What about Noah’s wife, and languages for empathy

This week’s Torah portion, called a Parashah, is the 2nd portion of the cycle, Parashat Noach and reminded me of a story I wrote, in a couple of different versions, a few years ago based on a question about some of those who stayed behind, in the Great Flood story. This image, btw, is an Islamic image of Noah’s Ark, which I found interesting. There is another version of this short, written in second person singular, as an experiment in trying to understand why writers are told not to do it, but her is what I think was my first imagining of this short short.

—

Waves lapped at her breasts, the cold water raising goose bumps on her clammy chilled flesh. The matron shivered, lifting her head, drawing a deep breath from her belly, and pushing the words out with her diaphragm:

“Soon and very soon

we are going to see the King”

the others joined in, linking arms,

“Soon and very soon

we are going to see the King”

Was she seeing that right?

“What are they doing singing?!” tears stung her face as Naamah bellowed

“Get them in here, son! Now! Drag them by their idiotic hair if you have to, but get them in this boat! What do they think they are doing?! They …”

Her words were drowned out by her friend’s next call,

“No more crying!”

The others, lifting their voices above the waves, responded:

“No more crying there, for

we are going to see the king”

Naamah lunged at the railing, one foot already hooked over the side, as Shem and Yapeth dragged her by each arm, her third son linking his hands around her struggling waist, dragging her back inside as her husband slammed the door, lowering the massive bar, enclosing them all in darkness, muffling the cries outside the arc.

At last, when she her breath returned, over the already stifling stench of the animals,

“She told me, but I could not stop her. Demanding an audience, she said.”

All four men stared at her. What?

“An audience with the One who decreed this flood. Protesting the lack of input in this decision.”

“What a hell of a way to protest. They aren’t gong to get very far.”

…

ShiraDest.

Originally drafted in 12014 H.E. (Holocene Era)

AIso, is it still true, that empathy makes us stronger, not weaker?

Octavia Butler dealt with that question, too, in her last novel (I think), Parable of the Talents.

  More on my continuing striving with empathy next time, friends:

  Nos vemos!      ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Search for two different sources to translate the word “rest”  into both Spanish and Hebrew.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.  (Anyone notice them in this story??)

3.) Write a blog post or comment here that uses a Hebrew word, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

5.)  Can someone tell me why half of this is in block and half is in free format, and refuses to keep my formatting in the first half of the post, which has put itself into the new block editing format?  This is just bizzare.

 

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport

 

Read, Write a book or read mine for free on community cooperation between the Black and Jewish communities in DC…

-we can learn from the past Stayed on Freedom’s Call for free,

     by Teaching and Learning (Lesson Plans with readings available for free on my home page…) in the present, to

           help build a kinder future: Baby Acres: a Vision of a Better World

 

Babylon 5 review posts, how story inspires learning…

Peace     ! שָׁלוֹם

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

the year, 2021 CE = year 12021 HE

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

 

Shira Destinie Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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