“I shall be delighted to have the privilege of having Seder with you,” replied David, his heart going out more and more to the fatherly old man.

“What Shool will you be going to for Passover?  I can get you a seat in mine if you haven’t arranged.”

“Thank you, but I promised Mr. Birnbaum to come to the little synagogue of which he is President.  It seems they have a scarcity of Cohenim, and they want me to bless the congregation, I suppose.”

“What!” cried Reb Shemuel excitedly.  “Are you a Cohen?”

“Of course I am.  Why, they got me to bless them in the Transvaal last Yom Kippur.  So you see I’m anything but a sinner in Israel.”  He laughed—­but his laugh ended abruptly.  Reb Shemuel’s face had grown white.  His hands were trembling.

“What is the matter?  You are ill,” cried David.

The old man shook his head.  Then he struck his brow with his fist. “Ach, Gott!” he cried.  “Why did I not think of finding out before?  But thank God I know it in time.”

“Finding out what?” said David, fearing the old man’s reason was giving way.

“My daughter cannot marry you,” said Reb Shemuel in hushed, quavering tones.

“Eh?  What?” said David blankly.

“It is impossible.”

“What are you talking about.  Reb Shemuel?”

“You are a Cohen.  Hannah cannot marry a Cohen.”

“Not marry a Cohen?  Why, I thought they were Israel’s aristocracy.”

“That is why.  A Cohen cannot marry a divorced woman.”

The fit of trembling passed from the old Reb to the young man.  His heart pulsed as with the stroke of a mighty piston.  Without comprehending, Hannah’s prior misadventure gave him a horrible foreboding of critical complications.

“Do you mean to say I can’t marry Hannah?” he asked almost in a whisper.

“Such is the law.  A woman who has had Gett may not marry a Cohen.”

“But you surely wouldn’t call Hannah a divorced woman?” he cried hoarsely.

“How shall I not?  I gave her the divorce myself.”

“Great God!” exclaimed David.  “Then Sam has ruined our lives.”  He stood a moment in dazed horror, striving to grasp the terrible tangle.  Then he burst forth.  “This is some of your cursed Rabbinical laws, it is not Judaism, it is not true Judaism.  God never made any such law.”

“Hush!” said Reb Shemuel sternly.  “It is the holy Torah.  It is not even the Rabbis, of whom you speak like an Epicurean.  It is in Leviticus, chapter 21, verse 7:  ’Neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband; for he is holy unto his God.  Thou shalt sanctify him, therefore; for he offereth the bread of thy God; he shall be holy unto thee, for I the Lord which sanctify you am holy.’”

For an instant David was overwhelmed by the quotation, for the Bible was still a sacred book to him.  Then he cried indignantly: