Editing Libraries of Faerie (section)

===Rabbi Moishe's One-Word Library===

Rabbi Isaac, I write to you, my old teacher, for I am sorely in need of your wisdom.

You know from my last letter of the fire which destroyed the small library of our yeshiva. Rabbi Moishe, of course, was devastated. He had retreated to study the Talmud and meditate upon a solution, leaving me to instruct the students of the yeshiva.

In fact, I was using our only copy of the Torah to teach the boys their letters when it happened. Young Elazar was pretending he could not pick out the alef, despite my stern looks of disapproval.

We suddenly heard a voice like thunder from the back room: '''“SON OF A STINKING DROP!”''', so mighty that it shook cascades of dust from the rafters.

I realized immediately that Rabbi Moishe was in the back room, but felt it necessary to spend a moment calming the boys. Poor Elazar had quite fainted away in shock, with little more than a squeak of dismay.

When we found Rabbi Moishe in the ruined back room, it took us some time to piece together what had happened -- for he had been struck both dumb and unable to read or write, it seems. He sat on the floor, dazed, with a smoking brand upon his forehead with the Word written there.

I am afraid, my old teacher, that Rabbi Moishe must have found something in the Talmud that suggested a solution to our lost library. I think he called up the angel, Metatron, and demanded that our library be filled with words of wisdom.

I believe this, for I believe that what the angel branded upon the forehead of poor Rabbi Moishe was no word, but The Word.

The Word which was spoken to begin the Creation.

It took us some time to puzzle this out, though, for none of us could read what was written there, and poor Rabbi Moishe could not tell us. Clever young Shaul found the references to the angel Metatron which the Rabbi had surely been reading. And it was the Rabbi himself who guessed what the angel had written -- though it took some time of pointing at the Torah for me to understand.

Fortunately, the Rabbi’s wife Ismaela was wise enough to stop us from giving him a mirror to see the brand of the Word.

Poor Shaul tried to trace what the angel had written, but his writing burst into flames. With luck, he will heal and may even regain the use of his hand.

It took us several days before anyone could begin to puzzle out the Word there. 

But, everyone reads it differently. To me, it appears to say “Wisdom”. Shaul instead reads it as “Love”. Young Elazar claimed it to be “Joy”, although when I teased him about whether he could now identify the letters, he was unduly grave.

I suppose angels have that effect on us all.

Little Metibel, the Rabbi’s daughter, told us that the word was “Butterfly.” It is unfortunate she was not born a son, for she would have made a fine student in the yeshiva.

The puzzle of the Word has so obsessed the yeshiva that much mischief has come of it.

Ismaela has become convinced that she can add up the letters of the Word, and divine its meaning by gematria. Metibel tells me her mother pesters the Rabbi so much that he has taken to locking himself in a closet to escape her. Ismaela now wanders about muttering that the numbers do not figure up.

Each day, instead of studying the Torah and the Talmud, we sit together and attempt to read the Word written on the Rabbi Moishe. Although we have had many good debates thereby, I think that the Rabbi has quite lost his patience for it. Particularly since he cannot participate, of course, being dumb and illiterate now.

The reason for the urgency of this letter, though, came yesterday. Enosh was convinced he had finally puzzled out the Word, and attempted to speak it.

Enosh will be missed.

Now Enosh’s father plans the mourning, while the mother has been at Rabbi Moishe ceaselessly. I suspect she wants him to call up the angel once more, and return her son to her.

My old friend and teacher, please advise me on what to do, for I have reached the end of my wisdom on this. 

Write swiftly,
Kaleb ben Esai