When the Angels Left the Old Country: Chapters 5–8

by Sacha Lamb
When all the young people of their tiny Polish village emigrate to America, Ashmedai the demon eventually convinces Uriel the angel to follow them to the rumored Golden Land.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–8, Chapters 9–16, Chapters 17–30, Chapter 31–Epilogue
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. sustenance
    a source of food or nourishment
    The angel, like all angels, required no more sustenance than the Presence of God’s Holiness, but Little Ash needed to eat, or else he could starve and die, as a human would.
  2. enumerate
    specify individually
    Satisfied for the moment working through the details of a plan in his head as he would untangle the meaning of a sentence in Talmud, Little Ash looked away from Reb Fishl and took the chance to enumerate some blessings of his own.
  3. indifferent
    showing no care or concern in attitude or action
    These led to a women’s gallery that looked ready to collapse at any moment, having been affixed to the interior wall by an indifferent carpenter long enough ago that the steps were worn smooth, although how any woman dared place her weight on them was anyone’s guess.
  4. rafter
    one of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof
    The carpenter would have served the community better by building the mechitzeh to divide male from female on solid ground, Little Ash thought, but it served his own purposes at the moment because he wanted to be closer to the rafters.
  5. amiss
    in an improper or mistaken manner
    No one noticed Little Ash, and indeed, even had there been women in the women’s gallery that day, which there were not, they would not have seen anything amiss if they had looked at him.
  6. perusal
    the act of examining or reading carefully
    Little Ash’s most reliable magic, aside from plucking the selfish thoughts out of human heads for his own perusal and amusement, was the ability to change his shape to make himself less conspicuous.
  7. impropriety
    a wrong or indecent act
    Fortunately, however, at the moment he did not need to be taller, and only wanted to be sure that no one should look up and suspect him of impropriety.
  8. remnant
    a small part remaining after the main part no longer exists
    Most demons do not speak to ghosts. They consider ghosts to be rather beneath them, as demons are, albeit in a sideways, backward, or upside-down way, lower orders of B’nei Elohim, and ghosts are merely remnants of the children of Abraham.
  9. eminent
    standing above others in quality or position
    Our Father, while of course an eminent ancestor, does not quite measure up, in the opinion of most demons, and ghosts tend to be preoccupied with a very limited set of concerns, none of which demons, with their superior talents in magic, can put to much use.
  10. qualm
    uneasiness about the fitness of an action
    Little Ash, however, considered himself a socialist, and it was without qualm that he chose to lower himself, metaphorically if not physically, to the prospect of a conversation with these unfortunates.
  11. disquiet
    make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed
    He hoped Essie was not among them, but Little Ash had some experience with murderers and had found on many occasions that the names of their victims disquieted them.
  12. scanty
    lacking in extent or quantity
    Little Ash’s scanty magic was no good for fighting.
  13. sufficient
    of a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement
    As for winning arguments by the strength of his arm, let us not humiliate him with details, but only note that, of the two divine creatures from Shtetl, the angel could have thrown a more respectable punch if sufficiently provoked.
  14. precariously
    in a manner affording no ease or reassurance
    He leaned somewhat precariously over the balcony railing and hissed, to get their attention.
  15. consternation
    sudden shock or dismay that causes confusion
    The ghosts rustled and squeaked in consternation. They had not been expecting anyone to address them, for the very good reason that no one ever had.
  16. complement
    make perfect or supply what is wanting
    Perhaps, being stuck to the ceiling, they found they couldn’t help but develop leathery wings to complement their little grasping fingers, or else it was some deep, ancestral memory that caused humans to lose their shapes and change to something more like other mammals when they died.
  17. paddock
    a pen for horses
    Now Passover had passed over, and Rose, sitting with her pocket notebook in the goat paddock, found herself underlining a number she had calculated herself out of all the newspapers and pamphlets she had read.
  18. mundane
    belonging to this earth or world
    No one would say it, but god forbid it was possible he had become ill on the journey, or lost, or the great holiness of his person had not protected him from such mundane and worldly things as government officials and thieves.
  19. unaccountable
    not to be explained
    Her hair was terribly frizzy from doing chores, and her cheeks were red from excitement, or perhaps from the unaccountably embarrassing feeling of knowing that Motl’s words struck a chord inside her.
  20. willful
    habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition
    Penina had suffered a great deal of gossip from the other women in town about her daughter’s willfulness, but in her heart she could find only pride for Rose and her mathematics and the good head she had on her shoulders.
  21. aloofness
    a disposition to be distant and unsympathetic in manner
    She was, in fact, so intent on maintaining her stance of regal aloofness that she almost didn’t notice Dinah running up to her from the other direction, until the other girl threw her arms around her and shouted, “Rosie, oh, Rose! I have the most wonderful news to tell you!”
  22. dowry
    money brought by a woman to her husband at marriage
    His father agreed, he said, his father agreed because I have a dowry now, from the shop-minding!
  23. mystical
    relating to a belief in communion with an ultimate reality
    And people admired Saul because he was sure to be a rabbi and perhaps become famous for his mystical acts; he had followed Dinah’s grandfather around like a duckling since they were all children.
  24. transgression
    the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle
    The angel, neither male nor female, simply did not think to worry that its trousers, in the women’s gallery, could be seen as a transgression.
  25. incredulous
    not disposed or willing to believe; unbelieving
    The demon gave it an incredulous look. He knew it did not have the magic of seeing ghosts.
  26. swindle
    deprive of by deceit
    The ghosts had explained that Reb Fishl the Silk Merchant was in the habit of swindling emigrants out of all their belongings and then leaving them, helpless, to the mercy of the streets of Warsaw or, sometimes, to even worse fates.
  27. dastardly
    extremely wicked
    Reb Fishl was also, as the whole kehilleh was aware, on good terms with the police, which made him not only the most dastardly sort of criminal but also, of course, practically a traitor to the Jewish People.
  28. doggerel
    a comic verse of irregular measure
    Little Ash much preferred talking to other things he could have done, such as putting a curse on Reb Fishl (which would not be reliable, as he knew only child’s curses and half of them were nothing more than doggerel) or fighting him.
  29. blatantly
    in a completely obvious manner
    “I don’t know any Motl,” he said, lying so blatantly that even the angel saw it.
  30. nonchalance
    the trait of remaining calm and seeming not to care
    Little Ash put his hands in his pockets, adopting a pose of deliberate nonchalance, and gazed evenly back.
  31. lout
    an awkward, foolish person
    Sending brainless louts to try and teach him a lesson, as if he weren’t far wiser than them, a real macher with his hands in more than one pie and connections, even, in America.
  32. tedious
    so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
    Sending brainless louts to try and teach him a lesson, as if he weren’t far wiser than them, a real macher with his hands in more than one pie and connections, even, in America. It was tedious.
  33. geniality
    a disposition to be friendly and approachable
    “Come in off the street, won’t you, boys?” said Reb Fishl, affecting an attitude of geniality.
  34. upstart
    an arrogant or presumptuous person
    Reb Fishl had not gotten to be the wealthiest Jew in Krumer Street by arguing with upstart adolescents.
  35. penitent
    a person who repents for wrongdoing
    “If it makes you feel better, his soul is dry as matzeh,” said Little Ash, coughing and pounding his chest like a penitent chanting the Ashamnu.
  36. esteem
    an attitude of admiration
    Here, the angel, who had so recently scolded Little Ash for holding its own life in higher esteem than a human being’s, now found it had more in common with Reb Fishl than it had thought.
  37. haphazardly
    without care; in a slapdash manner
    In his rooms, Fishl had quite a collection of objects that did not belong to him, and among these was a tattered, well-used set of the Talmud, which the sinful one, may his name be erased, had thrown haphazardly onto the floor as he searched its owner’s trunk for something more saleable.
  38. kinship
    a close connection marked by common interests or character
    The angel, however, merely found it convenient to wear a shape in which one could easily study the holy books. Inside itself, it felt closer in kinship to the books themselves, or to the sorts of things an angel might be tasked to look after, like sunlight and rain.
  39. correspondence
    communication by the exchange of letters
    Tucked between a couple of the volumes it found some correspondence, on which it puzzled out an odd string of Hebrew letters which seemed to spell AMERIKE.
  40. frail
    physically weak
    A woman had given the garment to her father to keep him warm on his journey, because he was elderly and he was frail, and she respected his wisdom in some things, but part of her feared that he was making the wrong decision in crossing the sea.
Created on Mon May 29 10:10:58 EDT 2023 (updated Tue May 30 10:19:29 EDT 2023)

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