We again wandered towards the center, thinking how to occupy the unoccupied time before the beginning of the prayer. I didn't really want to go back. Is that out of interest and desire for impressions. Having made another flaccid circle in the center, Arthur and I again slowly approached this gnarled stone giant with a green bale. At the last intersection in front of our target, waiting for the green signal of the traffic light,
on the other side of the street, a white-bearded man in a black frock coat was approaching. I asked him in Yiddish:
– Is there another synagogue besides this one?
“Follow me,” this man, who turned out to be a rabbi, dropped in response.
Another synagogue found itself on the same square, almost opposite the central building, standing inconspicuous in a row with its neighbors. Arthur did not know about her. And no matter how I tried to prove to him that there should still be a community, he just shrugged his shoulders.
On the way, the Rav asked us who we were and what our names were. The name of that rabbi is Schlesinger. When I saw him crossing the intersection, I already then felt that I was "on the same wavelength" with him. May Gd grant health and peace to this person and his family.
Mincha (afternoon prayer) is over. Arthur was the first time at such an event and he liked everything. He even tried to sway to the beat of prayer, like others, and read from the prayer book. He read the text easily, but it was necessary to get used to understanding, since he still studied the modern language, which was different from the language of the prayer book. But Arthur liked everything very much, he was so carried away that even when we returned to his apartment, he could not part with his thoughts either with this house, or with such a spiritual and permeated action in it. I decided that if I don't talk to Arthur, then the sin, as the Torah teaches us, will lie on me. I postponed the conversation until the evening, which followed the stream of events of the day so quickly that the moment of the conversation with my friend stood in front of me.
“Arthur,” I said, “it's great that you are so drawn to this faith. You know the language and you have a strong desire, but do you know that in order to truly become a Jew, you lack a small but vital detail? Do you know the importance of circumcision? Do you know that this commandment is a commandment to all commandments? That even a born Jew cannot pray with other Jews if he is uncircumcised?