From Shloflozikayt to the Vision of a Marvelous Shtot

by Zvi Baranoff 

When the family arrived on Planet Shney, they were met by Dovid and folded into the accepting arms of family and community. A nice furnished house was made available for them. Both Nes and Shprintza Freyda were optimistic, confident of their mazel und bashert. Nes had particularly high expectations that were bolstered by his monumental sense of self assuredness and entitlement. 

For Shprintza Freyda, the pleasure of living in Moskve grew daily. The cultural opportunities abounded and she adored living in a shtot. Shprintza Freyda loved the market, the theater, the cafe where she drank strong tea and played chess, the wonderful library, and her husband's extended family. 

Nes, on the other hand, could not help but think of Moskve as quite provincial, a shtot that was barely more than a shtetl. Beyond a generalized feeling of being trapped in a backwater, Nes faced unanticipated business concerns that played havoc with his confidence, leading it to unravel, nearly to the point of total dissipation. 

On Planet Birobidzhan, Nes had a monopoly on the fur business with nearly all of the furs available being made into expensive shtraymlekh. These hats he marketed to the rabbis planetwide and their most dedicated followers. The deep historic conflicts and competition between the various rabbinic dynasties were a driving force for sales. The shtrayml designs each reflected philosophical, ideological, and Halachic positions to be promoted and manyYidden wore a shtrayml like uniforms or considered these expensive fur hats to be a battle flag of sorts. There are many competitive rabbis and lots of shuls throughout that world and Nes had traveled extensively and shmoozed in the rabbinic homes worldwide, engaged in stimulating Kabbalistic and Halachic conversations, and sold lots of hats. 

Planet Shney had no such web of competing religious authorities. In those early years of settling Planet Shney, there were only two shuls, the Niu Yark Shul and the Niu Yerushalaim Shul. Both shuls were in Moskve, which was the only shtot planetwide. The only other places where Yidden lived were tiny mining outposts that could barely be considered shtetls, scattered widely in the Sibir region. There were insufficient grounds for religious rivalry nor sufficient numbers of committed true believers to build a customer base for shtraymlekh. Besides that, furs were plentiful and everyone already owned a fur hat or two, although generally more utilitarian than the fancy shtraymlekh that Nes created. Therefore, for Nes, no stimulating esoteric conversations and few hats actually sold. 

The business quandary that Nes faced however, involved matters beyond Moskve or Planet Shney. Before leaving Planet Birobidzhan, Nes entrusted his business interests there into the hands of loyal employees. He expected a steady income flow from the enterprise he built on the world of his birth. A few months after arriving on Planet Shney, Nes learned just how complicated business transactions between the two planets really are. 

Since he departed Planet Birobidzhan, it seems that expenses went up significantly and profits plummeted, according to the regular reports he received on each incoming shuttle flight. Adding a further wrinkle to his calculations, the profits earned on Planet Birobidzhan were secured in trusts that were far more easily redeemed there than on Planet Shney. His nest egg grew but was largely inaccessible. 

Nes fell into a funk. Nes suffered with shloflozikayt, a pervasive sleeplessness without reprieve. He would go to bed at night with his wife but while she slept, he would fidget until he climbed out of bed, dressed, and headed out of the house. 

Nes wandered the dark and empty nighttime streets of Moskve, often humming a nigun. His fruitless persistent searching through the darkened Moskve neighborhoods brought him no relief. There wasn't a single pool hall or gambling den to be found in Moskve and there wasn't a real bordello on the entire planet. The layers of wool and furs protected him from the cold, but did not warm his restless heart or comfort his soul. The still unfamiliar stars and bright moons of Planet Shney seemed uncaring nearly to the point of mocking his situation.

It was on one such night, as Nes was walking in the wooded outskirts of Moskve, that he came upon mushrooms growing in a circle, the ones we know of as the Mushrooms of Planet Birobidzhan. Although there was only a sliver of a moon visible and clouds obscuring much of the sky, the mushrooms shimmered and glowed. Nes heard a humming, much like a nigun drawing him to the mushrooms. When he stepped inside the circle, one mushroom spoke directly to Nes in a voice that he alone could hear, directing him to eat of its flesh. Nes uttered a barucha and took a bite of the mushroom.

A most uncharacteristic calm came over Nes, a quietness like none that he had ever known. He sat comfortably on the hard cold ground. A stillness enveloped him. That dark night, Nes saw a hand stretching before him holding a scroll. The scroll unfurled before him, the calligraphed letters sparkling. A voice that wasn't a voice spoke directly to his inner being. "Son of Man”, it said, “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." 

Nes sat spellbound as he watched galaxies unfold before his eyes at a fast pace. The images were dizzying. Then, as if a curtain had been lifted, he saw Planet Shney as if from the back of a great soaring bird. First he was shown the broad region of Sabir, the mostly frozen high plains and forested mountains to the northeast of Moskve and the scattered mining shtetls. Then, he was presented with a view to the south and west of the somewhat more temperate but still undeveloped region known as Eyropa. The perspective settled on a hilltop and he looked into the valley below, where a spring burbled surrounded by palm trees, a warm oasis on the otherwise cold world. In phases like stop-gap photography a shtot grew in that valley, as Nes watched. 

Hours passed and the edge of the sky was beginning to lighten when Nes was once again aware of his presence, sitting on the ground within a circle of mushrooms on the outer edge of Moskve on Planet Shney. The roosters of Moskve had already begun davening their version of Shacharis, the persistent kukuriku call and response that declares the coming sunrise. Nes was cold and his legs were stiff. He stretched and rubbed himself before standing and walking home. Nes slipped into bed beside his sleeping wife and managed an hour or so of deep rest before morning began in earnest. 

It was a few days later that Nes went to the school operated by Reb Baruch and Reb Shmuli. He was there to enroll his daughter, Rifka Leeba. When Nes entered the school office, he was drawn to a marvelous three-dimensional map that was on display there, almost forgetting the intended purpose of his visit. 

Baruch and Shmuli had arrived on the first of the shuttle flights after the original settlement of Planet Shney by the pioneering passengers of the Hatikvah. Baruch and Shmuli had been yeshiva students and then teachers on Planet Birobidzhan in the Seaside Mea Shearim neighborhood of Niu Niu Yark. They were guardedly independent rabbis. Their school was located on a prominent Moskve street purposefully halfway between the Niu Yark Shul and the Niu Yerushalaim Shul. Nearly all of the children of Moskve attended this school. 

Most of the immigrant passengers on the shuttles came with the intention of seeking wealth mining or trapping in Sabir, so were predominantly men. The few women were wives accompanying their husbands or traveling in order to join a husband that preceded them to Planet Shney. Baruch and Shmuli were the only rabbis to arrive on that first flight. The subsequent shuttles that arrived at approximately six week intervals, each with one hundred passengers, included very few rabbis. 

Besides founding the school, Baruch and Shmuli established a business that sold basic supplies for miners and trappers, including extensively detailed maps. They also contracted supplies of lumber for builders and operated as a real estate agency as well. 

Upon entering that office, Nes stared at the raised-relief map for a minute before speaking. Then, he pointed to a particular valley and said, “There is a hot spring here and an oasis.” Both Baruch and Shmuli nodded. “And someday there will be a marvelous shtot there,” Nes continued. 

“You have seen this as well!” Shmuli replied. All three men shared an awareness. Bashert was that these three together were set to dramatically alter the path of development of Planet Shney. 

Here are the links to the rest of the story as posted so far:

1 - The Miracle of Vilna on Planet Shney 

https://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-miracle-of-vilna-on-planet-shney.html

2 - Nes and Shprintza Freyda Spin the Dreidl on Planet Birobidzhan 

https://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2025/01/nes-and-shprintza-freyda-spin-dreidl-on.html?m=1

3 - From Shloflozikayt to the Vision of a Marvelous Shtot 

https://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2025/02/from-shloflozikayt-to-vision-of.html

4 - A Strategy for the Yeshiva Takes Shape and Nes Opens a Pool Hall on Planet Shney 

https://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-strategy-for-yeshiva-takes-shape-and.html

5 - With the Best Intentions, On a New World

https://21stcenturybogatyr.blogspot.com/2025/02/with-best-intentions-on-new-world.html