Jeffrey Fiskin
By Jeffrey Fiskin
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Culture The Case of the Two Sleuths
A chalk outline on the ground. An older gentleman in the worn robes of a scholar paces off the distance from the chalk outline to the nearest city. He is joined by a fellow in a houndstooth coat and deerstalker cap, a calabash meerschaum clenched tightly in his teeth. Moshe: Three hundred forty-one, three hundred…
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Culture You’ve Really Done It This Time
Two men, one old, the other older, walk along the edge of an encampment at the foot of a great mountain. They can hear the keening of thousands, a collective wail of deep sorrow, of eternal repentance. Aaron: Well, you’ve really done it this time. What were you thinking? Moses: Don’t even try to make…
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Culture What Is His Name?
Two men, marked by 80 or more winters, walk in the shadow of Mount Horeb. Aaron: So all I am is some sort of glorified ventriloquist’s dummy? Moses: Well, that’s a harsh way to put it. But in a nutshell… Aaron: I’m the older brother, for crying out loud. Why do I have to be…
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Culture In the Circular Ruins of the Aleph
A white room in a white world. The sort of place that set designers use to suggest heaven. Why such a sterile vision is supposed to imply eternal bliss, one may only guess. Two men wander the cloudy floor in casual conversation. One, Moses, is an imposing figure in flowing robes with the wild hair…
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Culture Good News, Bad News
An old man with wild white hair, Moses, speaks to the assembled throng on the plains of Moab. Two men in the crowd listen, and comment in the manner of men in crowds. One is Chaim Yonkel, an Israelite who has made the long trek out of exile with Moses; the other is Søren, a…
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Culture A Bad Precedent
Two men, Moses and Aaron, stand on a hill outside Kadesh in the Negev. Moses is bent with the weight of responsibility and knowledge. They look northward toward Canaan. Moses: I’m telling you, this time He’s really angry. Aaron: What else is new? About what this time? Moses: The spies. Aaron: He sent them. Moses:…
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News Don’t I Do a Good Job?
‘Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating unjust gain… And let them judge the people.” … So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law… And Moses chose able men out of all of Israel… and they judged the people. — Exodus 18:21-26…
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News Odds and Ends and Leftovers
For Shemini Atzeret Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17; Numbers 29:35-30:1 For Simchat Torah Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12; Genesis 1:1-2:3; Numbers 29:35-36:1 * * *| Some time ago, somewhere in a country that gets very cold, two Learned Men — you can tell they are learned from the way they tug at their beards; you can tell there are two of…
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