אונדזערע אַלטע מנהגים זײַנען דאָך אויך אַ מאָל געווען אַ חידוש, ניט אַזוי

[sovay]

My poem "Without Prayer or the Place in the Forest" is now online at Uncanny Magazine.

It is somewhat snarkily overstating the case for me to refer to it as A.K.A. The Subtweet About Jewish Magical Realism, but there are shapes of story and then there are the ways people actually go on. The title comes from a story retold by Elie Wiesel in The Gates of the Forest (1966), which has become important to me:

When the great Rabbi Israel Ba'al Shem-Tov saw misfortune threatening the Jews it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light the fire, say a special prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished and the misfortune averted.

Later, when his disciple, the celebrated Magid of Mezritch, had occasion, for the same reason, to intercede with heaven, he would go to the same place in the forest and say: "Master of the Universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayer." And again the miracle would be accomplished.

Still later, Rabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov, in order to save his people once more, would go into the forest and say: "I do not know how to light the fire, I do not know the prayer, but I know the place and this must be sufficient." It was sufficient and the miracle was accomplished.

Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he spoke to God: "I am unable to light the fire and I do not know the prayer; I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell the story, and this must be sufficient." And it was sufficient.

selkie, for you.

Comments

[kore]

Oh wow that is a bit complicated! Basically, at the end of the first book, a guy wearing a red baseball cap is eating some cooked fish and telling a story to some genetically engineered....human-creatures (it's really a good trilogy). And sometimes they bring him fish, and it's not cooked, because they don't need to eat their food, but he eats it anyway, because it's important to them. And then much later on, at the end, one of the new people (they're blue IIRC) is wearing the Red Sox cap and doing the ritual of eating the fish, even though he doesn't need to eat fish, because the telling of the story is what connected them to their past and is pretty much what makes them human. (I'm telling this badly, it's been a while since I read it, but I really loved it.)

(I'm really sorry, I don't mean this to sound disrespectful or anything....it was more a loose connection in my head. Today has been a bit rough.)

[sovay]

and doing the ritual of eating the fish, even though he doesn't need to eat fish, because the telling of the story is what connected them to their past and is pretty much what makes them human.

I see why that reminded you! Thank you for telling me.

(I'm really sorry, I don't mean this to sound disrespectful or anything....it was more a loose connection in my head. Today has been a bit rough.)

It's not disrespectful at all. I just didn't know the reference.

[kore]

It's a beautiful ending to the whole trilogy -- it gets a little rough (most of the first book), but the end is just pretty amazing.

(Oh good.)