The Jerusalem Inception

Chapter 20





It was close to midnight when Lemmy left Tanya’s house. He kept a fast pace along the border that crossed Jerusalem from north to south. A full moon illuminated the night. He was bursting with happiness and energy. Breaking into a run, the hard soles of his black shoes pounded the road.

Down Shivtay Israel Street, near the gate, he slowed down to catch his breath. His parents were likely awake, waiting for him. He had to calm down. There was much he had to tell them. He would make them understand his feelings and thoughts. How could he marry Sorkeh Toiterlich when his heart belonged to Tanya?

It was dark, except for a dim street lamp. The night breeze was cool on his face. He thought of what had happened with her, the all-consuming joy they had shared, joy like he’d never felt before. These feelings could not be sinful!

He entered the gate and hurried up the alley. A hand emerged out of the darkness and yanked him into a doorway. He was thrown against a wall. A whiff of body odor made him gag.

A hushed, urgent voice said, “It’s the rabbi’s son!”

Lemmy pulled his arm free.

A match was struck, and the bearded face of Redhead Dan appeared. “What are you doing here?”

“Taking a stroll. And you?”

“Don’t mess with me, Gerster!”

A car engine sounded in the night. Two headlights appeared in the street, advancing toward the gate.

“Stay here!”

Lemmy watched Redhead Dan approach the car, accompanied by Yoram in his hesitant, stooped gait.

The car stopped. The two men bent over the driver’s window. There was a lengthy discussion. Lemmy saw a box emerge from the window. There was more hushed talking, and the engine growled as the car began moving in reverse, retreating up Shivtay Israel Street.

Yoram carried the box through the gate. They stood under a lamp, and Redhead Dan opened the box. Inside were four fist-size metal balls, more elliptical than round, with black skin that resembled turtle shell. A ring was threaded through a lever at the top of each one.

Redhead Dan grabbed Lemmy’s coat and shook him violently. “If you say anything to anybody about this, I’m going to turn you into chopped liver and feed you to the cats. Understood?”

Elie Weiss maneuvered the car in reverse all the way up the street and around the corner. He shifted into first gear and drove away. He had not expected to see Abraham’s son with the two men. Had he stayed with Tanya so late? Things must be heating up between them faster than expected. Soon the boy would be ready for the picking, ready to assume his own clandestine destiny.

As Elie drove through the sleeping neighborhoods of West Jerusalem, he pulled off the fake beard and side locks. He had told Redhead Dan that the car was borrowed from a relative. A more thoughtful man would be suspicious, but the young hothead was eager to take revenge on his Zionist tormentors.

Abraham would be outraged if he ever found out. He had truly embraced his role-playing as the scion of rabbinical ancestry, fulfilling his preordainment as a Talmudic saint, a demigod for these fundamentalist Jews. Not bad for a man who had lost his faith in God. But the coming crisis would test Abraham’s abilities. The attack on the prime minister would be visible, unquestionable, and dread-inciting beyond its actual nature. The secular Israeli majority would rally behind Eshkol while the state’s security agencies clamped down on the ultra-Orthodox. Elie’s reward would be the Mossad appointment he had coveted, finally providing him with trained personnel, overseas branches, vehicles and weaponry, which together with Klaus von Koenig’s fortune, would enable Elie to pursue his grand vision of countering anti-Semitism worldwide.

There was light in the windows of the apartment. Lemmy ran up the steps. He had to warn his father immediately. The box contained some kind of explosives, he could tell, and Redhead Dan was up to no good.

He entered the foyer and closed the door. His parents were in the dining room.

“Master of the Universe!” His mother ran to him. “We were so worried about you!” Her eyes were red, and she hugged him.

“I’m fine.” Lemmy detached from her and entered the dining room.

Rabbi Gerster had an open book of Talmud before him. A white bandage was tied around his head, an oval stain showing through in the middle of his forehead.

“Where did you go?” Temimah asked. “You could have been killed!”

“Father, I need to talk to you.” Lemmy approached the table. “I saw—”

Rabbi Gerster got up and slapped him across the face. The blow knocked Lemmy off his feet. He heard his mother scream.

Getting up, he leaned on the table for support until the room stopped spinning. He slowly digested the fact that, for the first time ever, his father had struck him.

He heard the study door slam and went to the foyer. The left side of his face was burning. He banged on the door. “If you hit me again, I’ll tell people what a cruel father you are. And a cruel husband.”

His mother gasped.

The door opened, and Rabbi Gerster stepped out. He didn’t say anything. The oval stain on his bandage had turned red and moist.

Lemmy did not retreat. “I’ll tell your flock why my mother has no more children!”

Without a word, his father’s hand rose again, flying at his face. But Lemmy was ready, blocking it with his forearm. “One son is too much for you?” He wiped his tears.

“Obviously,” his father said.

“There’s a solution. He who repudiates his father or his mother shall be put to death. Exodus, twenty-one, seventeen—”

“Wash your hands and your mouth before you quote from the Torah. Behave as a God-fearing Jew, or else—”

“Or else what? You’ll call for a stoning?”

“Or else,” Rabbi Gerster said, “I’ll banish you from this community!”