THE MAGICIAN

An odd fellow, ragged and tattered, yet (wearing) a top hat," the magician appears in the village on the eve of Passover and performs all manner of marvelous tricks. There is only one home without the traditional cup of wine for Elijah, and it is to this poor couple who have "no food and not even a single candle" that the stranger invites himself as holiday guest. "I have everything we need," he announces, and conjures up a feast. After the rabbi has assured the couple that if the food is real then it cannot be evil magic, they realize that their guest (now vanished) has been the prophet Elijah himself. Shulevitz's finely cross-hatched illustrations make the magician's outlandishness and the couple's poverty clearly palpable, at the same time lighting each scene with an otherworldly glow.