Eventually they arrived at Elbstraße. Elbstraße had long been familiar to Moses. His older friends had taken him there with them several times. To go to Elbstraße was much better even than playing trapper and Indians. For on both sides of the street, one cart stood next to the other, each piled high with goods of some kind. From one of them boots were sold and pots from another one, and next to that one there was one whose owner sold lemons, and the one across from it even had entire suits for sale. This continued, up one side of the street and back down on the other side, one cart next to another so that one could barely pass between them. Around each cart there always stood a lot of people, those who wanted to buy something and others who were just curious or wanted to give buyers some good advice. Each seller, male and female, shouted in a loud voice and praised their wares so that there always was pandemonium. How astonished was Moses therefore when they came to Elbstraße and there was not a single cart and not a single salesman shouted out his wares. It was just like other streets on a Sunday, most stores were closed, and most people walking on the street wore their best clothes, just like Mr. Silbermann and the two boys. Thus they came to a large gray building through whose gate all the men and women entered. And if Moses had not seen that the house looked just like other houses and did not have a tall tower on its roof, for example, he would have believed that it must be a church that all these people entered. Through a dark vestibule they reached the building’s interior. A door opened, and they entered into a large, mysteriously lit room. Moses Pipenbrink was now convinced that they had come to a church. The long rows of pews, the many candelabra in which gas flames burned dimly, the silence that prevailed despite the many people present all immediately reminded him of the church in Cuxhaven, only this room was infinitely bigger and higher. For when one looked up, it seemed as if there were no roof at all and as if the walls rose directly into the dark night sky, in which no star shone. Moses started feeling very devout and he automatically did as he had seen people do who went to church: he took off his hat. No sooner had he done so than David Silbermann put it back on his head: “This is not a church,” he whispered, almost startled, “This is a synagogue.” And although Moses did not understand this word, he now saw that all the others had kept their hats on, and he began to sense that he was about to experience something here that he had not encountered before. More and more people came. Soon Moses also noticed that all along the walls there were galleries in which women were seated closely together. Suddenly, up front, where splendid marble columns led up to a cabinet that was enshrouded in a massive silk curtain, a voice began to sing. The voice was as pure and sweet as Moses had never heard one before, and although it began very quietly and intimately, it floated above the heads of the congregation into the most hidden corners of the large house and sounded equally beautiful and lovely everywhere. And after this voice had sung in a language that Moses did not understand for a while, suddenly from high up rang out the many-voiced singing of many men and boys, who now seemed to alternate with the singer up front in singing a song. All this was somewhat similar to church. Only here they sang in a foreign language, and there was no organ accompanying the singing. When the song had reached its last verse, everyone turned around and bowed towards the door so that it looked as if someone was entering whom they wanted to honor. Moses did as the others and was very surprised when nobody came through the door and people turned back around. He did not dare to speak a word, yet he must have looked at Mr. Silbermann inquiringly, for he bent down to him and said: “The Sabbath Princess has just entered!” – “But I didn’t see her,” Moses said astonished and quickly turned around once more, for perhaps she still stood in the door. “You can’t see her,” Mr. Silbermann replied, “for the princess is invisible to ordinary humans, only if you are a child of fortune she will appear to you once in your life.” – Moses’ eyes grew wide. But he now pulled himself together even more, sat bolt upright and looked straight ahead rigidly and stiffly. For he knew this much, one had to be especially well- behaved when a princess was present. But deep in his heart he said to himself that it was very silly that all these people sang and prayed in a language he did not understand.