writing fanfic fiction short-story
Yit’gadal v’yit’kadash sh’mei raba. Oh Sarai, oh Sarai.
Sol wept. Wept himself dry. Wept until his eyes burned and fit ill within their sockets.
Rachel looked to be living in a constant state of alarm and exhaustion, some set of emotions more less complicated, more primal, shaped more simply than the ones Sol grappled with. He was ashamed to admit that he was jealous of her, in a way. The innocence of childhood, even that of a second childhood, was enviable to allow one mere sadness, mere confusion.
To lose Rachel — his Rachel, his very own little girl all grown up — and then to lose Sarai was unbearable. Unfair. Unacceptable. He cursed God. He cursed the god of Adam and the god of Abraham and Isaac and the god of Moses and David and Elijah. He cursed Rachel’s god, Sarai’s god. His god.
Yit’gadal v’yit’kadash sh’mei raba b’alma di-v’ra chirutei…
Magnified? Sanctified?
Sol railed. Why magnify Him? To what sanctity does He lay claim?
He was careful to keep his turmoil firmly in the realm of inner, or, at worst, private. Walks. Lots of walks. First on Barnard’s World, where he basked in the sunsets dripping light as thick as blood and just as red; then on Hebron, where he let the sun bake away his tears.
Magnified and sanctified be His great name in the world which he created according to his will.
Was this His will? Was it? Was this His design? Was Sol His careful creation? Was this ineffability? Was his will to be so complicated and complete that Sol would never be able to know it? Know it in his heart, in his bones?
V’yamlich malchutei b’chayeichon uvyomeichon uvchayei d’chol bet Yisrael.
Yitgadal v’yitkadash sh’mei raba b’alma di-v’ra
chirutei, v’yamlich malchutei b’chayeichon
uvyomeichon uvchayei d’chol beit yisrael, ba’agala
uvizman kariv, v’im’ru: “amen.”
Y’hei sh’mei raba m’varach l’alam ul’almei almaya.
Yitbarach v’yishtabach, v’yitpa’ar v’yitromam
v’yitnaseh, v’yithadar v’yit’aleh v’yit’halal sh’mei
d’kud’sha, b’rich hu,
l’eila min-kol-birchata v’shirata, tushb’chata
v’nechemata da’amiran b’alma, v’im’ru: “amen.”
Y’hei shlama raba min-sh’maya v’chayim aleinu
v’al-kol-yisrael, v’im’ru: “amen.”
Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu
v’al kol-yisrael, v’imru: “amen.”