“So I took the matzo out of my pocket, threw it in the gutter, and jumped on it.

“‘Why have you done that?’ he said.  ’Because I don’t want you to think badly of me.’  ‘Yet you did not care for what God thought!’ he said.  ’Don’t you know that our Rabbis say that a bad thought is just as evil as a bad deed; for, if we check a bad thought or wish, it helps us not to put the bad thoughts or wish into action.  If we were as anxious to please God as we are to please our friends, and to be as well thought of by Him, we should check our bad thoughts before they led us to do bad deeds.’

“He said, too, that he was sorry to see that I cared more for his approval than I did for God’s approval.  I promised for the future to try to overcome any evil thoughts or wishes that came into my mind so that I should not be so tempted to do wrong—­in fact I would try to check a bad thought in the bud.

“Then he forgave me, and we parted good friends, for I love him.  He is exactly what I think Jonathan must have been to David, and I will write more about him in another letter.

“When I arrived home, we had to prepare and cleanse the house for Passover.  We had to do all the work ourselves, for we could not hire any helpers except, by a stroke of luck, the ‘white-washers,’ as they are called.

SPRING CLEANING

“All the furniture is put out of doors, not even a pin is left in the house.  As everyone does the same, a stranger passing by would think there must be a ‘jumble sale’ going on.

“Passover time is usually like lovely English summer weather.  As very little water can be got, guess how everything is scrubbed and rubbed!

“Outside Meah Sheorim there are large holes from which clay has been taken for building purposes, and during the winter-rains they get filled with water and they look nearly as large as ponds.

“We carried or pushed all the furniture to one of these ponds, took sand moistened with a little water, and rubbed the furniture till it was white and clean.  This we have to do three times:  such is the rule.  If any of the furniture was polished, you can imagine that not much of the polish was left after all this scrubbing and rubbing.

“We threw into the pond whatever we could, and as it was not deep, we pulled up our trousers, and washed those pieces of furniture in the water.  Some threw in boards, and we made see-saws and played on them till one of us fell in.  It was such fun!  Sometimes the furniture got mixed, and it was hard to tell to whom it belonged.  Indeed, I never enjoyed myself so much as on this Erev Passover.  Even more than in London when I went to see Sindbad the Sailor.  There is plenty of fun going on when we are left free, but that is not often, you may be sure.  The best fun we had was when someone threw a chair into the pond and sat on it while other boys pushed it along.  Somebody else threw in a barrel and a few of us got on it, and then over we went into the water.