Bread Givers

Ten-year-old Sara is peeling potatoes for dinner when her oldest sister, Bessie, returns to the apartment looking dejected—her search for work must have been futile, Sara guesses. Mashah enters next, giggling and delighting at the pink paper roses she bought from a cart on Hester street. Fania comes in next and recounts fighting with hordes of other young women in line for a chance to work at a factory. In the end, the factory hired only two.

Bessie admonishes Mashah for spending her money on frivolous things like the pink paper roses, but Mashah retorts that she can spend her lunch money however she wishes—it’s not hurting anyone. She adjusts a pretty pink hat on her golden curls and announces her plans to attend a free concert at the park that evening. Mashah, Sara reflects, is materialistic and full of pride. She only works when she has to, otherwise she fixates on her looks. Once she spent some of her paycheck on her own bath towel and toothbrush, wanting to be like the rich people she encountered. From that day forth, everyone in the family knew that Mashah “had no heart, no feelings.”

Mother walks in the door then and cries out when she sees all her daughters home, knowing it means none of them has found work. She laments having six mouths to feed—and is horrified when she sees all Sara’s potato peelings. She admonishes Sara for wasting so much food.  It used to be Sara’s job to rustle through the trash for unburnt pieces of coal, but Sara felt too ashamed and stopped doing it. But now, feeling guilty about the potatoes, Sara picks up a pail and resolves to find coal, even if it makes her feel like a “thief.”

Sara recalls how when her family traveled to America, they took none of their feather beds or kitchen supplies—only Father’s books. Father scoffed that they wouldn’t need any of their old beds or their pots and pans—there’d be plenty in America, “the new golden country.” But his books are “the light of the world.” He insisted, “all America will come to my feet to learn.” No one is allowed to put their things in Father’s room—only his books can be there. Of course, “if God had given Mother a son,” he would have been allowed in Father’s room, and to say prayers after Father’s death. The prayers of women don’t count, according to Father. Because women don’t “count” in God’s eyes, Sara and her mother and sisters must give the best room—and the best food—to Father.

Father arrives home later. When he sees Mother’s upset face, he yells at her to “stop darkening the house with [her] worries.” But Mother retorts that someone must worry—this is the second month they haven’t been able to pay rent. The family sits down to eat. Father says the only food that counts is “God’s Holy Torah.” When he gives Mother a kind look, her face softens.

Then Father tells a story about a poor Rabbi whose wife laments how little God has provided them despite their piety. The Rabbi went out to pray, and the Heavens opened up and gave him a big chunk of gold. He brought it to his wife, who was initially overjoyed. But then she had a dream in which she and her husband were seated at a table in Heaven—but the table was rickety. The Good Angel explained that the gold that God gave the husband came from the table leg—and that’s why the table wobbles. And so, Father asks in conclusion, would Mother rather have her riches on Earth, or in Heaven? Mother admonishes her own “sinful” greed. Still, she reminds Father that their daughters have a life to live on earth. Their oldest is 25 and unmarried, and they have no dowry to help her find a husband.

Mother suggests that Father remove his books from the front room so they can rent it out. Father initially protests, but eventually, he grudgingly gives in.  The next day, Mother sends Sara to Muhmenkeh, the herring woman, for a loaned feather bed. Muhmenkeh, who is poor but generous, helps Sara carry it back home. She suggests ways to furnish the room inexpensively, like  using an empty potato barrel and board for a table. Father’s voice sounds from the kitchen just then. At the sound of his chanting holy verses, Mother’s worried face softens, and she praises Father’s “pure, silken soul,” especially in a downtrodden place like this. 

Just then the collector lady drops by, and the mood immediately darkens when she demands her rent. Father responds to her anger with feigned innocence, promising to pay the woman back a little at a time as soon as his daughters find work. The woman calls Father a “dirty do-nothing” and says if he’d work instead of singing prayers, then he’d have money for rent. In an instant, Father’s peaceful demeanor is replaced with anger. He slaps the woman on both cheeks. As her nose bleeds, he admonishes her for disrespecting the Holy Torah. The collector lady runs out and returns later with two police officers. They take Father away in handcuffs.

Mashah returns shortly after Father has left, gushing over the man who offered to walk her home and blissfully unaware of why everyone is so upset. Mother berates Mashah for her ignorance. Sara, determined to make things right, sets out to peddle something on the streets so the family can have something to eat for dinner. Outside, Muhmenkeh offers to give Sara some old herring to sell. Sara doesn’t want to accept the herring, ashamed, but she eventually gives in. On the street, she yells loudly to passersby. The other salespeople mock her. By the end of the day, Sara has made a 25-cent profit and feels rich. In her heart, all of Hester Street begins to sing and dance. And Sara herself dances all the way home.