21st Century Bogatyr: Bereshis: The Transport & Transformation of the Founders

by Zvi Baranoff

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, banners waved and crowds of family, friends and well-wishers cheered as the volunteers walked to the ship that would be their home for the nearly eighteen years of the voyage.

Eighteen years is a very long time to be cooped up in even the most comfortable and spacious of ships. Eighteen years is long enough for cultural differences to bubble up into conflicts as well as for social interactions to result in significant shifting of attitudes.

The blending and altering of beliefs and practices that occurred amongst the passengers of the Hatikvah would have been astronomical to an outside observer, if such an observation had been possible. Surely, some of the passengers found the cultural shifting disorienting.

The changes, however, took place over nearly two decades in an organic manner, lives developing over time. These changes altered the perspectives of the passengers and the future course of life on Planet Birobidzhan.

The settlers that followed, arrived by the tens of thousands, cryogenically frozen, in ships packed like canned herring. The developing culture of the world where they were defrosted, made their heads spin. The way they got there was enough to make them feel disoriented without the additional digestion of the cultural oddities of those of the First Landing.

The traveling time for all the ships was the same. For those of the First Landing, eighteen years of traveling was experienced.

For those arriving afterwards, no real time had passed. When defrosted, they felt something similar to a hangover or perhaps a touch of the flu. Within a day or two, those symptoms passed. In their minds, they had been on Earth just yesterday.

The subsequent settlers arrived the same age as they were when they had left and with their attitudes and perspectives intact. Those that had preceded them on the Hatikvah had all been significantly altered by the trip.

The volunteers on the Hatikvah were chosen primarily for the specific skills that they would need on their arrival on the target planet.

The demographics of the Hatikvah were somewhat older, better educated, and among the more secular volunteers, a higher percentage male than all of the following flights.

The more religious adult volunteers were slightly older than future flights and made up of highly specialized experts and their wives. However, they also brought along their children. This was the only passage that included children because on all the rest of the ships the passengers were cryogenically preserved and it was determined that it wasn't safe to freeze those under the age of twelve.

One might reasonably have suspected that the primary cultural fault line aboard the Hatikvah was that which separates the most religious from the most secular. That presumption would be, quite frankly, wrong because of multiple reasons.

To begin with, the divisions that separate the various ultra religious factions are deep with a lot of historical animosity. The ideological conflicts and personal grudges that can be traced back to centuries of Earth history were carried aboard the Hatikvah.

The representatives of the various factions were on their best behavior and committed themselves to papering over their conflicts but that did not go so far as to result in a common agenda to establish a theocracy. The ultra religious were also, all told, a minority of these migratory pioneers.

The more secular of the volunteers lacked the philosophical and ideological passions binding themselves to fixed positions. There were no particular secular axes to grind.

The result of this mix was a strong influence of religious sentiment without coercion. Proselytizing for or against any of the sects was considered gauche and unacceptable.

One of the very few conflicts during that long trip from the Home Planet to the Planet Birobidzhan that actually came to blows - and injuries - did involve a Rabbi, but had nothing to do with religion or philosophical matters. The rabbi was caught cheating at chess.

A Language, A Jargon or Babel?

Finding a common language for the pioneers wasn't a simple matter. The overwhelming majority of those aboard this first flight were from the North American Federation.

English was the most widely spoken language from that region of Earth, but Spanish and French were also regional languages with representation aboard. There was a sizable contingent Hassidim from Québec, predominantly Montréal, that spoke French and Yiddish with strong French accents.

There were also some Europeans including a fair number of doctors from Germany. German was their primary language which made Yiddish fairly comprehensible for them.

There was a sizable number of Yiddishists that had studied and taught Yiddish in universities. They were committed to the ideal of making Yiddish a modern language of the new settlement. There were also those that were aboard, particularly the ultra religious, that grew up in homes that spoke Yiddish.

The university educated Yiddishists were highly critical of the colloquial Yiddish that was widely spoken. The academics derisively referred to the Yiddish in use as Yinglish. For instance, it was far more common to call a window a "vindow" than the more correct "fentster". As inclined as the Yiddishists were to try and educate on the matter, people spoke the language as they were used to.

Any hope for linguistic purity was delusional. What became the common language of the voyage, and eventually the common language of the settlement, was a hodgepodge. The language spoken was a reflection of the people. They found ways to communicate across the divisions that separated themselves from each other. That which grew organically developed into the forms of speech that we are now familiar with.

The Work At Hand

For the eighteen years of traveling time, there was little real work and nearly no responsibilities for these pioneers. The ship's course was set by computer. No piloting, or human intervention whatsoever, would be called for until the time came for landing on the new world. The larder was filled with a more than sufficient, although less than exciting, supply of Kosher MRE - Meals Ready to Eat. Those aboard the Hatikvah could just sit on their hands for eighteen years and fulfill their mission.

It would be incorrect to say that there was no work to be done and surely ongoing idleness is contrary to human nature. However, many were aboard with focussed skills that had no purpose whatsoever on the Hatikvah. The number of people with skills that were useful in transit constituted a workforce of many times more than required for the work at hand.

Perhaps the most redundant of those on the first flight was the financial committee. Their mission, upon arrival on the new planet, involved the printing of currency and the establishment of a market economy. Printing money would be the easy part for them. It took years, however, before those pieces of paper had any exchange value whatsoever. For eighteen years in flight, the committee met once a week…to play poker.

There were enough medical professionals for a small hospital. They were tasked with setting up such a facility on their arrival. On board, there was little to do. The passengers had been pre-screened for physical, mental and emotional health. The medics provided annual health checkups, bandaged an occasional bruising and staffed a twenty-four hour clinic without anyone working more than a couple of hours a week.

The ship was designed with hydroponic growing in mind. The idea was that some food could be grown enroute and the shipboard system would be up and running planetside while greenhouses were being set up.

The farmers, greenhouse and hydroponics experts were all antsy to do something - and everyone was quickly bored with the pre-packaged space food - so lots of fruits and vegetables were soon growing and meals were greatly improved.

The Agency had provided carefully preserved fertilized chicken eggs with the presumption that they would be activated on arrival. However, some of the eggs were hatched and the Hatikvah may have been the only intergalactic flight ever to include free range chickens.

Even with all of these gardening activities, however, there were ten times the number of experts on board than were needed on the ship for that purpose.

There were six pilots aboard. One would be required to land the vessel which would mean a couple of hours work at the end of the trip. Once planetside, however, those six went on to establish the homing beams and landing fields for all of the rest of the landings.

They later formed the Birobidzhan Pilots' Association. They amused children with model airplanes, built some planes big enough to fly a few passengers, and eventually established somewhat regularly scheduled flights between New Jerusalem and New New York. Most everyone referred to this as the Birobidzhan Air Farce, somewhat cynically.

There were design and construction experts on board that clearly had nothing to do before arrival. In truth, they wouldn't have a whole lot to do once there either. The ship was packed with prefabricated parts for all the primary construction. The pieces snapped together like children's building blocks.

Concerning the religious experts, the shochets had nothing to do until there were enough chickens to allow for an occasional culling. The birthrate was high enough to call for a couple of mohels, perhaps. Both of these professions were overrepresented. There was virtually no need for kashrut inspection but there was a full crew of hechsher authorities.

Of course, for the Rabbis, life on the ship was probably very similar to what their lives were like back on Earth. They studied Holy Books and prayed. They bickered with each other over minor theological differences. They paid attention to the holidays and gave advice to those who would seek it out. The Rebbetzins also lived much as they had before. They had babies, raised children, and maintained households.

The Rebbetzins, perhaps unexpectedly, stepped up to fill a void when the hydroponic gardens began producing. The wives of the various Rabbis established and oversaw the kitchens and feeding stations that freed everyone from the tedium of MRE.

The Rebbetzins worked together in a way that transcended the ideological and cultural differences of the various sects that their husbands represented. The selfless service of these women was recognized by all aboard the Hatikvah.

Traditions, Faith & Families

As far as the Rabbis keeping track of the various holidays and other aspects of Jewish rituals that are time sensitive, space travel raised some serious concerns resulting in some interesting solutions.

On Earth there are observable determinants that ceased to be accessible on an intergalactic flight. According to Biblical law and millennia of tradition, Shabbos begins Friday evening at sunset. Shabbos candles need to be lit before the sun actually sets.

For the purpose of determining when Shabbos begins, time is a very localized matter which differs according to longitude and latitude, as well as seasonal shifting. For instance, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Miami are all in the same time zone but for Yidden in each of those cities candles were lit at different times from one another.

Likewise, Shabbos ends after sunset on Saturday evening. The viewing of three stars in the sky is how Earth-bound Yidden determined that the holy day has passed.

The Earth-bound Jewish calendar is lunar, with an elaborate periodic adjustment to bring the lunar calendar in line with the solar for seasonal consistency. A new moon determines the beginning of a new month.

Beyond the Earth, the Earth's moon serves no value for measuring passing time. On an intergalactic flight, there is no sunset. Beyond the solar system, the sun of the Home Planet cannot be seen whatsoever. Likewise, stars are always visible from the observation deck. On the Hatikvah, another system was needed for maintaining traditions.

The solution agreed to before the Hatikvah launched was that the ship would maintain New York City time for the entirety of the voyage.

The entire ship was designated as Shomer Shabbos. Of course, much of the daily operations of the ship were fully automated. Those aspects were uninterrupted, reminiscent of the old Kosher hotels on Earth that had elevators that stopped on each floor so no one would need to push any buttons on Shabbos.

Nonetheless, everyone was aware of when Shabbos began each week and there were real changes in patterns of activities for all aboard. Movies were shown six afternoons and evenings a week. There were no films Friday evening or Saturday afternoon. The public areas were generally used for playing cards, Scrabble, backgammon, chess and similar activities. Those did not take place in public on Shabbos. All the public Beep-Beep Cookers were disabled from just before "sunset" Friday and would not operate until after "sunset" the next day.

Of course, the activities in private were not subject to public mores. What one did in one's private space - or a private meeting space with the blinds pulled down and the door closed - was a private matter.

The Hatikvah did not have a dress code, per se. A consensus for such would have been impossible to reach. Some of the biggest divides between the various religious factions had to do with types of clothing, hats, scarves and other variants.

The one common agreement that could be reached was a general commitment to public modesty. Of course, the more devout dressed far more conservatively, with each of the sects having their own standards.

Many of the secular women adopted aspects of the religious dress standards, in public settings. Some discovered and appreciated that a skirt was easier to lift or slip out of than removing trousers. A skirt simplified casual liaisons. That was certainly an unintended consequence of the rabbinical meddling.

As already stated, the most religious pioneers were married couples raising hoards of children. There were also some married medical professionals and farming couples.

The unattached were disproportionately male, at a ratio of nearly three to one. Some singles formed committed relationships and sealed that under the chuppah.

Women that were so inclined wielded quite a bit of freedom to exercise choice. They were highly educated, independent women with healthy libidos and lots of free time on their hands. Over the years, some settled into relationships that were certainly marriage-like, with two or three men if that fit their temperament.

The various holidays that dot the calendar helped to provide relief from the ongoing sameness of daily life of long distance interstellar travel. The Rabbis coordinated the ritualistic aspects. Even the least observant aboard grew to appreciate an excuse for a celebration.

On Earth, the High Holidays were generally acknowledged by most Yidden. Passover and Hanukkah were also widely adopted by even those with only a tenuous attachment to ritual and religious structures.

Everyone kvelled with pleasure when the first potato latkes were served on the first shipboard Hanukkah. Of course, this was long before the food shortages on Planet Birobidzhan.

In the early days after landing - for the first couple of years - as one ship after another arrived, it seemed that all there was to eat was potatoes. At the time, some wisenheimers suggested that the Bulbes Song should be made the official National Anthem of the Planet…as if!

Anyway, on this flight, as the years dragged on, even the holidays that were considered inconsequential on Earth gained importance.

For instance, the holiday of Purim became very popular. The cross dressing and the drunkenness of Purim that was exhibited by the otherwise staid rabbis reminded some of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Soon, Purim became a social highlight for everyone on the flight.

After a couple of years, the influence of Mardi Gras seeped into the shipboard Purim celebrations. Nudity, with the cover of masks and body paint, was accepted with little notice and no conflict by the time of the third Purim celebration on the Hatikvah.

By the time of the landing on Planet Birobidzhan, a certain level of exhibitionism and debauchery had become a standard part of the Purim festivities. No matter how the Rabbis that arrived on the subsequent flights felt about it, on Planet Birobidzhan, unfettered celebration of Purim had become traditional.

The birth rate of the religious women of this transport contributed directly to unforeseen cultural shifts aboard the Hatikvah.

Back on the Home Planet, the overall birth rate had dropped significantly over the century before the first flight. The average birth rate on Earth was just a bit over one child per mother. For the Haredi and Hasidic women, six, eight or ten per mother was the norm.

On Earth, the births were fairly evenly divided between male and female. Because of a space anomaly, the number of female births aboard the Hatikvah outnumbered the male children.

For the children aboard, marriages were often arranged at a fairly young age, with the traditional Shidduch. The increased number of female births, however, complicated the matchmaking process.

Over the years of drifting through the void, however, there were also drifting social changes.

Some of the doctors and farmers that had little inclination towards religious observations at the beginning of the voyage had drifted into the rabbinic circles as the years dragged on. Formerly secular men began attending regular minyans, donning tefillin, and wearing fringes. These men in their forties grew long beards and wore black hats and then stood under the chuppah with very young brides.

On the shoulders of these early pioneers, the culture of our new homeland, Planet Birobidzhan, was built.

This is not a Jewish story. It is, however, a story about Jews. One does not need to be Jewish to read this tale any more than one needs to be a Hobbit or an Elf to read Lord of the Rings.

This story is a work of fiction. The setting for this tale is in the distant future, on the far away Planet Birobidzhan. This planet was settled by Jewish exiles from Planet Earth.

The population of Planet Birobidzhan has been cut off from the Home Planet for a long time. They have developed their own unique culture, traditions and linguistics.

The language spoken on Planet Birobidzhan is primarily Yiddish. I have sprinkled a significant number of Yiddish words and phrases throughout the telling of the tale. I also refer to various Jewish religious and cultural touchstones.

To make this story more accessible, I have included a glossary of words and phrases in Yiddish and Hebrew that are used as well as some explanations of religious terms and holidays.

I hope that readers find this to be useful.

The link to the Glossary is here:

https://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-useful-guide-glossary-to-planet.html?m=1

פּלאַנעט ביראָבידזשאַן

Do you want to read more about Planet Birobidzhan? Here are all the posted installments so far, in the order that they were posted. Just click your way through the story!

1 On A Planet Safe for Yidden

https://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2022/02/on-planet-safe-for-yidden.html

2 Yenne Velt: A History of Planet Birobidzhan

https://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2022/02/yenne-velt-history-of-planet-birobidzhan.html

3 Another Globe, Perhaps?https://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2022/02/another-globe-perhaps.html

4 Bereshis: The Transport & Transformation of the Founders

http://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2022/03/bereshis-transport-transformation-of.html

5 The Town of First Landing

https://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-town-of-first-landing.html

6 A Personal History of an Early Settler on Planet Birobidzhan

http://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-personal-history-of-early-settler-on.html

7 Chickens, Jews Harps & Cronyism