THE CHILDREN OF MOSES DAVAR
A Drama in Two Acts
By
Ronald John Vierling
Act One
Scene 2
Date: March 4, 1491
Time: 11 P.M.
(Lights come up to playing level, which should be relatively low. In the courtyard, candles burn on the table and on the floor, lighting the center and the corners of the room. The tray has been removed; the decanter of wine and David's glass sit on the table. Alone, Esther paces. Her anxiety is obvious. Her impatience is telling. She hears a noise, a footfall. She turns to the darkness of the hallway leading into the house. David steps out of the gloom and into the light.)
David?
Yes.
David, you took so long. I was worried.
Grandfather had a great deal to say.
And you look awful.
Good. I'd hate to think I looked better than I feel.
What did Grandfather say? What's wrong? Is it the business?
There's plenty wrong. More than I can describe. But it's not the business.
It's everything else then, isn't it?
Yes, it's very much everything else.
(Alarmed.) Please, (motioning toward the bench) sit down. Tell me what he said.
I can't sit down.
David . . .
And I'm not sure how much I can tell you.
What do you mean? Why aren't you sure how much you can tell me?
Grandfather said I was to decide.
Decide what?
Decide how much I should tell you.
David! That's insulting.
He didn't mean for it to be. He expects me to take care of you.
If there's something wrong with Grandfather, with the family, some kind of danger, I need to know. I deserve to know.
You're right. You do need to know. You deserve to know. I'm just not sure where to begin.
Begin by sitting down and telling me what Grandfather said. He's never asked you or anyone to come to him through the orchard before. What in the world is going on? Is it Torquemada?
Yes, it's Torquemada and the church and the Inquisition.
The Inquisition?
The Council appointed to find Jewish heresy.
But the Council has been around for years. It's been a bother. Jews have been injured. But this . . . what's going on now? Are you saying Torquemada and the court . . .
Are one. For all practical purposes. The ideas, the attitudes of the Council, the Inquisition, are now the official attitudes of the court, of the King and Queen.
What's it going to mean?
That things are going to become much more dangerous than they are now. That's what Moses wanted to tell me. About what he's heard. What he knows. And what he's arranged. (Turns and walks to the bench. Picks up his glass of wine. Looks at it. Takes a sip. Without looking at Esther.) For the family. (Turns to her.) For you and me.
For you and me?
Yes.
David, what does Grandfather know? What has he done?
It's . . . terrible.
What's terrible?
It should be terrible. What he wants me to do. What he wants you to do. Under different circumstances, we'd certainly call it terrible. But today, with what's going on in Spain, it isn't terrible. That's the problem. What he has arranged for the both of us, it's terrible, but it makes sense.
It may make sense, David, but you don't.
And I'm not sure I can. I can tell you what he said, what we must do, but I'm not sure I can make sense. You'll have to find the sense in it yourself.
David, you're talking in circles. Please, tell me what he said. Tell me what we have to do.
It's hateful and vile. I can start with that. And I want to be sick. (Turns to her, his voice becoming mocking and bitter.)
David, I'm sorry you want to be sick, but that still doesn't explain anything.
I am to (slowly, painfully) convert, dear sister.
(Stunned.) Convert? (Looks at him as if she had misunderstood.) No, that can't be what he wants. Not Moses Davar.
It is exactly what he wants. I am to convert. I am to read for holy orders.
Read for holy orders! In the Catholic church? Holy orders in the Catholic church?
Yes.
You can't do that. You don't believe . . .
No. I don't believe in any of it, but I can convert. And I must. To help Grandfather. He has made arrangements. They are very complicated arrangements, and I must play my part.
But holy orders? You will have to . . . (Stops, stunned.) That's not just being baptized, David, saying you believe a few things, like Ramona and Solomon. I can almost understand how a person could be so afraid that he'd do such a thing. But holy orders, David? For you, a scholar, a Jewish scholar. Holy orders would be blasphemy.
(Turning away.) Yes, isn't it ironic, horribly cruel and ironic. To be Jew is to blaspheme . . . according to the Inquisition, who at this very moment are putting together lists of prominent Jews who will be told that they can either convert or die. Yet to convert, for a Jew to convert to Catholicism . . . is also blasphemy.
Wait, David. Did you say die? The Inquisition is going to tell Jews they must chose between life and death?
Yes. Convert or die . . . by torture or by burning.
Burning?
At the stake, dear Esther. Jews will be burned at the stake in public. (A silence passes. Both are breathless. Both move, each away from the other. Then they turn and face one another.)
For the last four months, Grandfather has been using all of his contacts, all of his resources, and he has devised a plan for all of us to leave without losing what we have. He does not want us to go running away into North Africa or to any of the Arab states without resources. He's seen Jews who've done that. They've lived in squalor. Sometimes even worse. He won't let that happen to the Davars. (They move again, more lifelike now. Esther goes to a chair. She turns it, so it faces toward David, who remains standing. She sits down, trying to compose herself.)
Is that why you went to Alexandria? Did you know? Did Grandfather know all of this when he sent you?
One question at a time, Esther.
Then start, David. Tell me things. Tell me something. Start somewhere.
I will start with what Grandfather knows and how long he has known it.
All right.
(David moves to where she is waiting. He sits in the chair opposite hers.) Grandfather and Father . . . our father, have known for two years that we would have to leave Spain. (Esther waits. When she does not ask a question, David goes on.)
They were already working on moving the family holdings, the revenue from the holdings, to Istanbul and to Alexandria when father died.
Istanbul?
Yes, Grandfather has contacts in Istanbul. Uncle Israel was in charge of that part of things. At the same time, our Father was moving resources to Alexandria. Grandfather had decided to divide the resources. He didn't want to count on any one political regime. Are you with me so far?
I think so.
When Father died, Grandfather decided he had to call me back from school in Barcelona. I was to take charge of moving resources to Alexandria.
Did you know about the plan?
I thought I was simply continuing the trade because Grandfather was ill or until you might marry and your husband would be trained to step in. Then I would go back to my studies. But when I was in Alexandria, I knew something more was going on.
What do you mean something more? What something more?
The volume of what I was doing. The amount of gold that was moving. The ways in which I was told I had to invest it in Egypt. (Shakes his head slowly, as if he is remembering how it felt at the time.) And the other men, the Jews in Alexandria, even some of the Arabs, they seemed to understand more about what I was doing than I did.
If that's the case, why do you have to convert? Why can't we just leave now? Why can't we just sell the house and leave?
We're going to. Grandfather is working as quickly as he can. He's racing against time, because he doesn't know when the expulsion is coming.
Expulsion? What expulsion?
An expulsion is coming, Esther. No one knows quite when. Even the Spanish aren't sure. But it's coming. And when it does, Jews will be sent into exile. Those that aren't murdered, that is. But in either case, the court is going to seize everything. So we need more time.
More time for what? For more money?
No, for Grandfather. (Stands. Looks at Esther. Begins to talk and move away from her at the same time.) Grandfather is ill, Esther. Very ill.
Is he going to die?
We don't know. He doesn't know. He does know he cannot make the voyage now. Even the short trip to Tunis, where he could rest before going on to Alexandria, even that might kill him. So he needs time.
I knew he hadn't been feeling well. I could see it when we visited.
He tried to persuade Evona to go ahead of him. I could have taken her. Israel and his family could have gone last month. As things stand now, they will probably try to go next month, as if they were simply setting up part of our Spanish business in Istanbul. They will take a loss on some of the property here, but Israel has already established in Istanbul, so he will be able to manage. But Grandfather and Evona can't. That is, Moses can't. Grandmother won't.
All right. We need to be here longer. But how much longer?
You could go with Israel next month. I even suggested that. But Grandfather has been told that it will be suspicious enough when Israel leaves. If you went too, the Council might notice. If that happened, it wouldn't take them long to figure out what we're doing.
David, this sounds very complicated.
It is complicated, Esther, delicate and complicated, but we don't have any choice. We need to cover ourselves. We need to act as if we want to stay in Spain, as if we plan to stay.
But we do want to stay in Spain. At least, I want to stay. And why shouldn't I? Why shouldn't all of us? We've been here since 711. That's what you said. We've been here since 711. Maybe longer.
The fact we want to stay in Spain does not mean we'll be able to. I argued with Grandfather over that point. That was my first reaction, that I wanted to stay, see this through, but he made me see I was being foolishly romantic. We can't stay. This is going to be a second Diaspora. There isn't any other word for it. We might as well be in Jerusalem being driven out by the Romans after the fall of the Second Temple. And the Spanish aren't going to be any more kind than the Romans, for all of their Christianity. It's going to be horrible for Jews who are not prepared. But no matter the time table for the Council, until Grandfather can travel, until he can persuade Evona that he is well enough to travel, we are here. Because I won't leave without them.
And I wouldn't leave without you.
So we have to appear to be staying.
Why can't we just convert? (She looks away for a moment.) Oh, God, I never thought I'd ever say that. But with the way things are . . . with what some of my friends have done, why can't we just convert like they did?
Because Moses Davar is too important. The Inquisition is very concerned about Sephards as influential as he is, just as they were concerned about Simon Rojas.
Simon Rojas? You don't think . . . Surely you don't think that . . .
Right now, I don't think anything. I'm supposed to do things. That's my task. I'm to do things.
So if you read for holy orders . . .
If I read for holy orders . . . and I am well enough educated to do so, that's the irony. I understand Catholic theology better than most of the Spanish who attend seminaries. My Torah studies and history studies . . . all of my work has prepared me. That's what Grandfather's Spanish friends think. If I read for holy orders, I will be such a prize that it will give Grandfather time to finish his work and get well enough to travel. That's the plan, anyway.
(Stands.) This is all so sudden, David, so hard and so sudden.
There's more, Esther. (Looks at her carefully, as if studying her in preparation for his announcement.) I'm to become a bishop.
(Startled, as if she does not comprehend.) A bishop? A bishop in the church?
Yes.
How can you become a bishop?
It's the price Grandfather is charging.
What do you mean it's the price Grandfather is charging?
For me to convert. (Looks at her carefully.) Esther, we're a prominent family. I'm the educated son. The educated grandson. The price Grandfather is charging is that I become a bishop. (After a moment.) There is a bishopric open in Valencia. On the sea, Esther. A port city. It will put us right where we need to be when the time comes.
David, me don't become bishops overnight. Converts especially. What will people think?
What people?
All sorts of people. Jews. Catholics. The people you would serve.
I don't think the church cares much about what people will think. Certainly it doesn't care what Jews think. Besides, it's been done before. It can be done again. Moses Davar has important friends, and they have important friends.
And (suddenly sarcastic, cynical) gold will change hands?
Yes, Esther, (mocking her tone of voice) gold will change hands.
You're right. (Turning away.) This is vile. What you are going to do, it's (turning to David) wrong.
Yes, it's wrong. Except it's wrong within a greater wrong.
Now you're rationalizing.
I am being what Grandfather wants. Practical. Smart. I am trying to hold the family together. That's why you have to convert, too.
Me? Why me?
If I read for holy orders, if I become a bishop, it would not seem right . . . we would not seem sincere if you remained a Jew.
But we aren't sincere.
But we can't appear to not be sincere.
David, this is awful.
I want to make sure that you are safe, out of harm's way.
And I can be out of harm's way by converting? By becoming something I am not?
There is a convent near . . .
A convent? A convent? You want me to enter a convent?
There is a convent, the Order of the Sisters of the Gentle Heart, outside of Valencia.
David, what are you saying? What does Grandfather want from me?
We want you to be safe. We want to know where you are, and we want you to be safe.
And you think I will be safe in a convent?
You will be safer than you would be here.
And what am I supposed to do at the convent?
You will become a novitiate, one who is beginning.
I am to become a nun?
Yes.
While you're becoming a bishop?
I have to be free to move about, to come and go, at least some. There are things I will have to do in Valencia to prepare things for Grandfather. And I will be your bishop. I will be able to come and visit with you.
And what will we talk about, David? What you're becoming or what I'm becoming?
Don't make this more difficult than it already is, Esther.
And how could I possibly make it more difficult that it already is?
I said it was going to be complicated. I said it was going to be wrong. But it's the only way.
So I'm to be shut up in a Catholic convent with an order of nuns? Me? A Jew? I'm to become a nun, and you're to become a bishop . . . my bishop, so you can . . . what? What would you call it, David? Besides madness. Pure, absolute madness.
(Waits for a moment, his voice suddenly cold, resolved.) The Inquisition is the madness, Esther, and the Inquisition has a vision, a Jew-free Spain. We are to be gone. Removed. One way or another. By conversion or expulsion or death. Your friends have chosen conversion. Some of them may even be sincere. Or they think they are sincere. But others . . . more than you know . . . are really crypto-Jews. Secret Jews. Marranos the Spanish call them. People who say Jewish prayers in secret. So my becoming a bishop is important. Not just because it will appear the Catholics have won a prize, a Jewish scholar, and not just because I can give Grandfather time to become well so he can travel, (looks at her carefully) and not even so I can protect you. But so I can protect others like us, Marranos, who know that every time they go into a closed room and say the kiddish they are risking death. Everytime they read the Torah they are inviting disaster.
And how can you protect them, David?
I can protect them by looking the other way. By not pursuing accusations against them. For as long as I can, at least. That's Grandfather's plan.
To have you protect other Marranos?
Yes.
So you've gone from being a scholar, a translator and scholar in Barcelona, who our Father wanted to become a rabbi, you've gone from being a scholar to a trader in Alexandria to what? A Catholic bishop in Valencia? The protector of his family. The protector of (spits out the words) crypto-Jew Marranos.
(Almost coldly.) Yes, it has been arranged.
And I am to become a nun?
Yes.
And when the nuns find out I am Jewish? What then? Who will they tell?
First, you will not be the first Jew who has converted and become a nun. Second, if they were to tell anyone . . . if you did something suspicious, they would tell me.
Why wouldn't they just tell the Council?
They would have to tell me.
(Sarcastically.) Ah.
Yes, Esther, ah. (After a moment.) Besides, what are you going to do that will make them suspicious?
I don't know. Maybe I will tell them all about the great Sephardic poets and scholars Grandfather told me about. Maybe I will recite Judah Halevi's poetry for them during the evening meal. They'd love that, wouldn't they?
Esther, you're not being fair.
I'm not being fair? I'm not being fair? How dare you stand there and tell me that I'm not being fair? What do I know about being a nun? How in the world am I supposed pass myself off as a Catholic nun?
(Suddenly, sharply.) I hate this, Esther. If Grandfather were well, if Uncle Israel didn't have children he had to take away as quickly as possible, if our own Father had not died, maybe all of this . . . maybe our defense against the madness could have been arranged in a better way, a way that would make you happier.
Now you're not being fair.
Fair or not, I will be your bishop within months. I will be able to visit with you when I attend to my duties at the convent. I will be able to keep you informed. I will be able to keep Grandfather informed, just as he keeps me informed. And all the while I will hate every moment of every day. Keep that in mind, please. When Moses told me tonight all that he knew . . . all that he had arranged . . . I thought I would become ill, right there in his room, but I didn't. I didn't have that luxury. And neither do you. So don't indulge yourself. (Looks at her intently, his anger at the situation mixed with his fear for her safety and his love for her person; his tone of voice becoming more guarded.) Now, what would you have me do differently? I cannot leave Moses and Evona. I cannot abandon you. I cannot abandon the others who are trying to find ways out of Spain. So what would you have me do, Esther? I have no other way to be faithful. As mad as it may seem, I have no other way to be faithful to all that I hold sacred. I am a Jew. I am not an apostate. But I don't know any other way to be faithful than to try to live.
(Turning to him, speaking slowly, deeply shaken by what has happened but equally moved by his concern for her.) Yes, you are right, David. You are right. No matter how I feel, you are right. So I will be faithful with you, David. (Shakes her head, moving away from him, turning to speak to him.) It's just so hard to believe.
I know it's hard to believe.
And he's afraid, isn't he? (David looks at Esther, but he does not reply.)
Grandfather is afraid, isn't he, David?
(A long pause. He looks at her intently. Then he answers.) Yes, Esther, Grandfather is afraid.
Which is why he spent his evenings telling me about important Sephardim. So I would remember. So someone would remember.
Yes, so someone would remember.
(Shaking her head and moving slowly away from David, then turning to him.) It's amazing, isn't it. Horrible and amazing. Just hours ago all I wanted in the whole world was for your first evening home to be joyful. (Silent for a moment.) You'd been gone for so long, and I'd been so lonely. (She almost smiles, more at herself than at David. She nods as she prepares to speak again.) And it seemed so simple as I thought about how it might be . . . to greet you and sit with you and have you tell me the stories that I knew you'd bring home. (Trying to control her emotions.) But nothing is simple, is it, David. Nothing is ever simple, is it. Not in Spain, at least. Not for Jews in Spain.
You're right, Esther. Nothing is ever simple. Nothing has ever been simple for Jews in Spain. (They look at each other. The candles continue to burn.) (Lights fade to blackout.)
(End of Act One.)
| Scene One | Scene Two | Scene Three | Scene Four |
Copyright 1995/1996 Ronald John Vierling
For production information, please contact Joyce Davidsen at Celnor House, 407-677-6288.
A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology,
College of Education, University of South Florida © 2005.