was also a cause of
death in and of itself.
[soft music]
[rock music]
♪ The sun is high
♪ And I'm surround by sand
♪ For as far
♪ As my eyes can't see
♪ I'm strapped into a rocking
chair ♪
♪ With a blanket
♪ All over my knees
♪ I am a stranger to myself
♪ And nobody knows I'm here
♪ When I looked into my face
♪ I wasn't myself I'd seen
♪ But who I've tried to be
- Hey.
Want some coffee?
It's not fresh.
- What?
Thanks.
That's mine.
- You bring a lot of books in
the club.
- [David] I wasn't really
planning on going out.
- It just ind of happened?
- [David] Yes.
- What about the time before
that?
What was that?
A rehearsal?
- I didn't know what was inside.
- You can crash here for a
while.
- [David] I don't think I can
sleep.
- [Bruno] Then read.
- I saw you reading this.
- Hmm?
- At the bar that other day,
you were reading it.
That tickles.
[groaning]
[pleasureful moaning]
- He smiled up at Elisha,
and his tears ran down.
And sister McCandless began to
sing,
Lord I ain't no stranger now.
- She's singing.
Keep reading.
- Rise up Johnny, said Elisha
again.
Are you saved boy?
Yes, Said John.
Oh yes, and the words came
upward it seemed to themselves
in the new voice God had given
him.
- [Teacher] What does
Baldwin mean by all this?
- About being saved, you
know, like born again.
- I don't think he's been saved.
- What do you mean?
- John knows
he has to talk
about being saved
with his father but
the music he hears in his ear
is what he feels inside as a
secret still,
that he isn't a stranger
to himself anymore.
He can see inside himself.
- Revelations.
- See you guys later.
So smart all of a sudden
- Just really liked the book a
lot.
- That part where his
brother gets in a fight.
- Ah, so vivid.
- I can't stop thinking about
it.
And when he picks up his
little sister and tells her--
- Tells her to
escape and.
[soft music]
She was a dentist
where we lived.
A lot of good Soviet, you know,
bureaucrats were her patients.
They didn't want her to leave,
so when we did leave,
they took all of her documents,
her license, her diplomas.
- That sucks.
- It wouldn't have really
mattered.
She had to pass all the
tests again here anyway.
So she took this job.
- [Alicia] As a receptionist.
- [David] After the dentist
leaves,
she sees patients of her own.
[soft music]
- Shiksa.
I've been waiting your whole
life
to use these words.
Goyte.
Sheygetz.
Shiksa.
[laughs]
[pleasureful moaning]
[laughs]
- Are these your boyfriends?
- [Bruno] Come on, sit down.
- Who are they?
- People.
Men.
Men I know.
- I'm Jewish.
Why the list?
- Stop it.
- Why?
- You don't understand?
Do you know anything?
When someone gets sick,
I write his name down
and then he gets sicker,
and then he dies.
[soft music]
- I'm here, I'm sorry.
You don't need them, I'm here.
[soft music]
[singing in foreign language]
[speaking in foreign language]
[singing in foreign language]
- Itzik loved donuts.
Now he can hardly eat a single
one.
[bell rings]
[muffled speaking]
- Still, it's wonderful
that Itzik's son has returned.
No matter what happens,
in the end,
a father is a father,
and the son is a son.
- You and your wife
never had any children?
- No.
The war, after the war,
there were two kinds of people.
There were those who felt
such a responsibility
to ensure the future of the
Jewish people.
And then there were people like
my wife,
people who were convinced
that the world itself
was irrefutably evil.
These were the two kinds.
I was neither one or the other.
For me, if joy exists in the
world,
then joy certainly exists even
if you don't have children.
- After the war,
there was only one kind of
people,
the kind that lived.
She was one of the lucky ones.
- She did not think so.
[muffled speaking]
Her father had a good
business tanning leather
in his village.
He made plans with the Polish
man
who owned the other tannery.
He offered him all his
inventory,
all his tools,
if that man would hide them.
- The kindness of strangers.
- They were not strangers.
They were neighbors.
When the time came,
the man said it was impossible
to hide a whole family.
Only the little girl, my
wife, could stay in the attic.
- So she didn't see them again?
- That men visited her
many times in attic.
Sometimes he even let her out at
night
after his wife fell asleep.
- [Man] Go ahead, choke
yourself to death [mumbles].
[soft music]
- This is true story. You must
never tell your parents this
because I will go to prison.
- [Woman] I want to meet your
parents.
- Anyway, look at this girl.
Look how beautiful this girl is.
She's so beautiful.
I was so happy.
I can tell this story in front
of David.
I was laughing so hard.
Not as hard as the time
they came to dentist office
and I gave them laughing gas.
Do you want drink?
- Sure, thank you.
- David, get us drink.
Get us drink.
Ridiculous.
[women laughing]
[train rumbling]
[rock music]
- He is handsome, I will give
you that.
Slightly mean way.
♪ People like us
Was it the book?
You think he's smart too?
[laughs]
You think he actually reads?
[rock music]
We all have our props.
These little things.
He's not worth it.
You'll understand some day.
Still wet behind the ears.
[rock music]
The good ones are all gone
anyway.
Most of 'em.
[rock music]
[muffled music]
- Go home, David.
[muffled music]
- What did I do?
- Just go home.
[soft music]
[Herschel sobbing]
[soft music]
- You don't have to do that now.
- Itzik's son is coming
tomorrow.
I don't want there to be any
fighting.
In Auschwitz,
there were small mountains of
shoes.
Shoes that had walked countless
miles
in untold humiliations.
What was the value in these
shoes?
Shoes without soles?
The Jews, they buried in
ditches,
and turned into ash,
but the shoes, the
German's wanted to keep.
- Can I
do anything?
- Yes.
I do think that that Itzik
would have wanted his son
to have this.
Perhaps he,
perhaps he didn't want
me to see it either.
- I liked her.
She's a very nice girl.
Alicia,
Alicia,
- Alicia.
- Stop saying her name like
that.
- Like what?
- Like she's--
- Her father is very
successful business man.
- He sells cars.
- He has car dealerships on
Long Island that he owns.
- What is their home like?
- I don't--
- Big house, I'm sure.
- I haven't been.
- [Rachel] Go there, meet her
parents.
- Listen to you.
- What, I should not like her?
Her father can be big help for
you too.
- Really, there's no point
in talking about this.
- Okay, okay.
Okay, I like her too.
She's very pretty girl.
- Think so?
- Yes
[soft orchestral music]
[speaking in foreign language]
- Itzik was an unusual man.
What sort of life he had in
Odessa,
I cannot say in the slightest.
He came to this country
already an older man,
and then became successful
in the transport business.
He supported his family.
He made jobs for other
immigrants,
helped them get on their feet.
Only in his last few years
did he rediscover Judaism.
But then he never missed a
Shabbat prayer, Shabbat service.
And he gave generously to our
community.
He was a man of few words.
So perhaps few words need to be
spoken.
But is there anyone here
who would want to say
anything more about Itzik?
If someone has something to say
and sit in silence,
they will feel regret.
- Living a long life is a
blessing.
Today it is a curse.
Itzik was my last,
my dearest
friend.
Every word that he said,
he meant.
He liked to listen to me read.
He understood only a few words
of Hebrew
but all of the prayers
were like music in his ears.
As a father has mercy on his
sons,
so the Lord has mercy
on those who fear him.
For he knows our devisings.
Recalls that we are dust.
Men's days are like grass,
like the bloom of the field
thus he blooms.
When wind passes over him, he is
gone,
and his place will no longer
remember him.
But the Lord's kindness is
for ever and ever over those
who fear Him.
These were the words of David.
King David.
[speaking in foreign language]
- Thank you for helping to bury
my father.
Look at them.
Who knows how many they have
robbed and cheated and screwed.
He spent seven years in jail, my
father.
Did you know that?
- I have half brothers and
sisters all over Russia.
I don't know how many.
For him, nothing was forbidden.
That was my father, you
understand.
He was like this.
Like this.
- How very kind of you.
A mitzvah.
- It's nothing.
- Itzik always said how pretty
you were.
Always very well made up.
- I am so sorry.
[speaking in foreign language]
- David.
- You must make her stop.
- Well, I thought it was very
nice
that she brought some food.
She's already trying to
put him out on the street.
- What to expect from old Jews,
David?
- Better.
You can expect better.
- Old people are no
better than the children.
David, everyone knows someone
who's on the waiting list.
So not to act with guarantee
that someone
with less scruples
will succeed in getting Itzik's
apartment.
- Where did you learn this, the
Torah?
- No, David.
I learned it in life.
- Zalman.
- Zalman.
Zalman will do what Zalman does.
- Let him sit shiva.
- Listen, my bother-in-law's a
good Jew.
And his Hebrew is excellent.
You will see.
And he has a grandson.
A good yeshiva boy.
[somber music]
- Examine all of it.
Travel your road again
and tell the truth about it.
Sing it or shout
or testifying or keep it to
yourself.
But know whence it came.
[bell rings]
- You okay?
- Something for you.
[soft music]
[singing in foreign language]
[group chatter]
- And I think if she comes--
- Her mother was married to--
[group chatter]
- Light the first light of
evening
as in a room in which we rest,
and for small reason,
think the world imagined
is the ultimate good.
This is therefore the
intensivist rendezvous.
It is in that thought
that we collect ourselves
out of all the indifferences
into one thing
within a single thing,
a single shawl wrapped tightly
around us.
Since we are poor, a warmth,
a light, a power,
the miraculous influence here,
now.
We forget each other and
ourselves.
We feel the obscurity
of an order, a whole,
a knowledge that which
arranged the rendezvous
within its vital boundary in the
mind.
We say God and the imagination
are one.
How high the highest
candle lights the dark.
Out of this same light,
out of the central mind,
we make a dwelling in the
evening air
in which being there together is
enough.
- [Herschel] Is enough.
- Come my friend.
Let me give you a ride.
You're studying?
- Herschel gave them to me.
- Gave?
[speaking in foreign language]
How is he doing?
- He's losing his apartment.
- No?
It cannot be.
I knew Itzik
for many years,
when he was still married.
He was a good man.
Good looking too.
For a boss, not too demanding.
I've wanted to be a nurse.
Itzik never complained
when I asked him to study or to
take exam.
He let me keep driving after,
some test I passed flying
colors.
But,
other test I cannot pass now.
- So many books.
You will be reading long time.
- I like reading.
- I can see that.
But can you make life?
Wife?
- A living?
- Okay.
- I don't know.
You'd rather I sell cars?
- I wanted to be doctor
a long time ago.
I was smartest girl in my class.
Your grandfather suggested
I become dentist.
He was told I would never be
accepted to medical school.
My mother, she wanted me to be
married,
like this would solve all my
worries.
Does your father know about
this?
All of this?
[soft music]
[singing in foreign language]
- David,
is your grandfather all right?
- Yes.
Yes he's okay.
- Then what can I do for you?
- Not for me.
I didn't come from me.
I need to speak to you about
Herschel.
I know the people in the
building are talking about him.
- Yes, of course they talk about
him.
- Ms. Greenberg--
- [Zalman] And your grandfather.
They have become close,
intimate.
I told you what this place
would be good for him.
- No. Ms. Greenberg,
that one-arm Russian,
they have their sites
on Herschel's apartment.
- [Zalman] It was Itzik's
apartment.
- People keep saying that.
- It was his name on the
lease and mine, as witness.
- Herschel lives there.
He's lived there for,
have you been to their
apartment?
- Why should I have gone there?
I was never invited.
- [David] There's almost nothing
left.
- I understand Itzik's son
took most of the furnishings.
- Everything.
He took everything except the
books.
- I imagined the books
would be Herschel's.
- Yes, and even those he's
giving away.
- He was always generous.
He's a smart man.
A teacher.
- Meanwhile, all the
neighbors are scheming
to have their relative,
skip to the top of the list
that they can take his
apartment.
- Just as you and your
grandfather did
not too long ago.
- Aren't you worried about him?
- About Herschel?
- Yes, goddamn it!
He has nothing.
He's all alone.
- He has you.
You are here on his behalf,
aren't you?
- He doesn't know that I'm here.
He believes God will watch out
for him.
- Don't you?
- Shabbat begins--
- Please.
You can't throw him out.
- David.
- No.
You know what he's been through.
You know what he survived.
- Yes.
Far worse than this.
[soft music]
- I wasn't sure you would come.
- I wasn't sure you'd be alone.
I'm glad you're alone, not
really.
- I know.
- You don't understand.
- What's so hard to understand?
King Solomon didn't ask
Hashem for a long life,
or riches, or revenge.
He asked
for an understanding heart.
- It's not Herschel.
- It's not only Herschel, I
mean--
- Group of wandering men
looking to find a place
to lay down their head in peace.
The pharaohs, Hitlers, Stalin,
all the foot soldiers in the
world
who tried to wipe out our little
tribe
century after centuries.
Number of Jews
left in the world is small
David,
so small,
but those terrible armies
no longer exist at all.
Book of wisdom, it says,
keep turning the Torah over and
over again
because everything is in it.
Look in it,
grow old and gray with it,
but don't turn away from it
because there is nothing greater
than it.
I believe the Torah is the word
of God.
But even I know that
it was written by men.
- Come.
- The others?
- They should have known
I would never put the Jew
who comes to the synagogue
out in the street.
Thieves, adulterers,
homosexuals,
I take them all.
Without them, we would
never have a minyan.
Come.
[soft music]
It was you.
- What?
- You. I was never worried
about Herschel,
or about your grandfather.
[soft music]