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]

Wow, that is an amazing story (it reminds me a little bit of the ending to Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam trilogy).

[cmcmck]

The story is very special indeed. :o)

[sovay]

Wow, that is an amazing story (it reminds me a little bit of the ending to Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam trilogy).

I don't know the trilogy. Tell me about the likeness?

(I didn't actually get the story from Wiesel; his was just the easiest version for me to find again. I have no idea where I encountered it for the first time. Since I can't find a print source that feels right, I'm beginning to think it might actually have been told to me.)

[sovay]

The story is very special indeed.

So we tell it.

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on that excellent poem being online!

Also, I love that story.

[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.

[callunav]

That's like the beautiful inverse of tying the cat to the bedpost.

[sovay]

Congratulations on that excellent poem being online!

Thank you!

Also, I love that story.

I was saying to kore that I've started to wonder if I was told it rather than read it somewhere, which would be appropriate.

[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.)

[sovay]

That's like the beautiful inverse of tying the cat to the bedpost.

I had to look up that story, but, yes! (The equivalent I know is the tradition of the ham.)

[poliphilo]

That's such a great story.

And true, true, true.

[sovay]

And true, true, true.

I think so.

[callunav]

A friend of mine actually had that happen (minus the tanks) with meatloaf.

I like the story of the cat and the bedpost in this case because it also involves the intent and form of prayer, but turned inside out.

[sovay]

A friend of mine actually had that happen (minus the tanks) with meatloaf.

Honestly, that's wonderful.

I like the story of the cat and the bedpost in this case because it also involves the intent and form of prayer, but turned inside out.

Agreed. I'll pair them now.

[yhlee]

Congratulations! That's a great story.

[sovay]

Congratulations! That's a great story.

Thank you! (You see why it matters to me.)

[drwex]

<3

[sovay]

<3

*hugs*

[cmcmck]

Have I ever told you the one about the slice of bread and butter?

[lemon_badgeress]

that poem is amazing. i would say like all your poems, but that reduces them. you have a very honed skill in finishing a poem off properly.

[sovay]

that poem is amazing.

Thank you!

i would say like all your poems, but that reduces them. you have a very honed skill in finishing a poem off properly.

That is really good to hear. It's an important component.

[davidgillon]

Oh I like that, story and poem both.

The story reminds me - in a these two things are almost opposite, and therefore almost alike way - of the execution story from The West Wing episode "Take This Sabbath Day" where Jed spends so much time looking for a way to stop an execution without invoking executive privilege / find the place in the forest / say the prayer / light the fire that he misses the salvation he's actually sent. Sort of the Catholic Guilt++ version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06dQaOZIcH0

[selkie]

It is exhausting, and things tarry terribly, but if we must be sufficient, if we're what's left to be sufficient, at least there are beautiful words while we are doing what we could.

[dewline]

Thank you.

[hamletta]

So beautiful!

[sovay]

Oh I like that, story and poem both.

Thank you!

Sort of the Catholic Guilt++ version

They don't strike me as very similar stories, but I loved hearing Karl Malden tell a version of the story I learned first from Leo Rosten's Dictionary of Yiddish. (In that version, the religious man is a rabbi, and God's punch line is "I sent two boats and a helicopter to take you off that roof, you idiot!"!)

[sovay]

It is exhausting, and things tarry terribly, but if we must be sufficient, if we're what's left to be sufficient, at least there are beautiful words while we are doing what we could.

In the dark times, there will be singing. And not just about the dark times.

*hugs*

[sovay]

Thank you.

You're welcome.

[sovay]

So beautiful!

Thank you.

[brigdh]

Congratulations on the poem!

I love that story; I've also heard it somewhere before, though I also can't remember where. Which almost seems appropriate!

[sovay]

Congratulations on the poem!

Thank you!

I love that story; I've also heard it somewhere before, though I also can't remember where. Which almost seems appropriate!

It does!

[asakiyume]

My poem "Without Prayer or the Place in the Forest" is now online ... ---And it looks **good**

The story is beautiful too; it says something very real that I feel like I--probably/maybe we all--have lived.

[sovay]

---And it looks **good**

Thank you!

The story is beautiful too; it says something very real that I feel like I--probably/maybe we all--have lived.

It's what's important. You can't carry forests with you. You can always carry story.