Avraham Azrieli - The Jerusalem inception

“Neturay Karta won’t cause any trouble. I’ve ruled that they must study and pray to make the world better, never attack another Jew. My work is done.”

“Until the next instigation causes them to riot? To throw rocks at innocent people?”

“That’s your problem. I’m quitting.”

“You can’t quit. You’re a spy. A mole. A non-believer among the believers. It’ll take years to find someone like you.”

“I don’t have years. My wife will wither and die before summer.”

“Now isn’t the time for faintheartedness.” He pointed with his cigarette at the book. “Look inside.”

Abraham took out the note and read it by the light from the entrance, where pedestrian traffic kept flowing by. “You think a few trenches will protect us from the Jordanian cannons?”

“A few? We’ll dig up every street and save thousands of lives.” Elie waited a moment to let the image sink in. “Don’t shirk your duty. Israel needs you. Your people need you.”

Stuffing the envelope inside his coat pocket, Abraham looked down at Elie. “My wife cannot live without our son, and our son cannot live among Neturay Karta. And I cannot let her suffer like this. She’s a good woman.”

“Didn’t you tell me that you wanted to leave her for Tanya?”

He didn’t answer.

“You’re a secret agent in a crucial post. You made a commitment!”

“Twenty years ago, after you made me believe that Tanya was dead.”

“I told you what I found in the forest. It was true. You drew the conclusion.”

“Enough with the lies! I had nothing to live for in 1945, so I agreed to dedicate my life to this job. But I cannot sacrifice my wife’s life. It’s not mine to sacrifice. And my son should not be an orphan while his parents are alive. He hasn’t replied to Temimah’s letters. It’s up to me to fix the situation. I’m a father and a husband-that’s my duty now!”

“How noble.” Elie tried to control his anger. “And what about your duty to our nation?”

“Cantor Toiterlich can lead the sect for a few years until Benjamin Mashash, my son’s study companion, is ready. Neturay Karta will remain peaceful after I leave, I assure you.”

“You have to wait until after the crisis. Two, maybe three months.”

Abraham nodded.

Satisfied, Elie leaned on a bicycle handlebar. A brief delay was all he needed. Soon, Abraham would have no reason to leave Neturay Karta. “We’ll have to plan carefully. The departure of Rabbi Abraham Gerster could raise suspicion.”

“I’ll tell them that God spoke to me, told me to go and live among the sinners in order to bring them back to His grace. Then I’ll find a tolerant community, where Lemmy can live with us while pursuing his own aspirations-religious or not.” He paused. “Do you know where he’s serving?”

“Not a clue.” Elie raised a hand as if taking an oath. “Tanya made me swear to stay away from your son.”

“He must be very angry with me. It was a terrible spectacle.”

“I heard he shot down the chandelier.”

“He didn’t mean to. The bullet hit the hook, broke it off the ceiling. A fluke.” Abraham chuckled sadly. “Our very own Kristallnacht.”

After several months of intense training, the time came for the first of three dives, which were required to earn the paratrooper pin. Lemmy’s company hiked all night, arriving with first light at an air force base somewhere in the Negev Desert. They spent the day cleaning their weapons, arranging their gear, and memorizing topographical maps.

As the sun was setting, they strapped on the parachutes and boarded the plane, whose tail was marked with a blue Star of David. It accelerated down the runway, and the two engines snarled as the plane detached from the ground and gained altitude, heading west into the sunset.

The soldiers sat on metal benches along the fuselage, their Uzis loaded and secure, their pouches stuffed with ammunition, and their parachutes strapped on snugly. Lemmy sat sideways and peered out through the small window. Sunsets reminded him of Fridays in Meah Shearim. A white tablecloth. Burning candles. What do you know tonight that you didn’t know this morning?

But now Benjamin alone was there to answer the questions at the Sabbath table, to debate the subtleties of Talmud between dishes, and to recite the blessing after the meal. Life in Neturay Karta had continued to exist, a parallel universe of worship and study, of Sabbath meals and strict observance of myriad rules. But Lemmy was no longer part of it. For them, he was dead.

His eyes caught a herd of mountain goats, like white shadows in the twilight, fleeing into a ravine, frightened by the roar of the plane. He tried not to think of the initial drop and freefall, the immense height, and the speed at which he would hit the ground should his parachute fail to open. Instead he thought of the navigation challenges that awaited him once he was safely on the ground.

Their training had been put on a tight schedule in order to prepare them for a fighting role. The consecutive drills left little time for sleep and even less time for reflection. Like his fellow soldiers, Lemmy lived out of a military duffel bag that contained everything he owned-his uniform, folded and pressed, his only set of civilian clothes, and Uri Zvi Greenberg’s Book of Denunciation and Faith. His proudest possession was a wooden box containing his father’s Mauser. He also had a black yarmulke, which he hadn’t put on since leaving Meah Shearim.

His friends knew he came from an ultra-Orthodox family that had banished him, but they never pried into his past. With endless grueling exercises across the Negev Desert, soldiers judged each other on integrity and teamwork. The outside world of family, money, or education was irrelevant, and Lemmy had won their trust.

“Get ready!” Captain Zigelnick’s stocky figure appeared in the glow from the cockpit.

The red light above the door came on. Two minutes to destination.

Lemmy was first in line. He clipped the automatic-release strap to the metal wire that ran along the ceiling. If the canopy failed to open, he would use the emergency strap for manual opening in midair.

Captain Zigelnick walked down the aisle between the two opposite rows of soldiers, his hand moving along the metal wire, verifying that everyone’s release strap was properly attached. The inside of the plane was dark. The soldiers were quiet, their faces tense. It would be their first time leaping from a speeding plane, followed by a night of solitary navigation through the desert.

When he reached Lemmy, the captain patted his shoulder. “Nervous, Gerster?”

“No,” he lied, reaching up to unclip the strap from the wire. “I don’t need this.”

The light above the door made the captain’s face red, adding mischief to his grin. “Count to three, then pull the strap.”

“Yes, sir!”

A minute later, the red light turned yellow. When the light turned green, they would jump in twenty-second intervals, which meant a half a mile between each soldier. After landing, he would be on his own. They had memorized individual routes through dry streams and over rocky hills. Like a nighttime treasure hunt, each soldier had to find and jot down codes painted on rocks at various destination points and reach the gathering spot by dawn.

Lemmy shut his eyes and imagined the topographic map he had memorized. He recalled the desert paths that served deer in search of water, the wadis — dry streams-that were always at risk of flash floods, the sharp-edged palisades that spiked along the rolling dunes. For a good navigator, the maps gave rich information in shades of brown and green that told of the forms taken by the earth. Lemmy’s Talmudic mind, trained to digest complex facts and weigh conflicting scenarios, found it easy to interpret the map, visualize the three-dimensional landscape, and memorize the details of his route. The rest depended on his stamina.