Hatikvah – The First Starship

It was the first of the starships with many more scheduled to follow. The ship was loaded with Jews headed to begin the settlement of a distant planet. The ship had been carefully built and the selection of passengers went through a vigorous vetting process.

Only around twelve hundred Yidden would travel on the first ship and a lot of responsibility was laid on their shoulders. The future of the Jewish People was contingent on the groundwork that would be done by the volunteers on the initial transport.

A second ship, with tens of thousands of passengers in a deep sleep would follow within a couple of months. Over the next few years, if all went well, most of Earth’s twenty-five million Yidden would be transported in this manner.

The cryogenic technicians, other technical support teams and the spiritual leadership on the first ship needed to be in place when the subsequent transport vehicles began to arrive.

Great hope and expectations were held by all involved in this complicated enterprise. The ship had been named Hatikvah – The Hope. Bands played and banners waved. Crowds of family, friends, and well-wishers cheered. The volunteers walked to the ship that would be their home for the nearly eighteen years of the voyage.

The Luftmenschen of Planet Birobidzhan is now available wherever books are sold!

The novel can also be bought, at a discount, through this direct purchase link:

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Purim on Planet Birobidzhan

The Jewish calendar is sprinkled with holidays calling for observance. Obligations, commandments, and traditions dictate our practices on Holy Days. Most of these days are treated with a similar sanctity as Shabbos. Work, handling money, lighting fires, and other such activities are proscribed or limited. Additionally, we are told that certain foods must be eaten and others are forbidden or how and where we must sit or items of clothing we must wear or that are forbidden.

Purim is probably the most uncharacteristic and even counterintuitive of all the Jewish holidays. On Purim, we are told that we must listen to the reading of the Megillah Esther, we should give gifts of treats, and that drinking to excess is considered a mitzvah. Das iz alts. What kind of meshugganah holiday is this?

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Purim is a raucous celebration on Planet Birobidzhan, and particularly so in Niu Niu Yark. The celebration on Planet Birobidzhan was likely influenced by the way that Holi and Mardi Gras was celebrated on Planet Earth. The festivities start out staid enough in the early evening with a family oriented costumed parade that weaves through the city, leading to the largest shuls, where the Megillah Esther is read, according to tradition.

Following the Megillah reading, the crowds from the shuls empty into the streets, led by the rabbis. Bottles of schnapps are passed around while singing and dancing take place. As the night progresses, parents with young children and those with less wild inclination clear the streets.

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The Luftmenschen of Planet Birobidzhan is the story of a world populated by Yidden stranded on a planet far from Planet Earth.

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The Luftmenschen of Planet Birobidzhan is now available wherever books are sold!

The novel can also be bought, at a discount, through this direct purchase link:

https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=6TtjgjBTrFtcK4tvxeCbUN4hTvy9rOoAq8aeNsNXURN

A Girl With A Fiddle

Baruch and Shmuli, like most yeshiva bochers, had little money. They would, however, stop and listen to the otherworldly melodies that Tamar conjured with her violin. The young men would always drop a few peniz oder a nikal in her violin case.

Tamar always smiled demurely at the young men, respectfully avoiding direct eye contact. She would watch them out of the corner of her eye as they would try not to stare at her. The yeshiva bochers would stand about awkwardly, fidgeting and mostly avoiding the sin of looking directly at the beautiful young woman with the fiddle that played Heavenly music.

Tamar was always dressed in a most appropriate manner. Her long sleeves covered her arms to her wrists. Tamar always wore a skirt that reached down to her shoes. Tamar’s attire was exactly what is worn in the most conservative of shtetls on Planet Birobidzhan.

Sometimes, when Baruch and Shmuli were nearby, Tamar’s skirt would shift enough to expose an ankle. Occasionally, her sleeves would flutter when she vigorously stroked the fiddle with the bow and her bare arms would be momentarily visible. The young men would blush. Tamar would smile, demurely.

The Luftmenschen of Planet Birobidzhan is now available wherever books are sold! The novel can also be bought, at a discount, through this direct purchase link:

https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=6TtjgjBTrFtcK4tvxeCbUN4hTvy9rOoAq8aeNsNXURN

The Mushrooms of Planet Birobidzhan

The encounters each began in the same way. After chewing on the fleshy fungus a calmness came over Dovid. A sense of overall comfort and peacefulness enveloped him. His breathing slowed. The physical world seemed to fade away before the encounter began in earnest.

Dovid perceived a curtain opening or something like a veil lifting. Then, he saw a hand stretching before him holding a scroll. The scroll unfurled before him with lettering that he didn’t recognize.

As if hearing the words spoken but yet unspoken, or perhaps spoken directly to his mind, in Biblical Hebrew, quoting directly from Ezekiel, with utmost clarity, Dovid perceived a voice that wasn’t quite a voice speaking.

These are the words he heard each time: “Son of Man, open your mouth and eat what is offered. Son of Man, feed your stomach and fill your belly with the scroll that I give you.”

The perceptions from that point became panoramic. Sound and sights blended. Time lost all meaning. Space unfolded. Colors blended. Void and form would coincide and Dovid would witness the moment of creation.

Gasses and solids would blend and move outward at unfathomable speed as they formed innumerable stars with planets circling each star. When the expansion rested, a peaceful field would unfold, covered with mushrooms. The expanse above was always a star-filled night sky of unfamiliar constellations.

The Luftmenschen of Planet Birobidzhan is now available wherever books are sold! The novel can also be bought, at a discount, through this direct purchase link:

https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=6TtjgjBTrFtcK4tvxeCbUN4hTvy9rOoAq8aeNsNXURN

Hello Friends on the Home Planet!

The future-history novel, The Luftmenschen of Planet Birobidzhan is nearly completed and will be available for purchase soon. I will try to keep you updated on the progress through this website, which is most obviously, under construction. 🚧

You can also find me – at this point more consistently – on Facebook at this link: https://www.facebook.com/share/19382X3ZsB/

One more dybbuk in the works, it seems, that is delaying publication of The Luftmenschen of Planet Birobidzhan.

I received an email saying that there is text on the front cover outside of the safety areas! The only text, of course, is the title of the book and my name. Since I used the printer’s program for the cover design, I can’t imagine how the text is misplaced, except for interference from a dybbuk.

The printer has asked me to correct this. I have written back, asking them to place the title and my name in the proper place on the cover.

Well…I think that as soon as an actual person on the other end looks into this – I suspect that I have been corresponding with 🤖 an AI program – then the last dybbuk can be purged, this problem can be resolved, and the book can move to completion!

Kinahora…and spit three times!