Original subtitles

Amen.

Amen.

Give me your jacket.

They don't mean it.

Of course they mean it. Do it to me.

Yeah.

I stopped listening to them a long time ago.

They're very smart, especially your mother, but not what they know of love,

those two.

We'll see.

So fast.

Got it.

What about Kaddish?

Who taught you Kaddish?

No one taught me Kaddish. Your father?

No, my father.

My father was not a very good teacher.

I listened. I listened to the old men and show.

Words.

To tell the truth, I don't even know if I'm saying the right words.

Okay.

We move past.

I want to go with you.

I can't go very far.

When you move, I want to go with you.

Papa, sit.

For subsidized housing, there are forms to fill out.

There is a list.

Waiting list.

Always list.

The rule of minyan is laid down in the Mishnah.

David, read.

Because the Gemara states, every act of sanctification requires at least ten

men.

These are the rules.

The rabbis found support for the rules in the Torah, from a story in the Book

Numbers.

David! Where are you, David?

Hashem is in the words, and the words are in the Torah.

It's not so hard to tell them what they want to hear.

Whatever's in the bucket must be right, even if it's wrong.

David! David!

God, this is a toy road, David.

Give me that.

My grandfather looked thin.

He is thin. Same thin. No, he looked closer. He's not getting enough to eat.

Neither are you. Neither am I.

And your mother, she, uh...

She likes new house? It's okay.

That is all.

She couldn't wait to get away.

It's only a few blocks away.

For her, Latvina, practically another country.

Practically another country.

No, I won't have it. What's wrong with normal school, regular high school?

David, please.

He knows already the language. He can recite all the prayers. Recite? What

this mean, recite?

Like parents?

If he wants to live, he could live. Do you understand any of it? Do you? Oh,

a fucking word. But this is not about me.

At his age, it was already working.

Take the money out of my salary.

Did I say anything about money? Take the money out of my salary.

It's not so easy as a few prayers in Hebrew. You will see.

remember school in Russia?

Yes. Every morning.

It's not so bad. Every morning I sent you to school and every afternoon you

back with your book muddy and ripped and your little body was covered with

bruises and belts.

Maybe this was not so bad for you, but for a mother?

There is no worse torture you can imagine.

You cannot turn your back on education, chance to learn.

Public school is an education. But in Jewish school, no one can beat you for

being a Jew.

Hello, my friend. Come, get in.

We can wait.

No, the course.

It's stupid.

Where

are

you going?

It's a bright beat.

It will.

Man.

What about you?

We would have made something special for you.

And for you.

Well, this is all that I need.

Your mother once asked your grandmother why she didn't leave Russia when she was

a young woman.

Before the war, during the war.

She was waiting for you to come home.

I always thought about this, as if there were options.

As if you could just run away from yourself.

What did Bobby say?

Look into my eyes.

That's what Bobby said.

So your mother looked in Bobby's eyes and she didn't see anything.

Exactly, said Bobby.

Because I have nothing to hide.

Okay, sure. Thank you. Thank you.

Who was that?

That was an opportunity for an apartment, but it didn't come through.

Who is that?

That is me.

I don't know very well the man I was then.

Grandmother had this photograph taken because she did not think that I would

survive.

Memory is no substitute.

You have no bills for today and then we will see you again July 21st.

He can sleep in my room. I can sleep on the couch. Your grandfather is a war

hero. He is a proud and pious man.

He cannot manage there.

You have to do something. He's just waiting there. I'm already paying a

of his rent.

Don't tell him he doesn't know this.

And don't tell your father.

Mr. Seidenbaum, you know my son?

No.

We have some work to do.

One donut?

Need a place to cry?

It's okay.

They don't usually last that long.

Mother knows what she's doing, huh?

So much davening, so many rules.

I didn't have such an education.

There were hardly any books.

The fact that I can read Hebrew is miracle enough.

I was hoping that whatever you learned, that you would teach me.

What I learned? Does it really matter?

The rabbi said you can't eat an orange on Shabbos, but the peeling is labor.

What? What? Perhaps I have eaten an orange on Shabbos.

If that's what he said, I want to know. That's what's written.

David, come here.

The evening before this bar mitzvah, a boy goes up to a rabbi and says, Rabbi,

I'm afraid.

Rabbi says, it's only natural to be nervous before you go to a mitzvah. No,

Rabbi, you don't understand. I am afraid.

What are you afraid of?

I am not yet certain that I believe in God.

So Rabbi gives the boy a big shake in the shoulder and he says,

What?

You forget?

I am not yet certain that I believe in God.

That's what Rabbi says to boy.

I am not yet certain.

No one should force you, David.

No one.

And the waiting is the worst part.

Because you don't know when your stupid little friend will go back to Siberia.

My apologies, Mrs. Leviathan. I will be right with you.

You can go change.

Yeah. You're always there, okay?

Only a woman will be thrown with food.

When you have to give it on the muzzle.

Got it?

Woman!

I promised your mother that I would not teach you anything. I will not give you

an uppercut on the muzzle. Nothing at all!

What did she tell you?

That when they beat you, they beat you to death.

Shut up!

Hello?

What can I get you?

Vodka.

Got ID?

Come on. Can't you see the boy needs a drink? I mean, look at him.

You know what? Never mind.

I will have a vodka. On the rocks?

No. Neat.

Look, he may be on the young side of legal, but he drinks like one of us.

Tell me, do you know the difference between the good stuff and the crap that

just poured you?

I'm a Russian.

Get him one from the top shelf then.

This is why we cannot find him apartment at the trip. People will die in this

apartment. Don't say it. I don't wish it. Don't say it. When he goes, he goes

quickly. I've already spent too many nights living on his floor.

The couch was worse.

Of course it was.

This is why I slept on the floor.

Where have you been?

I get calls from school, then from your father. What happened to you?

Who did this to you?

I'll be here.

David?

All the answers are in the book.

Everything.

It's all in the book.

My daughter has tried everything, Rabbi. There are no apartments.

Listen to what I'm telling you.

You should speak to Salman.

He's a Romanian.

You should speak directly to him and give him this letter.

Rabbi... The building has a small synagogue inside.

Not as grand as this one, but it doesn't matter.

Salman cannot draw a minion for Shabbos, and if no minion is a serious problem

for him, people will go somewhere else.

You are a pious man, and you should be an excellent candidate for this role.

Thank you, Rabbi.

Okay.

Holocaust day is tomorrow. And today you will take your grandfather to his

appointment. Today we have to set up the things. All this stuff has been in the

basement since last year. It's only going to get dirtier. Then don't touch

anything. Make sure he wears his new suit also.

And take bath. It's not so far he can walk. If he walks, it will take forever.

He will find a way of talking himself out of the running along the way. This

what he does before he even gets there. He should not be breathless.

If he has to pass the election process, he should be healthy.

Why would manager pick someone who looks to be on his deathbed? He would have to

go through process all over again.

Probably used to it by now.

Make sure he impresses upon this diamond the high level of his religious

commitment. He is more committed to God than to anyone else. I know this.

You will see.

And give the man this.

It's his finest Russian vodka.

He's Romanian.

Romanians don't drink?

No, you can't walk that far. It's not like the man's going anywhere. Where

he go? I'm telling you, we should walk.

This meeting is a waste of time. You don't know that. I do know that. It's a

waste of time.

Besides, we have nothing to give you.

Not even vodka.

What?

What are you looking at me for?

I have ice.

Here. I'm fine.

Take.

Take ice.

This is my uncle, Dovid.

He was a fine man.

Yes.

I know very well.

Yes.

Atheists. One is the product of Stalin, the other of Hitler.

What do you say to a man that he asks where God was when the Germans were

shooting his parents, throwing them into a hole?

They teach you the answer to that in your yeshiva?

Hmm. I didn't think so.

But who here hasn't lost some to the Nazis?

And I lost my grandparents, three beautiful sisters, and Uncle Kadim.

What am I supposed to do?

My problem is, one man... He who saves one man

saves the world.

One man is not enough.

To make the minion here, I need two men.

You must both come.

Then I am sure I can make an apartment available to you. May take a little

Even a few months, but... What are a few months?

In Brighton Beach.

Thank you.

Good man.

I don't understand one fucking word of Hebrew.

But I thank God it takes only one arm to pour, one arm to drink.

So there is no disadvantage to my situation.

Except with the women.

The women don't like it.

But it takes only one hand to... Your grandfather has all

his parts.

Mm -hmm.

How did you know?

An old Russian Jew.

And you are here.

Between the leaves.

It's been a nice little while.

I'm sure he didn't forget anything. No.

As long as he's alive, he'll stay here forever.

Once a soldier, always a soldier.

Good Shabbos. Good Shabbos.

Babu? Everyone loves Babu.

Itzik has a real voice for it, but he loses his breath nowadays.

My voice is not so entertaining, but we are always glad for the company.

You are invited as well.

It was at this moment precisely that he found he could not write.

Something had happened to his arms, his legs, his feet.

He began to scream in his great bewildered terror and felt

himself indeed begin to move, not upwards towards the light, but down

again, a sickness in his bowels, a tightening of his loin strings.

He felt himself turning.

again and again across the dusty floor as though God's toe had

touched him lightly.

Where'd you come from?

I don't know. It's a long story.

You talk. That's a start.

Tell me later.

It's very nice, comfortable.

Still, I prefer the old one.

It fit in better.

But tell me, how did you get this upstairs?

Furniture's not supposed to go through the lobby.

Your neighbors.

Where? You know, the soldier and the poet. They said it would be okay.

The two men who lived next door, they were neighbors in the building where

lived before. Their wives had been friends.

Herschel's wife survived the war in our cellar.

Poland, I believe.

A few years ago, Itzik's wife died, and he put himself on the list for the

subsidized housing.

So, uh, you boys will stay for dinner?

Uh, I only made for two.

Yeah, but they worked so hard. Oh,

we'll make two.

Okay. A short time after Itzik's wife died, Hershel's wife also died, and he

himself on the same list.

He's the small one.

Isik had suitcases full of cash, I'm told.

And a son in Chicago who was very successful.

So for him, there was no urgency.

But for Herschel, he's an intellectual, you know.

What value is fancy ideas and pretty words if you only have a few coins in

pocket? And without his wife's government check?

Herschel did not afford where he was to live.

So, he moved into the ethics department.

Who knows

who's helping who?

His name came up first on the list.

You've been to their apartment yet?

No, not yet.

I've still extended many invitations, but... And?

Well, there was always something that needed to be done.

Done?

What needed to be done?

The food is delicious.

Yes, it's very tasty.

So, Nathan, how's your mother?

She's not talking to me.

I told her I was joining the army.

The IDF.

She wanted you to be a soldier.

She could have moved Israel to begin with.

Who talked you into this?

The yeshiva?

Remember the airplane?

The plane took off.

We were over the clouds, over the ocean.

We thought it was going to be like that.

Here.

But we got here.

It's only this.

It's only this.

Then you come back, right?

There he is. There's an ice cream muncher in the shower.

You young person.

Get me some water. The devil has me by the throat.

has arrived.

He is joking with you.

This is how he jokes.

When you are done with the light, you could take a look at the toilet.

It would have done, but it's not a good idea now that he is not feeling so well.

Oh, it's wonderful.

When you can do something, it takes only a minute.

When you can't, you stay in the dark forever.

Do you want me to fix the toilet?

You are a plumber, too?

My brother, he was strong like you, but not as big.

In the settle, there was not so much nutrition in cabbage.

He was a fighter when it was not a good idea to be one.

In our town, there was a blacksmith, a pole.

He had arms like legs. For fun, he cracked my skull with his hammer.

My brother, he broke that pole's arm as if it were a birch branch.

I'm not that strong.

We surprise ourselves.

Where's your brother now?

smell like a real erosion.

Worse, it's a good spirit.

In the army, we all slept together in a pile, heads buried in the warm

parts of another man's body.

Our commander would find us like that every morning.

Get up.

Get up. He would kick us and then make us march.

That way he could tell who would live and who would die.

He looked to see if there was still life left in our legs.

Such a man. A real Odessa character, right out of the pages of Bubble.

Do you know Bubble?

Not really.

What a writer.

The wisdom of my grandfather sat in my head.

We are born for the pleasure of work, fighting, love.

We are born for that and nothing else.

You will enjoy it.

It's a grew up on Bubble Street.

Really? When I was your age, I was already

a...

You like the fights?

It ignores all the Ukrainian fighters.

My father was a boxing coach in Russia at the local clubs, but he trained

many of the champions when they were first starting out. But once they start

winning, they take them away, give them to other coaches.

Yes. So now he's a physical therapist.

He gives massage.

To lots of middle -aged women.

He likes that.

My brother, for him, my survival was the reason he had to survive.

Many were the times

when he might have been able to get away, to slip through the holes.

I know this now.

He was strong, there were ways, but he stayed.

True me.

When together was being liquidated,

We were put on a train, and he pushed us towards the big door where there

was more air and a chance for water.

And when the big door opened, he must have been able to make deals with the

couple so that he and I would be selected for work and not the showers.

Maybe it was just luck.

My mind is so full of tricks now.

I don't know how he survived.

Got away.

Except whenever I was hungry, he found food.

Whenever I was cold, he wrapped me in his arms.

also a cause of death in and of itself.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hey.

I want some coffee.

It's not fresh.

What?

I bought

a lot of

books in the club.

I wasn't really planning on showing up.

It just kind of happened.

Yes.

What about the time before that?

What was that?

A rehearsal.

I didn't know what was inside.

You can crash here for a while.

I don't think I can sleep.

Then read.

I saw you reading this.

Hm?

At the bar that other day.

You were reading it.

That's it.

Oh. Oh.

He smiled up at Alicia, and his tears ran down, and Sister McCandless began to

sing. Lord, I ain't no stranger now.

She's singing.

Keep reading.

Rise up, Johnny, said Alicia again.

Are you saved, boy?

Yes, said John.

Oh, yes, and the words came upward, it seemed, of themselves, and the new voice

God had given him. What does Baldwin mean by all this?

About being saved.

You know, like, born again. I don't think he's been saved.

What do you mean?

John knows he has to talk about being saved with his father, but

the music he hears in his ears, what he feels inside is a secret still,

that he isn't a stranger to himself anymore.

He can see inside himself.

Revelations.

See you guys later.

So smart all of a sudden.

Really like the book a lot.

That part where his brother gets in a fight.

Ah, so vivid.

I can't stop thinking about it. And when he picks up his little sister and tells

her to escape.

She was a dentist where we lived.

A lot of good Soviet, you know, bureaucrats were her patients.

They didn't want her to leave, so when we did leave, they took all of her

documents, her license, her diplomas.

What's that?

I wouldn't really matter. She had to pass all the tests again here anyway.

So she took this job.

As a receptionist?

After the dentist leaves, she sees patients of her own.

I have waited my whole life to use these words.

I don't know

Are these your boyfriends?

Come on.

Sit down.

Who are they?

People.

Men.

Men I know.

I'm Jewish.

Why the lip? Stop it.

Why?

You don't understand?

Do you know anything?

When someone gets sick...

I write his name down.

And then he gets sicker.

And then he dies.

I'm here. I'm sorry.

You don't need them. I'm here.

Mexico loves donuts.

And now you can hardly eat a single one.

You and your wife never had any children?

No.

The war, after the war, there were two kinds of people.

There were those...

who felt such a responsibility to ensure the future of the Jewish people.

And then there were people like my wife, people who were convinced

that the world itself was irrefutably evil.

These were the two kinds.

I was neither one nor the other. For me, if joy exists in the world, then

joy certainly exists.

Even if you don't have children?

After the war, there was only one kind of people.

The kind that lived.

She was one of the lucky ones.

She did not think so.

Why can't you look at me?

You make me sick.

Her father had a good business tanning leather in his village.

He made plans with the Polish man who owned the other tannery.

He offered him all his inventory, all his tools,

if that man would hide them.

The kindness of strangers.

They were not strangers.

They were neighbors.

When the time came, the man said it was impossible to hide a whole family.

Only the little girl, my wife, could stay in the attic.

So she didn't see them again?

That man visited her many times in the attic.

Sometimes he even let her out at night after his wife fell asleep.

This is a true story. You must never tell your parents this because I will go

prison. And I want to meet your parents.

Anyway,

look at this girl. Look how beautiful this girl is. She's so beautiful.

I was so happy.

I was laughing so hard. Not as hard as the time they came to the dentist's

office and I gave them laughing gas.

Do you want a drink?

Sure. Thank you.

David, get us a drink.

Get us a drink.

He isn't handsome, I will give you that.

In a slightly mean way.

I want to look at the book.

You think he's smart, too?

You think he actually reads?

We all have our problems.

These little things.

It's not worth it.

You'll understand someday.

Still wet behind the ears.

The good ones are all gone anyway.

Thank you.

Okay.

Go home, David.

What'd I do?

Go home.

thank you

You don't have to do that now.

It takes time coming tomorrow. I don't want there to be any fighting.

In Auschwitz, there were small mountains of shoes.

Shoes that had walked countless miles in untold humiliations.

That was the value in these shoes.

Shoes without soles.

The Jews, they buried in ditches and turned them to ash. But the shoes, the

Germans wanted to keep.

Can I do anything?

Yes.

I don't think that it's a good and good decision to have this.

Perhaps he didn't want me to be a diver.

I like her.

She's a very nice girl.

Alicia.

Alicia. Alicia. Stop saying her name like that. Like what? Her father is a

successful businessman.

He sells cars.

He has car dealerships on Long Island that he owns.

What is their home like? I don't know. It's a big house. Go there. Meet her

parents. Listen to you. What? I should not like her?

Her father can be a big help for you two. Really, there's no point in talking

about it.

Okay, okay, okay. I like her too.

She's a really pretty girl.

You think so?

Itzik Sloma Rakov.

Itzik was an unusual man.

What sort of life he had in Odessa, I cannot say in the slightest.

He came to this country already an older man and then became successful in the

transport business.

He supported his family, he made jobs for other immigrants, helped them get on

their feet.

Only in his last few years he discovered good deeds.

But then he never missed a Sabbath prayer.

private service, and he gave generously to our community.

He was a man of few words, so perhaps few words need to be spoken.

But is there anyone here who would want to say anything more about Itzhak?

If someone has something to say and sits in silence, they will feel regret.

Living a long life is a blessing. Today it is a curse.

Itzik was my last, my

dearest friend.

Every word that he said, he meant.

He liked to listen to me read.

He understood only a few words of Hebrew, but all of the prayers were like

music in his ears.

As the father has mercy on his son,

so the Lord has mercy on those who fear him.

For he knows our devising, recalls that we are dust.

Men's days are like grass, like the bloom of the

field, thus he blooms.

When wind passes over him, he is gone, and his place will no

longer remember him.

But the Lord's kindness is forever and ever over those who

fear him.

These are the words of David.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Thank you for helping to bury my father.

Look at them.

Who knows how many they have robbed and cheated and screwed.

He spent seven years in jail, my father.

Did you know that?

I have half -brothers and sisters all over Russia.

I don't know how many.

For him,

Nothing was forbidden.

That was my father, you understand?

He was like this.

Like this.

Very kind of you.

A mitzvah.

It's nothing.

Mitzvah always said, have a pretty one.

Always very well made up.

I am so sorry.

My cousin came from Moldova.

Nine is a bit sick you're out.

You must make her stop.

Well, I thought it was very nice that she brought some food. She's already

trying to put him out on the street.

What do you expect from old Jews, David? Better.

You can expect better. Old people are no better than children.

David, everyone knows someone who's underweight English, so not to act would

guarantee that someone with less scruples will succeed in getting ethics

What did you learn there? The Torah? No, David, I learned it in life.

Zalman. Zalman.

Do what Salman does.

Let him fit Shiva.

Listen, my brother -in -law is a good Jew, and his Hebrew is excellent, you

see. And he has a grandson, a good Shiva boy.

Examine all of it.

Travel your road again and tell the truth about it.

Sing it or shout or testify or keep it to yourself.

But know whence it came.

You okay?

Something for you.

God bless you.

Amen.

Like the first light of evening is in a room in which we rest and for small

reason think the world imagined is the ultimate good.

This is therefore the intensest rendezvous.

It is in that thought that we collect ourselves.

Out of all the indifferences.

Into one thing.

Within a single thing.

A single shawl wrapped tightly around us. Since we are poor. A warmth.

A light.

A power.

The miraculous influence.

Here. Now. We forget each other and ourselves.

We feel the obscurity of an order. A whole.

a knowledge, that which arranged the rendezvous within its vital boundary in

mind. We say God and the imagination are one.

How high that highest candle lights the dark.

Out of this same light, out of the central mind, we make a dwelling in the

evening air in which being there together is enough.

Yeah, my friend let me give you right you're studying

Herschel gave them to me if you deserve Ghana have gone with Norbija

How is he doing

Living his apartment. No,

they cannot be I knew it sick many

years

When he was still married.

He was a good man.

Good looking, too.

For a boss not too demanding.

I wanted to be a nurse.

He never complained when I asked for time to study or to take exams.

He let me keep driving after...

Some tests I passed laying collar, but

other tests I cannot pass now.

So many books.

You will be reading long time. I like reading.

I can see that.

But can you make life?

Life? A living?

Okay.

I don't know.

You'd rather I sell cars.

I wanted to be doctor.

Long time ago.

I was smartest girl in my class.

Your grandfather suggested I become dentist.

He was told I would never be accepted to medical school.

My mother, she wanted me to be married like this would solve all my worries.

Does your father know about this?

All of this.

David, is your grandfather all right? Yes.

Yes, he's okay.

Then what can I do for you?

Not for me.

I didn't come for me. I need to speak to you.

About Herschel.

I know the people in the building are talking about him. Yes, of course they

talk about him. Miss Greenberg. And your grandfather.

They have become close.

Intimate.

I told you this place would be good for him. No, Miss Greenberg, that one -armed

Russian. They have their sights on Herschel's apartment.

It was Itzik's apartment.

People keep saying that. It was his name on the list and mine as witness.

Herschel lives there. He's lived there for... Have you been to their apartment?

Why should I have gone there? I was never invited.

There's almost nothing left.

I understand Itzik's son took most of the furnishings. Everything. He took

everything except the books.

I imagine the books would be Herschel. Yes, and even those, he's giving away.

He was always generous.

He's a smart man.

A teacher.

Meanwhile, all the neighbors are scheming to have their relatives skip to

top of the list so they can take his apartment.

Just as you and your grandfather did not too long ago. Aren't you worried about

him? About Herschel? Yes! God damn it!

He has nothing.

He's all alone.

He has you.

You are here on his behalf, aren't you? He doesn't know that I'm here.

He believes God will watch out for him.

Don't you?

Shabbos. Please.

You can't throw him out.

David. No. You know what he's been through. You know what he survived.

Yes.

Far worse than this.

I wasn't sure you would come.

I wasn't sure you'd be alone.

I'm glad you're alone.

Not really.

I know.

You don't understand.

What's so hard to understand?

King Solomon didn't ask Hashem for a long life or riches or revenge.

He asked for an understanding heart.

Not hurtful.

is not only Herschel.

I mean, a group of wandering men looking to

find a place to lay down their heads in peace.

The pharaohs, Hitler, Stalin, all the foot soldiers in the world who tried

to wipe out our little tribe, century after century.

Number of Jews left in the world is small, David.

So small.

But a terrible army has no longer existed at all.

The Book of Wisdom, it says, keep turning the Torah over and over again

everything is in it.

Look in it.

Grow old.

and gray with it but don't turn away from it because there is nothing greater

than it i believe the torah is the word of

god but even i know that it was written by man

Come.

The others?

They should have known.

I would never put a Jew who comes to the synagogue out in the street.

Thieves, adulterers, homosexuals.

I take them all.

Without them, we would never have a minion.

It was you.

What? You.

I was never worried about Herschel or about your grandfather.