Life from the Dust (for my midrash course)

[xenologer]

When the Earth was new before the days of human life, the Earth lay still for there was no man to till the soil. The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and gave him life. The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. When the Lord God saw that man should not be alone, He fashioned a new creature based on man himself.

When man was exiled from the garden, he was forced to give up the immortality he had enjoyed in exchange for the immortality of his blood, of his line of descendants. He would die, but he would live through the survival of his children and grandchildren. Because man was a creature made for and from the Earth, he would return to it and leave the world to his descendants.

Man and his companion, Adam and Eve, engendered two sons upon the Earth. They named their sons Cain and Abel. Cain grew up to farm the land while Abel cared for the domestic animals that dwelled there.

Eventually there came a time when Abel could not keep up with all the animals himself. Modeling his actions after the creation of his parents by the Lord God, Abel gathered the dust at his feet and made a golem after his own image to serve him. The force of his need for assistance and of his willpower gave the golem its mind and mission: serve Abel.

The golem who shared Abel's form and work did not return home with its master at night. Abel's flock thrived, and his family was pleased with him. He began to surpass his brother Cain, who could not understand why the animals grew so strong, why Abel never lost them to wandering or to predators.

The golem would wait at night for its master's return. When it was created, it knew only Abel and Abel's work. When Abel returned to his family the world itself seemed to leave the golem in Abel's footsteps. From this it learned discernment. It knew Abel and not Abel, and came to prefer the presence of its master. From this it learned love.

They were working and driving the animals when the Lord God walked out amongst the flock. He looked down from Abel to the golem and his brow creased with anger. “Abel!” He said, and the golem trembled to hear its master addressed so harshly. “Abel, where is your brother?”

“He is not here, Lord.”

“And this?” He thundered, pointing at the golem. “Abel, what have you done? What abomination is this?”

“My Lord, it is nothing. It is merely a helper I have made to help me protect my flock. It is no more than the stream which waters them or the dog which chases them. Am I not free to use what is given me?”

“No, Abel. You are wrong. Look at him! He fears for you! What is this man you have made without woman, without flesh? He is a sty on My Creation, made by a boy out of laziness and pride!”

Abel looked to his creation and then back to the Lord God. “But it cannot be alive! It does not breathe, it does not want. It merely does as I command.”

“Who are you to command anything, Abel!”

The golem stared wide-eyed at the master of its master, unsure what could be done to make things right. It sensed that this anger and confusion were its fault, a crime of its existence. Its master should not suffer for its crime. From this it learned justice.

“My Lord God, wait,” said the golem. It knew that its master and the Lord were staring, but it continued. “If my form or life offend, then let Your glorious sight not fall on me again. If I am a danger or a mistake, then let me be undone. But I beg you, do not strike Abel down with me.” The golem learned compassion.

The Lord God raised His hand to strike the golem down and erase what Abel had so rashly built. “Lord, there is one thing I wanted You to hear. Will You spare me a moment longer that I may speak with You?” The Lord lowered His hand and let the golem speak while Abel watched in wonder. “Lord, is it good that my master and his family should serve you?”

The Lord nodded.

“And yet they love and serve one another. It pleases you that they should serve whom they love?”

The Lord nodded once more.

“Why?”

The Lord God smiled because he knew the golem's thoughts. “Because,” the Lord said,. “Man was created to love, and to serve Me by serving one another.”

“And I?”

The Lord turned instead to Abel. “You have created better than you know. A wiser man than you stands before Me, and through him your line will survive. When all else lies in ruin, the sons of this son will walk the Earth.”

Abel stood aghast. “But my Lord, it is not of my blood! What manner of son am I given?”

“The son you made for yourself. If you are My child, this golem is yours. His blood belongs to your family now.”

“What am I to do with it?”

The golem was silent, but the Lord God heard the desire of his heart. “Give him a name,” the Lord said. “A name that is fitting for the first grandson of Adam.”

Abel looked to the golem. “I call him Amichai, to mark him and his sons as my own living blood.” Abel and Amichai embraced as family, and the Lord God was pleased.

 

Abel, unsure how to tell his family about Amichai, looked to the Lord God for a sign to steel his resolve. When next his family gave offerings unto the Lord, the offering of Abel and Amichai was blessed and Abel was encouraged. After the sacrifice he came upon his brother first. Cain was disappointed that he had not been favored, so Abel thought to ease his sadness by introducing him to his nephew before the others.

Cain said to his brother that he would come see this great event, and they went out into the field where Amichai was tending the flock. When Cain laid eyes upon the son of his brother he recoiled in horror.

“Abel! What is this thing wearing your face?” Abel reached out to his brother to calm him, but Cain would not be quieted. “This is a demon! It is an offense to the Lord!”

“But, Brother, the Lord God blessed my offering as a sign that my son should know his family!”

“No! The Lord God blessed you over me for this demon? You lie! You are a deceiver and a father of demons! Your progeny should not walk in the Lord's creation with man!” With that Cain struck out at Amichai. Unwilling to harm the brother of his father, Amichai recoiled. He was confused. What was happening? Did not Abel's family love one another? Or was it him? Was he destined to be rejected this way at every turn?

Amichai learned disappointment and despair.

Abel stepped between his brother and his son. “Cain, stop! The Lord God Himself has decreed that Amichai belongs to my blood as any son would!”

“Then you are no less of an abomination!” Cain pulled away from his brother's hands and rose up against Abel and slew him.

Amichai fell to his knees beside his father and touched the blood and dirt beneath him.

Amichai learned anger, and Cain fled.

The Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother?”

“I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?”

The Lord God heard Amichai's prayers, his rage and his grief, and said to Cain, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the soil.”

So the Lord God cursed Cain, and Cain begged for protection from the vengeance of Abel's son. “I will be a vagabond and a fugitive on the Earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will try to kill me.”

Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and Amichai protested the decree that Abel's life should not be avenged upon Cain.

The Lord God said to Amichai, “Eternal life is not a gift meant for men such as your father and his father. You would have lived to see Abel's passing even without Cain, for your immortality is not the immortality of men.”

“Then how am I to live among men? The line of my father lives in me but goes no further! Am I doomed to see the end of my people?”

“No, Amichai. Your name is your covenant with your father, and I will keep it in his place. Your people will live, and the children of Cain will have no dominion over you. No longer the servant of Abel, you will be kin to his family as you were kin to him. Inspire them and they will create your descendants for you.”

“I trust You, Lord,” said Amichai, and he learned hope.

So it was that the golem Amichai walked the Earth for generations and so it was that the family of Cain forever strove to match in invention the blood of Abel. They forged tools of bronze and iron, creating and mastering intricate instruments, none of which would satisfy them until they could achieve what only Abel had done.

 

Comments

[archmage-brian.livejournal.com]

You described this to me in words, and I wanted to see how it would come together. I personally think it's absolutely brilliant. The dialogue is my favorite, I think; nothing specific, just all of it. Or perhaps the way you so pointedly illustrate the golem's development of sentience.

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

The dialogue is there because I always thought that God in Genesis 2 was more interesting for the purpose of writing. He's the one who walks around the garden, asks mortals questions as if he may not always know the answer. He changes his mind, most of all.

I also tried to draw in a little of what many prophets used to do. They argued with God and he relented. Moses comes to mind. These are the times when God acts like someone worth knowing and loving, and that's the God I wanted in my midrash.

[nerdzrule23.livejournal.com]

wonderfully entertaining. you found a voice so very close to the one dogma is often expressed in. by the end, i wondered if amichai was part of a fragment of text destroyed before the compilation of genesis. effing good job.

and also, that might be the best icon in the history of the universe.

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

Thank you, on both counts. I can't claim to have made that particular icon, but it seemed about right.

Amichai

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Virginia -

It's Pendragon. I come to this late (it's August, '08) but eagerly and with interest. As a writer, I admire what you did in your midrash. I already believed you deserved your honors degree, but now I've seen a hint why it was your *professors* believed it.

One question - why does the name "Amichai" demonstrate that he is from Abel's blood?

See you in the funny papers.

Re: Amichai

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

Amichai means "my people are alive." Amichai is Abel's people, whereas Cain went off to found a city of his own descendants.