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leading to the bath itself closed automatically
because of weights and could be opened only
with great strain on the arm musclesan act the
old folks and youngsters could not manageand
so they had to wait until someone strong came
along.
People entering were surrounded immediately
by hot air and steam, with a mixture of smoke that
caused fog and some slight burning of the eyes for
a short time. After a few minutes, they recovered
and their eyes began to make out the dark, polluted
light filtering in through the window panes
covered with steam and dripping with water.
From one corner at the narrow portion of the
entrance, a faint, red light flickered, the "eternal
light" of R. Leyb Krazke, the faithful, long-time
barber of the bathhouse. By this light he serviced
his clientscutting their hair with scissors and,
together with this haircut, providing the benefits
of cupping [bankes, small glass cups "attached"
to the body through suction created by heat],
good for all sorts of pains and backaches that
accompany a cold.
In spite of his age, R. Leyb was quite agile at
his job: he would speedily attach the cups, about
15 of them, up and down the back. While these
were attached to his client's back, R. Leyb, with
nimble, experienced hands, proceeded to cut his
client's hair.
The Eastern Wall In the Bath
Just like the synagogue (not to mention them in
the same breath!), the bathhouse had a kind of
"Eastern Wall"every social class had its place;
the wagon drivers, horse dealers, and portly butch-
FROM DAILY LIFE 165
ers took the northeastern section, closer to the
steam, and they actually saw to it that it came up
from the circle of stones; they were the ones
whose cries of surprise and pleasure filled the
place while they were sweating and being massaged
on the top benches surrounded by steam.
There, near the ceiling, where the air was
dense with so much steam and thick vapor that
it made your breath come short, that's where they
enjoyed it most, splashing a bit of water on their
steaming bodies every few minutes. Throughout,
they let out sighs of pleasure, feeling relief almost
to the point of abandon.
The shopkeepers, merchants, and others in
town who crowded in on the southwestern side
near the mikveh made do with the middle
benches. They whiled away the time talking
with their friends, barrels of lukewarm water at
their feet, into which, occasionally, they dipped
their red handkerchiefs and then patted their
bodieswith great pleasure, accompanied by
sighs of reliefall the while continuing to chat
with their friends.
It's hard to exaggerate the benefit that everyone
derived from the bathhouse, which not only
served as a place to wash their bodies and rejuvenate
their bones. It was no less a place for a bit
of privacy and friendly conversation and, to a
certain extent, for jokes and comic reliefif even
for a brief momentfrom the many worries of
day-to-day existence. In the mikveh they were
released from the bonds of the workaday world
and prepared themselves to enter the throneroom
of the "Sabbath Queen," where they would
rest and enjoy themselves in her presence.