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)

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on that excellent poem being online!

Also, I love that story.

[callunav]

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

[poliphilo]

That's such a great story.

And true, true, true.

[yhlee]

Congratulations! That's a great story.

[drwex]

<3

[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.

[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!

[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!

[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.