21st Century Bogatyr: Liftoff Into the Unknown

by Zvi Baranoff

The next morning, Tamar was up before dawn. She paced about waiting for her work crew to arrive. Dovid was also up, sorting personal possessions and waiting for enough daylight to resume loading supplies aboard the Hatikvah.

Tamar and her crew had the mushroom growing facility successfully moved aboard the Hatikvah, although they had to work late into the night. The workmen were none too pleased about the grueling pace and the exacting demands of the supervisor.

Some of the men working under Tamar's watchful eyes had built the initial facility. They remembered the little girl with the rag doll that terrorized them over a decade before. They found Tamar, as an adult, to be no less demanding and just as difficult to work for.

The chickens, goats and sheep were all settled in before sunset. Dovid oversaw the boarding of the livestock and appreciated that the complaints from that element were minimal. However, Dovid was interrupted periodically by other managerial responsibilities.

Some of the passengers had already begun boarding. People are a lot more demanding than sheep or goats.

The personal possessions of each passenger was limited to what each could carry. The emigrants carried their possessions in suitcases or tied up in bedding. Everyone pushed the limits and no one was pleased when the limits pushed back.

The complaints and arguments from these emigrant Yidden mostly were smoothed over with Dovid's intervention, but the effort was exhausting and emotionally draining.

Dovid went to bed early and he slept like the dead. Around midnight, he was awakened by Rifka Leeba. She climbed into bed and pressed herself against him. They made love that night with a passion that rekindled memories of their courtship.

The first roosters could be heard crowing before Dovid began to drift off to sleep. Rifka Leeba, however, determined that the time had come for a conversation and that sleeping was not an option. She rested her head in the crook of her husband's arm.

"Dovid," Rifka Leeba began. "I am not going with you. I am staying on Planet Birobidzhan."

"How can that be?" Dovid asked. "You are my wife and my heart of hearts. Of course you are coming with me," Dovid told her.

Tears ran down Rifka Leeba's face and dripped onto Dovid's arm. She shook her head ever so slightly before continuing to speak.

"All of my kinder are here and some grandchildren and there will be more grandchildren soon. I am not leaving them."

"Also," Rifka Leeba continued, "your momma, mayn shviger, is here. She is growing older and shouldn't be alone. She can't live on her own. She needs help. I am going to live with your momma. You will go to the stars without me."

Dovid had not given much thought to his mother's needs since the death of his father.

"Momma has other children," Dovid told Rifka Leeba. "They can watch out for her."

"Oh, your momma is a mean spirited and cantankerous old woman. She has driven away all of her other children. Besides that," Rifka Leeba reminded Dovid, "you are the only one she ever showed real affection to. Your momma loved you and now I am responsible for her," she said emphatically.

Dovid looked at his wife. "We could still have more kinder, you and I."

Rifka Leeba rolled her eyes and touched her pelvis, just above the patch of hair. "I have not had a baby for more than a dozen years. This well has run dry. There won't be any more kinder through me."

Rifka Leeba never told Dovid that she restarted the herbal regimen that she had learned from his mother to keep from becoming pregnant.

As far as Dovid knew, the barrenness that Rifka Leeba suffered from when they were first married had returned. Female reproduction was mostly a mystery to her husband and, besides, she considered her womb to be none of his business.

Dovid drifted into sleep for a bit around first light. When he awoke, Rifka Leeba was no longer in bed. Rifka Leeba was walking in the shtetl where her husband had been born, along the goat path, towards her mother-in-law's house.

On board the Hatikvah, the passengers were nervously awaiting liftoff. Dovid and his technicians were running about the tarmac making the final inspection and last minute tests of equipment. This was when Tamar approached her father.

"Tate," Tamar said, "We have decided to go along." She patted her abdomen. "We discussed it, the boys and I. If there is room for us, we want to go…if we can bring my musical instruments."

The crates of instruments were stacked in the house. They were certainly more than any one person could carry. There was no way they fit the personal property limitations that were set for passengers on the Hatikvah.

Dovid had the crates of instruments piled on a cart. He marked the crates as "Essential Agricultural Equipment". He ordered them to be loaded onto the Hatikvah.

Dovid and Tamar were the last to board before the door of the Hatikvah was sealed and the final countdown began.

Liftoff was flawless. It was also not a moment too soon. A swarm of angry investors had arrived at the airport. The crowd intended to salvage some of their losses, if possible, and perhaps execute some level of punishment on the perpetrators of the fraud.

Instead of enacting justice, those on the tarmac found themselves standing in clouds of dust, smoke, and fumes. The Hatikvah ascended into the sky above First Landing. The Hatikva was heading into the void and the unknown.

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 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