one has been heard? The sign is slow to appear, a test of constancy passed with flying colors by Herschel: each succeeding day has been scanned in vain for some modifying intervention. Until at last it did appear, that longed-for sign, unheralded like all divine action and so potent that any word of doubt could not but die away on the lips of even the most hardened unbeliever.
That night Herschel’s topic was the radio, at present the most overriding of all worries. He explains to God in minute detail the incalculable consequences that will result if thoughtlessness and carelessness allow the gossips to overlook a German ear and, before you know it, it’s happened: the gossips are called to account, in line with the present law, together with their silent accessories. And it will be claimed that we are all accessories, that the news has not circumvented a single person, and actually they will be right. Besides, it need not even be a German ear that happens to be nearby; there are also camouflaged German ears, and only You know how many informers are at large among us. Or someone wants to save his own skin and betrays on his own initiative the existence of the radio. There are scoundrels everywhere, You know that too; without Your consent they would not be in this world. Don’t permit the great disaster to overwhelm us, so close to the end, seeing that all these years You have held Your sheltering hand over us and saved us from the worst. For Your own sake, don’t permit it. Don’t let the Germans find out anything about the radio; You know what they are capable of. Or better still, if I may make a suggestion, destroy that cursed radio; that would be the most satisfactory solution.
At this point the lightbulb below the ceiling suddenly begins to flicker. At first Herschel ignores it, but then he looks up with wide eyes: in a flash the significance of this is revealed to him. God has granted his request, his prayers have not been in vain; at the appropriate moment He sends His sign, the acknowledgment of receipt, truly a sign that could not be more practical: this proves He is God! Without power the radio will be doomed to shut up; the more ardently Herschel prays, the more the light flickers. “Don’t stop now!” Roman spurs him on, but there’s no need for him to say it, Herschel knows what is at stake: advice from scoffers is not asked for when bliss beckons as a reward. Fervently he exploits his contact until the crowning success: the light finally goes out, the ultimate word has been spoken. Herschel rushes to the window and scans the other side of the street: not a single curtain shows a glimmer of light, not even in Jacob Heym’s building. We have silenced you, my friend, heavenly silence will reign, take your terrible box and give it to the devil; it’s of no further use to you. And don’t imagine that the power, the loss of which you innocently assume to be a breakdown, will be restored tomorrow: short circuits instigated by the Supreme Being take their time.
Proud and moderately happy, as far as circumstances permit, Herschel, his day’s labors over, goes to bed and serenely accepts Roman’s congratulations.
W orried faces wherever Jacob looks: What’s going to happen? Here they sit, high and dry, with no idea what is going on in the outside world. These intolerable conditions are already in their third day; this is no longer a power failure, this is a natural disaster. Must we really be the victims of this catastrophe too? They had been rash enough to take the joyful reports for granted; they had become addicted to the advance of a few miles every morning, and all day long there was something to hope for and to discuss. And now this dismal silence. Our first step each morning has led us to the light switch; some of us even got up in the middle of the night. We have pressed the switch and obtained the dreaded response that for yet another day Jacob will be no wiser than we are. Only the electricity
That night Herschel’s topic was the radio, at present the most overriding of all worries. He explains to God in minute detail the incalculable consequences that will result if thoughtlessness and carelessness allow the gossips to overlook a German ear and, before you know it, it’s happened: the gossips are called to account, in line with the present law, together with their silent accessories. And it will be claimed that we are all accessories, that the news has not circumvented a single person, and actually they will be right. Besides, it need not even be a German ear that happens to be nearby; there are also camouflaged German ears, and only You know how many informers are at large among us. Or someone wants to save his own skin and betrays on his own initiative the existence of the radio. There are scoundrels everywhere, You know that too; without Your consent they would not be in this world. Don’t permit the great disaster to overwhelm us, so close to the end, seeing that all these years You have held Your sheltering hand over us and saved us from the worst. For Your own sake, don’t permit it. Don’t let the Germans find out anything about the radio; You know what they are capable of. Or better still, if I may make a suggestion, destroy that cursed radio; that would be the most satisfactory solution.
At this point the lightbulb below the ceiling suddenly begins to flicker. At first Herschel ignores it, but then he looks up with wide eyes: in a flash the significance of this is revealed to him. God has granted his request, his prayers have not been in vain; at the appropriate moment He sends His sign, the acknowledgment of receipt, truly a sign that could not be more practical: this proves He is God! Without power the radio will be doomed to shut up; the more ardently Herschel prays, the more the light flickers. “Don’t stop now!” Roman spurs him on, but there’s no need for him to say it, Herschel knows what is at stake: advice from scoffers is not asked for when bliss beckons as a reward. Fervently he exploits his contact until the crowning success: the light finally goes out, the ultimate word has been spoken. Herschel rushes to the window and scans the other side of the street: not a single curtain shows a glimmer of light, not even in Jacob Heym’s building. We have silenced you, my friend, heavenly silence will reign, take your terrible box and give it to the devil; it’s of no further use to you. And don’t imagine that the power, the loss of which you innocently assume to be a breakdown, will be restored tomorrow: short circuits instigated by the Supreme Being take their time.
Proud and moderately happy, as far as circumstances permit, Herschel, his day’s labors over, goes to bed and serenely accepts Roman’s congratulations.
W orried faces wherever Jacob looks: What’s going to happen? Here they sit, high and dry, with no idea what is going on in the outside world. These intolerable conditions are already in their third day; this is no longer a power failure, this is a natural disaster. Must we really be the victims of this catastrophe too? They had been rash enough to take the joyful reports for granted; they had become addicted to the advance of a few miles every morning, and all day long there was something to hope for and to discuss. And now this dismal silence. Our first step each morning has led us to the light switch; some of us even got up in the middle of the night. We have pressed the switch and obtained the dreaded response that for yet another day Jacob will be no wiser than we are. Only the electricity