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going to be able to find them.
     
CHANA receives this like a blow to her stomach. She sits down heavily, hugging herself.
     
    FRUME : You’re in pain? You’re suffering? I also suffered. [ looking at BLUMA .] I suffered when a beautiful young girl lost her chance to marry the best match. I suffered when everything I worked for all these years—to be respected and accepted in the community of Meah Shearim—was destroyed. I suffered when I heard people say that our family wasn’t worthy to marry into a Rabbinical family like the Sheinhoffs. I suffered when I watched my grandchildren crying themselves to sleep every night because they missed their mother! I warned you, Chana—I begged you—not to leave. If you’d only listened to me we could have settled everything! But you ran away. You always did exactly what was good for you.
     
    CHANA : [ in pain .] They cried? My poor babies…. If only I could have stayed…. But I had no choice.
     
    FRUME : You had no choice? So now also you have no choice. Go!
     
    GITTE LEAH : With the Cossacks, or without the Cossacks, you will never get your children back. You are a Jezebel.
     
    TOVAH : [ drawing closer. ] Go, go, Chana, for your own good.
     
    ETA : [ drawing closer, fearfully. ] Go, before all of Meah Shearim sees you.
     
    TOVAH : Think about Shaine Ruth, and her chances for a good match! Do you want to do to her what you did to her sister? Who will want to marry the daughter of a woman who behaves like you?
     
    SHEINHOFF : Let her breathe! What is this, a stoning? She hears us. She understands by herself. She won’t hurt her children, isn’t that true, Chanaleh?
     
    CHANA : [ still in shock. To herself .] A match for Shaine Ruth? Already?…. How time rushes by…when did I give birth to these children? When did I bring them up?…. Twelve children I raised, all by myself, without help from anyone. Twelve children I have….
     
    FRUME : You had. Now they are motherless.
     
    CHANA : [ waking up. Quietly .] No. I am their mother. I am here for them.
     
    FRUME : They don’t want you.
     
    CHANA : [ passionately. ] What do you know? I wasn’t a mother like you. My children miss me. You yourself said so. I still feel them here, inside me. I am not budging from here until I see them. [ she sits down and holds herself, as if her body will break. ] My baby, my Shifraleh. How she must have grown…. [ to ADINA .] She’s walking, talking?
    ADINA nods.
     
    SHAINE RUTH : And Shimmy is already learning in cheder !
     
    CHANA : Really? My little scholar. You must let me see them.
     
    GITTE LEAH : Me, me, me! All your life, that’s all you ever thought about. Yourself. You never cared what you were doing to everyone else. Your husband, your children. Us. We can’t walk down the street because of you! So if you hope you’ll work on our pity, you are an even bigger fool than I thought.
     
    SHEINHOFF : How can you speak that way, Gitte Leah? What does our holy Torah teach us if not compassion and loving kindness?
    Music: Children’s motif. CHANA hears it in her imagination. It strengthens her determination. Stares at FRUME bitterly.
     
    CHANA : Even as a child I knew not to expect pity. And I don’t expect it now. [ taking out papers from her purse. ] Here. It’s a court order.
     
    FRUME : [ shocked .] What?
     
    CHANA : You have to let me see them. It’s the law.
    Shaking with emotion, the court order falls from her hand. SHAINE RUTH picks it up, looking at her mother, who approves.
     
    SHAINE RUTH : [ reading .] “The Court has decided to accept the recommendations of the social worker and, therefore, the Court nullifies all previous court orders forbidding visitation of Chana Sheinhoff with her minor children, and declares that the father, Yaakov Sheinhoff, shall in no way prevent or interfere with said visits. The mother shall be allowed to visit once a week…”

     
    ETA : Is this the law?
     
    TOVAH : There are laws, and then there are laws,