“Rachel, Wendy, before you go to your rooms, give me your knives,” Avi commanded.
“But Mom!”
“No but and no accidents. Hand them over.”
They reluctantly gave Avi their knives.
After changing into casual clothes, they departed for the mess hall. They found an empty table and sat down. They were about half way through eating when Reuben and Rashi came over to the table with their parents and their little sister.
“Hi, I’m Abraham, this is my wife Sarah and our daughter Miriam. Your girls already know our boys Reuben and Rashi. May we join you?”
“Of course, if you don’t mind us continuing to eat,” Avi said.
“You’re Rachel,” Miriam said brightly. “Call me Mimi. Do you know why they call me Mimi?”
Rachel smiled in spite of a mouth full of food and shook her head.
“Because when I was little I used to walk around with my hands in the air saying ‘Me, Me’ when I wanted to be picked up. I’m nine now. I’m small for my age. Can I sit next to you?”
Rachel nodded, and Mimi dragged over a chair. She hopped up and squiggled back into it with her feet well off the ground. Mimi looked at Rose. “Are you their grandmother?”
“Yes, dear.”
“I don’t have a grandmother, can I borrow you?”
Rose laughed. Wendy and Rachel had not heard that warm a laugh from Rose in over a year. They smiled at each other.
“Of course, dear. I would be happy to be your grandmother.”
“Oh, goody,” Mimi looked around. “I’ll be quiet now,” she said.
Abraham looked at Rachel and Wendy, “You ladies did very well in your placement tests today.” He turned to Greg and Avi, “I understand you mostly taught them yourselves. You have done an incredible job.”
“Well, when you spend several months at a time on a cargo ship in hyper drive between planets, there is not a whole lot else to do. The ship’s computer does most of the hard work,” Avi said.
“Is it true that you young ladies helped write the games Pirate Interdiction, Valiant Soldiers and Planetoid Defender?”
“Dad did Soldiers by himself. We helped in later versions of Pirate and Planetoid. Why?” Wendy asked.
“Your computer programming, database and spreadsheet skills are well above grade level. Your graphic arts skills are even higher.”
“Excuse me for asking,” Avi interrupted, “but how do you know this?”
“I teach engineering, advanced math and theoretical physics at the Ba-it Sepher. I am responsible for assigning new students to their classes. Sarah teaches biology, chemistry, anatomy and physiology. With the exception of their Hebrew, they are above grade level in all of their classes. Which is why I wanted to talk to you tonight. I can either assign them to the highest classes at their age group or assign them up one year in those highest classes and challenge them. It’s your choice.”
“Would we be bored in the classes for our age level?” Wendy asked.
“Probably.”
“We get in trouble when we’re bored. What classes are Reuben and Rashi in?” Rachel asked.
“The higher age level.”
“There’s your answer,” Rachel said.
“We go up,” Wendy followed “Will Rashi be in all my classes?”
“Not your Hebrew, but all your others.”
“We studied Hebrew on the ship for months on the way here. What’s wrong with our Hebrew?” Rachel protested.
“Your reading is fine. Your writing leaves much to be desired. You will get lots of writing in Miss Feinstein’s class. It will be good for you.”
The girls groaned. Everyone else chuckled. Mimi put her hand on Rachel’s elbow and said, “Miss Feinstein is my aunt. She’s sweet. You’ll like her.”
Rachel smiled. “Thank you. You’re sweet, too.”
Mimi smiled.
“I understand that your girls have offered to take the boys flying,” Abraham said.
“Subject to your permission, of course,” Greg replied.
“Let me be clear about something.” His expression turned stern. “All my life I have worked in a classroom, first as a student and then as an instructor. My only regret is that I did not take the time to do anything exciting or off the beaten path. Sarah and I married young and had Reuben early. Looking back we wonder if we should have waited, but we look at our wonderful children and we know we did the right thing. Still, in our hearts there is that yearning for adventure. I do not wish to deny my children the opportunity to do something they will always remember. At the same time I do not wish to expose them to unnecessary danger. Do you understand my dilemma?”
“Quite well,” Greg replied. He thought for a second. “How solid are you on the mathematics of hyper drive?”
“Extremely. I did my PhD thesis on it and I assist our research labs.”
“Could you teach it?”
“Yes.”
“Could you teach it to Reuben and Rashi?”
“They already know the principles. I taught them long ago.”
“Could you teach it to Mimi?”
Mimi sat up in her chair at the mention of her name.
Abraham thought for a minute. “Yes, I think so. The basics anyway.”
Avi smiled, “That’s one I don’t have to teach.”
Greg nodded to her and turned back to Abraham, “Can you be available to teach flight school every day after regular school. This is in addition to your regular job.”
“Yes.”
Greg said, “Let me discuss this with Admiral Sherman in the morning. Mimi, do you know how to keep a secret?”
“Yes. Is what you just told my daddy a secret?” Mimi replied wide eyed.
“Yes.”
“Would it spoil somebody’s surprise if I told?” Mimi asked.
“Yes, it would.”
She raised her right hand. “I can keep a secret.”
“Sarah,” Avi asked, “you teach physiology. Could you teach…”
“Yes,” Sarah interrupted.
“That’s two,” Greg said.
“Was that a secret too? What you told my Mommy?” Mimi asked.
Avi and Sarah both nodded.
“Oh goody, I love secrets!” She clapped her hands together in excitement.
Faye Anne appeared out of nowhere with her parents following behind her. “They don’t believe me!” She shouted indignantly to Rachel from half way across the room. “They don’t believe you said you would teach me to fly!”
Greg looked at Rachel with a sly grin and one eyebrow raised. “Did you?”
“Yes, Dad. I thought we could start with the simulators built into our ships on the ground and then see how she did. It seemed like a good idea. I think she’d enjoy it. I’d love being her instructor, with your help of course.”
“Admiral, I apologize for my daughter being so forward. If it is acceptable to you, Rachel is qualified to teach the basics and Avi or I can take over later,” Greg offered.
“We certainly need the pilots and I would be shirking my duties if I denied my own daughter the chance to help defend her home. I had hoped she would have chosen something not on the front lines.” He turned to his wife, “Levonah? What do you think?”
“She’ll do what she wants whether we want her to or not. At least this way we’ll know where she is. You have my permission.”
Faye Anne smiled and hugged Rachel. When Mimi put up her hands, Faye Anne hugged her.
“Admiral, we have to collect some personal things from the cargo ship. Can we borrow a passenger ship to go get them. The P I’s only seat two and that would be cramped,” Greg said.
“Say, something that seats a dozen, perhaps?” Admiral Sherman looked at Faye Anne and then at the boys. “I think that can be arranged. I’ll find something that does not require a fight suit. I don’t think we have any that small,” he said looking at Mimi. “After Havdallah service on Saturday afternoon, come to my office. No, better yet, why don�
��t all of you join us for after Shabbat dinner in our quarters. Abraham, I have a theory I have been wrestling with you might be able to answer. It involves hyper drive in the regions between the galaxies. We can meet at the chapel and walk from there. Friday evening, then.”
The remainder of dinner was devoted to light conversation about school and merging the new arrivals into the community. After dinner, the ten of them returned to Greg and Avi’s quarters where they chatted late into the night. Mimi fell asleep in Rose’s arms as soon as Rose finished reading her a story. The sight of Rose seated in the over stuffed chair gently stroking the sleeping child’s hair somehow put everything into perspective. Reuben and Rashi blew off their homework that evening willing to withstand the anger of their instructors the following day especially since two of their instructors were their parents.
ERETZ - CHAPTER EIGHT
THE FOUR DAYS REMAINING in the week passed without incident. The girls discovered much to their surprise that they enjoyed Miss Feinstein’s class and found themselves challenged in all their classes. David was in all of Rachel’s classes except the advanced math. Faye Anne was in Rachel’s literature, humanities and arts classes. Faye Anne’s sister, Esther, was in all of Wendy’s classes except for the advanced math. The girls found the gossip mill everything Faye Anne warned them it would be. They were grateful for Reuben and Rashi’s calming presence and found themselves frequently retreating to the boys for assistance. The boys, of course, were delighted with the attention and only too happy to help.
Greg and Avi toured the defense facilities and met the personnel who would provide support. Their whirlwind tour gave them only the slightest idea of the depth of the support available, but, other than the serious shortage of pilots, it was far stronger than anything they could have imagined. The level and intensity of the research came as a complete surprise to the two pilots who had been isolated for half a generation. They were stunned at how far behind the technology they had fallen and how much they had to learn to catch up.
Rose assimilated into the community as if she had lived there all her life. She quickly found a place in the organization supporting the evacuation of mistreated women and children from the central system. The small group of activists gladly welcomed her and kept her busy. She sent a message in a packet of mail going on a courier to New St. Louis informing Ellie Mae and Elvira of her new status and expressing her hope that she could continue to be of service to their efforts.
After school on Friday, the community shut down and went to services. Conversations following the evening services were light and convivial. Sabbath morning services at the temple were followed by a free-flowing discussion of a variety of religious topics over a buffet lunch of delicatessen foods many of which neither Greg nor Avi had eaten since leaving Earth. Some of the discussions over minutiae of the scriptures and the commentaries became heated and passionate. Greg listened intensely to several conversations but did not participate. It was exciting for him to listen to debates on subjects he had last read about as a teenager.
After one of the discussions wound down to its inevitable stalemate, the Rabbi addressed Greg. “Do not be afraid to comment or question. None of us here has all the answers, in spite of what some of us think.” He looked at one elderly gentleman who had been particularly vocal in a previous discussion. “Is there a question you would like to pose for the group to discuss?”
Greg thought for a second and then started tentatively, “I think we are all agreed that the Taliban were bad for their people.”
Several men nodded. “I think we all agree that the Swordsmen are bad for their people.”
More heads nodded. “Throughout the ages there have been several theocracies which were identified as being bad for their people. There is a very real chance that we may go to war against one such theocracy.”
Several men started to speak. He held up his hand. “That’s not the part I want to discuss. We can talk about that later. I want to discuss something more basic. I think we are agreed that the theocracies I have mentioned deserved to be overthrown. Yet, we live in a theocracy. Let me ask the most basic of questions, the one even the youngest child it taught to ask. Ma nishtanah ha lila haza sebchol ha laylot? Why is this theocracy different from all other theocracies. Why is the theocracy in which we live a good thing and the one the Swordsmen support a bad thing?”
Suddenly the men grew quiet. “Why do the Swordsmen deserve to be overthrown and we do not? Surely there is more to it than their status as a theocracy?”
The Rabbi broke the silence. “It is a rare question that stops us cold. This is an excellent question. Let me offer a thought or two. Maybe collectively we can find an answer. Although, now that I think about it, I am not sure I agree with one of your basic premises. There is some cause to believe that the Swordsman religion may actually have some good for society as a whole.”
Several of the men tried to interrupt. “Hear me out,” the Rabbi said.
“One of the problems we share with other densely packed populations has to do with how you deal with those people that do not fit. There have been extended periods in Earth’s history when those people who were so anti-social that they were a hazard to themselves and others had a frontier to retreat to. Our expansion through space gives us a new frontier again where these people can go, but as a society, what do we do with our failures and our misfits? The Swordsmen have given these people a place to go. By absorbing prisoners as they are released from jail following long periods of ministering to them in prison, they have improved the quality of life in our cities merely by removing many of the criminals from our streets. Basing our opposition to the Swordsmen on how they treat their populations is too simplistic.”
“But Greg’s question dealt with the structure of the government,” one of the men countered.
The Rabbi paused, “Yes, first, let us distinguish between a theocracy and a dictatorship. Some of what we think of as theocracies are dictatorships and only theocracies in name. Others, like ours, are more correctly defined as theologically based representative democracies. The Swordsmen, however, are not a dictatorship. They are organized more like a corporation. Can you name the dictator who runs the Swordsman church?”
The men exchanged glances. No one could answer.
“That’s because it’s run by a council. There probably is one person who heads up the leadership council, but that person is apparently chosen from among its members. The Pope is chosen in a similar procedure. It’s not that simple.”
“Rabbi,” one of the men interrupted, “are you saying that dictatorships are good or bad?”
“Either, both. It’s more involved than that. A benevolent dictatorship is one of the most humane and efficient forms of government ever created.”
“But who is to say if a dictatorship is benevolent or not?”
“Indeed. There are those who think Brigham Young was a benevolent dictator, strict, but benevolent. Others think he was an obsessive madman. What about Moses? We think of him as benevolent, but didn’t he write the book that details his activities? Can you name a man who wouldn’t like to glorify the good and ignore the bad in their pasts?”
“Surely there is some measure we can use.”
“Perhaps. We know that a dictator like Idi Amin who massacred large numbers of his citizens was a bad dictator, but there are those who still believe that what he did was right. Who is to say? What about Pol Pot in Cambodia? The Swordsmen believe in “ethnic cleansing” the same way Hitler did. Since we are among the targets of this cleansing we think this is a bad thing. There are those who view us as a corrupting influence and would rather we not interact with them. What if we were to evict from our midst those who did not believe as we did?” He paused as a thought occurred to him. “In fact we have done this by taking with us only those with whom we had a religious affiliation and reinforced that by splitting the colonies into four parts along religious lines.”
“But we didn’t kill anyone in those oth
er colonies nor did we kill any of those who opposed us as they do.”
“That is true. Perhaps that gives us a standard by which to judge. If it is the actions of the government and not the form of government that determines the rightness or wrongness of that government we should be able to determine a code of conduct against we can judge their actions.”
“Those governments that use murder and intimidation as a method of ruling would be deserving of being overthrown, and those that use more benign methods would not,” one man offered.
Other opinions were offered.
“I think it is more complex than that. Is capital punishment not murder?”
“But it is practiced so rarely.”
“Is it really?”
The discussion quickly degenerated over the issue of capital punishment as murder.
The Rabbi regained control. “I think we are all agreed that any organization that causes the wholesale slaughter of civilians is deserving of overthrow. However, by that standard, the United States, in its extermination of the Native Americans in the conquest of its Western Frontier and by virtue of its use of nuclear weapons in Japan, would have qualified as deserving of overthrow. Now we could use the argument that the America and Japan were in a declared war with each other. The question then comes as to what constitutes a war. Was the war declared by Hamas on the Israelis truly a war? As Jews, we would say yes, but would a Christian agree?”
“A Christian would not agree because the goal of all Christians is the elimination of the Jews. How could they possibly agree?” Several of the men murmured agreement.
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