God, Man and Devil

In the clouds, God speaks with Satan, who reports that Adam's children are still doing the same foolish things. When God asks about Hershalle Debrovner, a religious and honest Jew who copies the Holy Scrolls for a pittance, Satan requests permission to tempt Hershalle with money to destroy his goodness. God sends him to try, while Satan brags that another of God's holy servants will be lost to him. On Earth, on the fifth night of Chanukkah, Hershalle's wife Pesye, their two nieces, Freide and Tsipe, whom they have reared since childhood, and his father Lazar, await Hershalle's arrival. Their neighbors, weaver Chatzkel Drakhmer, his wife Dobe and their son Motel, have come to celebrate the completion of the Torah that Hershalle has been copying for the past six months. Although the families plan for Motel and Freide to marry, she shyly avoids the subject. Hershalle arrives after having taken a ritual bath. He writes the last word of the Torah and praises God. During the gathering, a wolf howls, which Dobe calls a bad omen, and their lamp is extinguished. Satan enters, and after introducing himself as Uriel Mazik, which they know means "The Devil," he tempts Hershalle to take a lottery ticket with which he can win 50,000 rubles. While Hershalle maintains that he has no interest in winning, all the others encourage him, except Freide, who says that she has always been happy without money. After Hershalle wins the lottery, the family moves to a large new home, where their neighbors mock them. Lazar now complains of Hershalle's cold eyes and grand manner. Pesye is also unhappy, feeling that she and Hershalle were closer when they were poor. Hershalle spends much time with Mazik, with whom he is impressed, and is advised by him to open a prayer shawl, or "tallis," factory and force weavers to work cheaply. Mazik also encourages Hershalle to enjoy himself and marry Freide, reminding him it is a sin to live with a childless wife. Troubled by Freide's presence, Hershalle tells her that he must divorce Pesye, as rabbinical law forbids a childless marriage. Freide admits her attraction, but does not want to hurt Pesye. Hershalle assures her that if Pesye refuses the divorce, he will not insist. When Chatzkel tells Hershalle that the local weavers have decided to manufacture prayer shawls in a cooperative and asks Hershalle for a loan to develop a patent that Berel, one of the weavers, has to make linen look like silk, Hershalle is about to agree. Mazik, however, dissuades him with a stern look, and Hershalle offers to hire them instead. Chatzkel is not interested, and when he asks about the engagement of Freide and Motel, Freide says she cannot marry Motel, who says he does not mind. Hershalle offers to provide the same dowry for Tsipe, who likes Motel, and announces that after twenty-two years of the childless marriage, he wants a divorce. Pesye, although shocked, agrees because of his piety. Then, when Freide says she will marry Hershalle, Pesye cries, seeing the look of desire between the two, and accepting her fate as God's will, goes to live with Tsipe. Hershalle, feeling guilty about his decision, admits to Pesye he is worse than she thought and asks for her forgiveness. Three years later, Freide, unhappy and bored, wishes she had a child. At a community meeting, when Hershalle is suggested for president of the synagogue, Chatzkel argues strenuously that he stole Berel's secret, is money mad, and has destroyed Pesye, who is now out of her mind, Meanwhile, Tsipe, who has lost her youthful glee, mocks her sister, who once had no interest in jewelry and fine clothes. Freide complains that the money has only brought her misery and a broken heart. Sometime later, Chatzkel and Motel again ask Hershalle's help to start a cooperative, saying they cannot earn a living, despite the fact that they work hard, and Motel explodes in anger over Hershalle's increased riches during hard times. Hershalle condescendingly offers them jobs as laborers, and Chatzkel accepts, as they must eat. Hershalle gives Freide new earrings from the big city, but as she looks in the mirror, she grows sullen. Hershalle, who wants to get back to work, callously suggests that in the summer they can visit a famous doctor in Vienna. She begs him to play his violin again, wanting to feel what she once felt when he played, but he says they were striving for happiness then and will not feel the same again. Sometime later, as Hershalle obsessively counts his beloved bills, Mazik demands that he sign a receipt for a valise of money, but Hershalle refuses. They struggle for the valise, and Mazik throws Hershalle down, then brandishes a knife. Freide witnesses Hershalle attack Mazik and cry out "My money!" as he gathers it up. Soon, Mazik recovers, and he and Hershalle become closer than before. Chatzkel, who had been made foreman by Hershalle, now works only part-time because he has refused to push the workers as Hershalle wanted. When Motel's hand gets caught in a wheel, Hershalle, who is standing nearby as his blood splashes out, remains unconcerned. Motel is brought home, where he is attended by Satan, disguised as a doctor. Hershalle, who has boarded his father with strangers because of his father's penetrating, cynical criticisms, now asks forgiveness, but Lazar says he feels more at home with the poor family with whom he now lives. Hershalle sadly recalls that God forgives sins through charity and forgiveness, but that the sins against fellow men cannot be erased by either. After Motel dies, Tsipe cries that God helps Mazik, but has taken her Motel, while Freide moans that the violin remains silent. When Chatzkel breaks the news to Hershalle that Motel died under the doctor's knife, Hershalle asks forgiveness of God. Chatzkel accuses him of making a mockery of God and throws Motel's blood-stained tallis on Hershalle's head. Hershalle now realizes that gold cannot cancel his smallest sin and that a rich man is really poor. When he plays his violin and sings a psalm, Freide hears and is overjoyed. Hershalle now puts on the bloody tallis and prays. He asks God how man can achieve purity, being impure, and bemoans a life of nothingness and emptiness, then resolutely knots the tallis and ties it around his neck. When Freide finds him hanged, she screams and cries. Satan, seeing that even though Hershalle had so much money, he chose not to live, admits he has lost.