Obj. ID: 58488
  Fine Art  David Bekker, The Batlan (from Two Worlds), 1936

The following description was written by Ronit Bekker Blankovsky:

When discussing the definition of a "large city" as opposed to a "village", Tractate Megillah of the Mishna stipulates "Any city in which there are ten idlers".

The Talmud interprets the Mishna and claims that the ten idlers are idle from daily work, choosing instead to sit in the synagogue to ensure that there is always a quorum of ten. The Sages disagree about the need for these ten idlers given that the necessary ten people generally attend the prayers. 

Like the Talmud, Bekker's view of the idler is complex. The print 'The Idler' appears in a portfolio of ten prints called 'Between Two Worlds', in which Bekker notes that the idler is usually a person who has been unsuccessful in business, left his job, or a man whose wife has died, and he now sits in the synagogue and dedicates himself to Torah study.

Bekker dedicated the print to his father, who died a decade earlier in Eretz Israel, and wrote on the parokhet (the curtain covering the Ark) behind the figure of the idler: "In memory of the soul of my father Abraham Menachem Mendel of blessed memory".