Bread Givers

Zalmon pays Reb Smolinsky five hundred dollars for the matchmaking. Shenah tells Reb Smolinsky that he should think about becoming a rabbi, but he does not want to earn money with his religion. Reb Smolinsky finds an advertisement for a grocery store in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Since the store owner is returning to Europe, he is selling his grocery store for four hundred dollars. Reb Smolinsky decides to travel to New Jersey to buy the store. Shenah makes him promise that he will not buy the store before she sees it.

Later, Sara and Shenah go to the store and see that it is busy. After the store closes, Shenah asks the owner if she can take stock of the store, but the man tells her that Reb Smolinsky already bought the store earlier. The owner gives the key to Reb Smolinsky and leaves. Smolinsky tells Shenah that he had to make a fast decision because another man was trying to buy it when he got there. Sara accidentally knocks over a row of oatmeal boxes. Reb Smolinsky and Shenah help her clean it up and see that the boxes behind the first box are all empty. Shenah realizes that the owner of the store is only selling things out of the first row of boxes, and everything behind the row is empty or filled with sawdust. They realize that the prices in the window are too low to make a profit, which is why the store was so busy when they arrived. Shenah wants to find the man who swindled them, but Reb Smolinsky did not ask for his name. They change the prices on the window back to the original price.

The next day, the other man who wanted to buy the store comes in. Reb Smolinsky tries to sell him the store, but the man explains that the previous grocery store owner paid him to pretend to buy the store. After he leaves, Shenah yells at Reb Smolinsky for not waiting for her before he bought the store. Reb Smolinsky and Shenah argue because Reb Smolinsky thinks Shenah should have more faith in God, and Shenah can only think about the money they lost.

The Smolinskys move into the back of the store. Shenah works hard to restock so they have some goods to sell. Sara hates the town because the people are more hardened than their neighbors on Hester Street. Sara becomes bitter and tells Shenah that she should never have married Reb Smolinsky because he lives off his wife and children. Reb Smolinsky comes into the store and chases away one of their only customers because he criticizes what the man wants to buy.

Sara gets in a fight with Reb Smolinsky because she sold a pound of rice for ten cents instead of twelve cents because a woman did not have the money. Reb Smolinsky insults her, and Sara realizes that he has been bullying her for years and decides to leave. She grabs her things and tells Reb Smolinsky that she is going back to New York to live with Bessie or Mashah. Reb Smolinsky tells her that she cannot live alone in the world as a seventeen-year-old girl because she needs a father or husband to look after her. Sara tells him that she is an American now and that she will not let him ruin her life like he did her sisters’ lives. Reb Smolinsky slaps Sara and she leaves the store.

Sara takes the train to New York. She arrives at Zalmon’s fish store before it closes and sees Zalmon and Bessie surrounded by haggling customers. Sara goes to the back of the store where Bessie’s six stepchildren are sleeping, and she dozes off at the table. Zalmon wakes her up later, and Sara explains to them that she left Reb Smolinsky. Zalmon tells her that she must go home in the morning. In the middle of the night, Bessie tells Sara that she is brave to get away from Reb Smolinsky and recommends that she go to Mashah’s house.

At Mashah’s house, she finds Mashah pleading with the milkman. The milkman refuses to give her milk because she has not paid for the last few weeks. Mashah begs for him to have compassion for her children, but the milkman leaves. Mashah tells Sara that Moe uses his money on suits and does not leave money for his family. Sara offers to work and give them money if they let her live with them, and Mashah brightens at the thought. Mashah makes dinner, and they wait for Moe to come home, but he does not return until later. When Mashah asks him where he was, he tells her that he went to a restaurant for dinner because he doesn’t want to come home to a woman who has lost her beauty. Sara sees how this insult hurts Mashah, and she tells Moe that if he were her husband, she would kill him for speaking to her that way. Sara tells him that it is his fault Mashah lost her beauty because he wore her out with his spending and his lack of care. Moe kicks Sara out of the home.