Satan in Goray

guilty; consequently, they went to great lengths to commit every possible of¬fense. They were secretly adulterous, ate the flesh of the pig and other unclean foods, and performed those labors expressly forbidden on the Sabbath as most to be avoided. In Szebreszin, one such believer shaved off his beard and earlocks with a razor. In the middle of the night, another broke into the prayer house of Krasnik and corrupted the Torah scrolls by scratching out the name of God. Scribes laid filth in the phylactery boxes that contained verses from the Bi-ble. Other believers defiled the bathhouses, so that the women could not clean themselves properly, and their husbands had to lie with them in their un-clean state. Still others threw limbs of corpses into the homes of those of priestly descent, who, as a re-sult, were contaminated. Others went from house to house stealthily putting lard in the pots, thus pol-luting the food cooked in them. The slaughterer of Kreshev, in order to render slaughtered beasts un-kosher, kept his knife unmended; moreover, when he circumcized the new-born, he actually prevented cir¬cumcision by not removing the membrane of the corona. The night these things were discovered, the townspeople vengefully surrounded the slaughterer's house. But he slipped away, and his end was unknown. Others of the Faithful spread dissension and calumny. They bore tales to husbands about their wives, and to wives about their husbands; thus frequently in¬curring violence.
    They compelled the pious to desecrate the Sab-bath by putting out fires started on Friday night. Divorce often resulted from their rumors of adultery concerning married women. They did not disdain emptying the charity boxes and buying wine to sac-rifice to their idols. Their impulse toward corruption led them even to black magic and the conjuring up of the dead.
    Though remote from the world, impoverished and bare, Goray found that the dispute did not cease with the conversion of Sabbatai 'Levi, but rather in¬creased daily.
    Reb Mordecai Joseph, Reb Godel Chasid, and many others abandoned the Faithful and did penance for having succumbed to the seduction of the false redeemer. Reb Godel Chasid dressed in rags and had himself flogged every afternoon, in order to be cleansed of his sin through suffering. Fasting all day until nightfall, he then ate only a bit of bread and garlic. Reb Mordecai Joseph went from house to house agitating against the Faithful. Describing the desolation that followed them everywhere, he gave a long account of their misdeeds, and warned the householders against joining them. Rechele was the only one of the Faithful whom Reb Mordecai Joseph would not vilify. Reb Itche Mates sat locked in an upper-floor room of his father-in-law's house, inscrib¬ing his scrolls. He did not pray with the prayer quo¬rum and seldom came outside. No one knew how he subsisted, for he would accept no gift; it was rumored that. doves he produced by incantations from the Book of Creation were his food.
    Reb Gedaliya and Levi were still leaders of the town. They excommunicated Reb Mordecai Joseph and his supporters, ordering everyone to remain at a distance of four ells from them. Reb Gedaliya and Levi removed many books from the study house and either burned or buried them; all that remained were volumes of cabalistic mystery. Then they stirred up hoodlums to ambush Reb Mordecai Joseph be¬hind the bathhouse when he came out to relieve him¬self. They fell upon him, trampled him with their feet, rolled him in the dung, and beat him mercilessly until they thought him dead. Not until many hours later did the bathhouse attendant find Reb Mordecai Joseph, his clothing blood-soaked, and both his eyes blackened. A few days later these very same men com¬pelled Reb Itche Mates to consent to divorce his wife Rechele--nor did they mind that the river of Goray had two names, and that the tradition was that no bill of divorcement could be written in the town. As for Reb Gedaliya, he did not wait the legal ninety days; the very next morning he stood with Rechele under the wedding canopy, thus openly demonstrat¬ing his contempt for the Talmud.
    From that time on, Goray indulged in every kind of license, becoming more corrupt each day. Assured that every transgression was a rung in the ladder of self-purification and spiritual elevation, the people of Goray sank to the forty-nine Gates of Impurity. Only a few individuals did not join in but stood apart watching