Unclean
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J Dan Ganci
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 11 Apr 2017, 18:21
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Unclean
“Mother, oh Mother, what shall become of me? I have had an issue of blood and have remained unclean and again through the whole of this year. When will it end, has my fate been written in stone? Alvah, groaned, Have I committed an unpardonable sin? Have the evils of my father found a place for me to satisfy the demands of justice” Lilith was downcast from her daughter's constant complaint and her apparent lack of faith? She tried to uplift her child with the hopes of a promising medication and said, “ This is a rare onset, but cures have been found with herbs and rest, be patient. I have sent for a physician noted for his skills; I am sure he will be able to raise up a remedy.
Hope hung on every sunrise that the pour would halt and normal life would resume in its course.
The doctor examined Alvah, month after month, but the release of her flow refused to reduce. The doctor was confused and confounded, “There is nothing of a physical nature that I can detect. I can not regulate her stain. I am not familiar with either cause or correction; this malady exists beyond the scope of my education. My only suggestion is for you to seek out a holy man; this might be a spiritual disease that can only be arrested by God. A religious Rabbi familiar with sin and punishment might be able to free Alvah from her blood-letting plague through ritual washing, and sacrifice.”
Lilith knew of such a man and put forward to the synagogue, neighboring it was the home of a highly esteemed Rabbi. Lilith introduced herself, “Most learned and pious Rabbi, my daughter Alvah, of thirteen years, has an issue of blood that will not cease nor will it decrease. We are desperate and seek a spiritual intervention. All medical knowledge has been exhausted; you are our only, and last hope.”
The Rabbi questioned her “Have you sat where your daughter had once sat? Or do you, now, yourself have an issue of blood at present?
“No, certainly not, Rabbi” was Lilith's knowing reply, “I am aware of the commandments and have taken every precaution to remain clean according to the law.”
The Rabbi acknowledged her just right answer with a knowing nod of acceptance. He bid the stranger enter and consented to entertain her request. “Follow me, and watch your step, the stone floor has cracks and crevices that can easily fracture delicate ankles,” he grumbled.
He then beckoned Lilith to sit on a stack of soft cushions next to his desk. The Rabbi sparked his oil lamps and candles and unrolled several weighty parchment scrolls. He pondered on Alvah’s insistent sickness. He studied the sacred law of God, Moses and the prophets. The Rabbi was hoping to find a legal argument that he might put God to remembrance and so relieve Lilith's daughter of her unclean and untouchable affliction. After what seemed like a time without end, Lilith could no longer hold her breath, and asked: “Rabbi have you found any hint of a remedy?” Rabbi exhaled with frustration and said “I have not, the law is simple and plain, your daughter remains unclean and may have to separate beyond the city walls. I will confer with the most knowledgeable of our esteemed elders, patience; my dear madam often proves to be the best medicine.”
After weeks of study, debate, and consultation with learned leaders, a solution was not forthcoming. The Rabbi sent word that the whole of the ward counsel had agreed that Alvah was no longer welcome in the community and required to find housing outside of their compound. After all, once word got out, it was essential and for her good to ensure security and protection.
A small house, more of a shed than a shack was made available for her shelter.
Her heart was at ease in the open field away from nosy neighbors and accusing fingers. Alvah, in her solitude, could reach out to God for a solution. There she could not pollute the zealots with her lack of virtue, and the fanatical could not poison her with their venomous darts of insult.
The exile of Alvah had begun.
Alvah, now shielded from prying eyes found solace in sacred writings. The holy synagogue, particularly the city market, where fresh meat and even fresher gossip mingled. For that matter, all gathering places remained forbidden. Her mother was her only lifeline, but, even then she could only come once a month when she too had an issue of blood.
A livelihood was essential for Alvah’s survival. Lilith brought her daughter what little food and medicines she could scrape together, but Alvah’s cupboards remained barren.
A faithful knock announced a dark stranger at the shanty door. Alvah calmed her fear by thinking quickly and using her most menacing voice, and said,“Is that, you father? I had expected you over an hour ago” The woman at the door said “Please pardon my disturbance I am a traveler in a strange land and my garment had snagged on a low lying branch and I seek a needle and thread to hem in my nakedness. Alvah nodded and was glad for the company and said, “Please enter my humble home, and take your seat on the wooden stool next to to the fireplace and do not take rest on any other bench.”
Alvah lowered her voice to a faint whisper and confessed, “I have an issue of blood and remain infected in the sight of all Israel. Sitting where I have sat will make you suspect in the minds of the righteous, you will be, judged by them, a mysterious intruder. You will be questioned and then swiftly cast out for the smallest hint or even mention of the slightest transgression”.
The woman had kind eyes and gently grasped Alvah’s hand and said, “ I am a stranger in Israel and not aware of your local superstitions, I will keep my counsel and not speak of our conspiracy, but I remain in desperate need for amending. Can you entertain a stranger with a sharp eye for the needle and steady hand with a spool of thread?” Alvah smiled, it was for the first time she smiled since becoming a woman, yet remaining a child. I love to sew, and my fingers seem to have a natural weave. My mother often said that I could hem in a rainy day. Alvah made short work of the stranger's garment and restored it to its former glory.
The Lady was pleased and showed Alvah her gratitude with a hefty reward of shiny coins.
Lilith’s monthly stopover was timely and followed hard upon the favorable garment mending incident.
Lilith saddened by her daughter's ill-fated situation said, “I have brought what I could, but there is not enough money for medicines, and there is no money for another physician's care let alone his opinion.” Alvah smiled and hung from her mother's neck and kissed her sweetly on the cheeks; magically producing a fat purse of shekels. Lilith’s eyes widened with surprise as her words hissed through tight puckered lips, ooh, what is this? From where did this come? Tell me”, she insisted. Alvah told her mother about the stranger that she had amused with her sewing skills and in turn, received the blessings that accompany the earning of money.
Lilith smiled at her daughter's chance encounter and good fortune and said “My dear; this could very well provide you with a livelihood, I can bring bolts of cloth for dressmaking, and I can gather up the endless rips and tears that ensure a successful tailor’s career.
The silver lining on Alvah's dark cloud was her natural skill to hem, sew, and so, she could readily stitch out a living. Money to invite physicians and pay for their services came by the end of Alva’s nimble and tireless fingers.
Lilith was dutiful and regular, and you could set the calendar in the timing of her monthly visits. Lilith’s and Alvah’s conversation over these many years had become hopeless and predictable. Lilith would always begin, “How are you today, my lovely daughter, you are forever on my mind. I am so hoping after the last physician's visit that there might have been some improvement.” “No, mother, Alvah scolded, “The tide has only risen. My stamina ebbs with the rising flow; my youthful endurance that has kept me full of hope is beginning to falter. Mother we have tried a dozen physicians, in as many years. We have tried self-proclaimed specialists with their poultices, potions, and a sea of lotions, all my living now squandered on empty promises. One such practitioner had me sit quietly for an hour with a cup of red wine gripped tightly in both hands at a crossroads. He then crept up slowly behind me and frightened the life out of me, by yelling, “Arise from thy flux; I nearly fainted.” I feel empty and forsaken by God, why has he abandoned me?” Lilith attempted to console her daughter, and said, “My dear daughter, God has not deserted or forgotten you, I believe there is a greater purpose to your weakness. I trust, my sweet child, that this bloody illness is a God given trial of your faith.”
Alvah was at the end of her strength and could barely crawl out of bed; her courage all but spent.
Lilith, out of her regular time, burst in, and said, “Alvah, there is a healer and a holy man in the marketplace. They say that he had restored the lame, the blind, and had even raised the dead. Some insist that he is the promised Messiah, wherever he goes, crowds form and zealously follow in his footsteps.” The good news elevated Alvah’s spirits and in turn lifted her up and off of her pallet. Having obtained a hope of restoration and a needed reprieve from the certainty of a slow death and a sure grave, she said, “I will defy my exile and go to the center of town, I will trust in Jehovah as never before.”
Alvah was all but exhausted when she reached the clamor of the mob. A crowd of men, some sick and afflicted pressed desperately into the midst of an unseen redeemer. Alvah tried to find an opening but was too frail to move aside the wall of friendless flesh. Alvah’s feeble attempt to make an opening only found her pushed down onto rocky ground. Motionless on all fours, facing a forest of legs challenging her impossible dream of redemption. Alvah tucked her skirt tightly into her girdle and with her last wave of energy dove headlong into a sea of sandals.
Some gave ground at the unexpected bump. Some stood firm, deeply rooted in ancient traditions. Some kicked and stomped at the unwelcomed intrusion. There were moments of danger from being trampled to death beneath the feet of soulless heels.
The light was dim under the borders of the tightly packed throng. Alvah, too long fatigued proceeded through her dark and dusty makeshift labyrinth, enduring only because of her faith and sheer determination. Alvah’s knees scraped red and raw with palms embedded with pebbles. She could not force or crawl another inch. She was ready to abandon all hope and surrender to her awaiting fate. When suddenly a patch of blue, just beyond her reach, passed vividly before her senses. She knew she did not know how she knew; she just did; this was him. There was no time to think, Alvah with her last bit of grit lunged, flattening out in a frantic stretch, her fingertips barely touching the bright blue hem of his prayer shawls trailing tassel.
A bolt of energy surged through Alvah as if struck by lightning; she could immediately feel herself healing.The cramping she had suffered these many years had all but disappeared. Her figure once again felt youthful and supple, an almost forgotten vitality now coursed through both muscle and sinew.
A voice, pure as rushing waters, thundered, Who Touched me” The crowd yielded all activity, nothing sounded except for the whisper of collective breathing.
All shook their heads and looked to their neighbor as a possible guilty party. The accusation was confusing, no one would, or could confess to the offense.
A burly fisherman and several tattered looking fellows from the Master's inner circle chided him, and said,”Master, this is a large Multitude for there are many and they are all pressing hard against you, how can you say, who touched me?”
Yeshua Ben Yosef of Nazareth, The Master, said, Somebody, has touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.”
Alvah rose up from obscurity into the full view of all the shocked onlookers and wholly in the penetrating gaze of the Master; she was now vulnerable and totally transparent.
Alvah saw she had transgressed the law. She was unclean and not only had she tainted the crowd, but she had also attempted to lay hands on a Holy man. She shuddered at the possible consequence of stoning. Was she made well only to be killed by the displeasure of an angry mob, she feared for her life?
Alvah, sobbing, and trembling fell to her knees at the feet of Jesus. Alvah looked down on the ground; she was sorrowful and broken hearted and dared not look up. Alvah stitched together her striking tale of blood and redemption to the Master, and to all that were present. She described the sudden miracle of her healing evidenced by the slightest touch of the master's garment; she begged for forgiveness for her desperate act of defiance. A gentle hand was forthcoming, but not until Alvah had finished fully speaking her heartfelt confession. Alvah looked up and into her savior's wondrous eyes, and cried spellbound by his kindness and compassion. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.
Joseph Ganci
3/10/17
Hope hung on every sunrise that the pour would halt and normal life would resume in its course.
The doctor examined Alvah, month after month, but the release of her flow refused to reduce. The doctor was confused and confounded, “There is nothing of a physical nature that I can detect. I can not regulate her stain. I am not familiar with either cause or correction; this malady exists beyond the scope of my education. My only suggestion is for you to seek out a holy man; this might be a spiritual disease that can only be arrested by God. A religious Rabbi familiar with sin and punishment might be able to free Alvah from her blood-letting plague through ritual washing, and sacrifice.”
Lilith knew of such a man and put forward to the synagogue, neighboring it was the home of a highly esteemed Rabbi. Lilith introduced herself, “Most learned and pious Rabbi, my daughter Alvah, of thirteen years, has an issue of blood that will not cease nor will it decrease. We are desperate and seek a spiritual intervention. All medical knowledge has been exhausted; you are our only, and last hope.”
The Rabbi questioned her “Have you sat where your daughter had once sat? Or do you, now, yourself have an issue of blood at present?
“No, certainly not, Rabbi” was Lilith's knowing reply, “I am aware of the commandments and have taken every precaution to remain clean according to the law.”
The Rabbi acknowledged her just right answer with a knowing nod of acceptance. He bid the stranger enter and consented to entertain her request. “Follow me, and watch your step, the stone floor has cracks and crevices that can easily fracture delicate ankles,” he grumbled.
He then beckoned Lilith to sit on a stack of soft cushions next to his desk. The Rabbi sparked his oil lamps and candles and unrolled several weighty parchment scrolls. He pondered on Alvah’s insistent sickness. He studied the sacred law of God, Moses and the prophets. The Rabbi was hoping to find a legal argument that he might put God to remembrance and so relieve Lilith's daughter of her unclean and untouchable affliction. After what seemed like a time without end, Lilith could no longer hold her breath, and asked: “Rabbi have you found any hint of a remedy?” Rabbi exhaled with frustration and said “I have not, the law is simple and plain, your daughter remains unclean and may have to separate beyond the city walls. I will confer with the most knowledgeable of our esteemed elders, patience; my dear madam often proves to be the best medicine.”
After weeks of study, debate, and consultation with learned leaders, a solution was not forthcoming. The Rabbi sent word that the whole of the ward counsel had agreed that Alvah was no longer welcome in the community and required to find housing outside of their compound. After all, once word got out, it was essential and for her good to ensure security and protection.
A small house, more of a shed than a shack was made available for her shelter.
Her heart was at ease in the open field away from nosy neighbors and accusing fingers. Alvah, in her solitude, could reach out to God for a solution. There she could not pollute the zealots with her lack of virtue, and the fanatical could not poison her with their venomous darts of insult.
The exile of Alvah had begun.
Alvah, now shielded from prying eyes found solace in sacred writings. The holy synagogue, particularly the city market, where fresh meat and even fresher gossip mingled. For that matter, all gathering places remained forbidden. Her mother was her only lifeline, but, even then she could only come once a month when she too had an issue of blood.
A livelihood was essential for Alvah’s survival. Lilith brought her daughter what little food and medicines she could scrape together, but Alvah’s cupboards remained barren.
A faithful knock announced a dark stranger at the shanty door. Alvah calmed her fear by thinking quickly and using her most menacing voice, and said,“Is that, you father? I had expected you over an hour ago” The woman at the door said “Please pardon my disturbance I am a traveler in a strange land and my garment had snagged on a low lying branch and I seek a needle and thread to hem in my nakedness. Alvah nodded and was glad for the company and said, “Please enter my humble home, and take your seat on the wooden stool next to to the fireplace and do not take rest on any other bench.”
Alvah lowered her voice to a faint whisper and confessed, “I have an issue of blood and remain infected in the sight of all Israel. Sitting where I have sat will make you suspect in the minds of the righteous, you will be, judged by them, a mysterious intruder. You will be questioned and then swiftly cast out for the smallest hint or even mention of the slightest transgression”.
The woman had kind eyes and gently grasped Alvah’s hand and said, “ I am a stranger in Israel and not aware of your local superstitions, I will keep my counsel and not speak of our conspiracy, but I remain in desperate need for amending. Can you entertain a stranger with a sharp eye for the needle and steady hand with a spool of thread?” Alvah smiled, it was for the first time she smiled since becoming a woman, yet remaining a child. I love to sew, and my fingers seem to have a natural weave. My mother often said that I could hem in a rainy day. Alvah made short work of the stranger's garment and restored it to its former glory.
The Lady was pleased and showed Alvah her gratitude with a hefty reward of shiny coins.
Lilith’s monthly stopover was timely and followed hard upon the favorable garment mending incident.
Lilith saddened by her daughter's ill-fated situation said, “I have brought what I could, but there is not enough money for medicines, and there is no money for another physician's care let alone his opinion.” Alvah smiled and hung from her mother's neck and kissed her sweetly on the cheeks; magically producing a fat purse of shekels. Lilith’s eyes widened with surprise as her words hissed through tight puckered lips, ooh, what is this? From where did this come? Tell me”, she insisted. Alvah told her mother about the stranger that she had amused with her sewing skills and in turn, received the blessings that accompany the earning of money.
Lilith smiled at her daughter's chance encounter and good fortune and said “My dear; this could very well provide you with a livelihood, I can bring bolts of cloth for dressmaking, and I can gather up the endless rips and tears that ensure a successful tailor’s career.
The silver lining on Alvah's dark cloud was her natural skill to hem, sew, and so, she could readily stitch out a living. Money to invite physicians and pay for their services came by the end of Alva’s nimble and tireless fingers.
Lilith was dutiful and regular, and you could set the calendar in the timing of her monthly visits. Lilith’s and Alvah’s conversation over these many years had become hopeless and predictable. Lilith would always begin, “How are you today, my lovely daughter, you are forever on my mind. I am so hoping after the last physician's visit that there might have been some improvement.” “No, mother, Alvah scolded, “The tide has only risen. My stamina ebbs with the rising flow; my youthful endurance that has kept me full of hope is beginning to falter. Mother we have tried a dozen physicians, in as many years. We have tried self-proclaimed specialists with their poultices, potions, and a sea of lotions, all my living now squandered on empty promises. One such practitioner had me sit quietly for an hour with a cup of red wine gripped tightly in both hands at a crossroads. He then crept up slowly behind me and frightened the life out of me, by yelling, “Arise from thy flux; I nearly fainted.” I feel empty and forsaken by God, why has he abandoned me?” Lilith attempted to console her daughter, and said, “My dear daughter, God has not deserted or forgotten you, I believe there is a greater purpose to your weakness. I trust, my sweet child, that this bloody illness is a God given trial of your faith.”
Alvah was at the end of her strength and could barely crawl out of bed; her courage all but spent.
Lilith, out of her regular time, burst in, and said, “Alvah, there is a healer and a holy man in the marketplace. They say that he had restored the lame, the blind, and had even raised the dead. Some insist that he is the promised Messiah, wherever he goes, crowds form and zealously follow in his footsteps.” The good news elevated Alvah’s spirits and in turn lifted her up and off of her pallet. Having obtained a hope of restoration and a needed reprieve from the certainty of a slow death and a sure grave, she said, “I will defy my exile and go to the center of town, I will trust in Jehovah as never before.”
Alvah was all but exhausted when she reached the clamor of the mob. A crowd of men, some sick and afflicted pressed desperately into the midst of an unseen redeemer. Alvah tried to find an opening but was too frail to move aside the wall of friendless flesh. Alvah’s feeble attempt to make an opening only found her pushed down onto rocky ground. Motionless on all fours, facing a forest of legs challenging her impossible dream of redemption. Alvah tucked her skirt tightly into her girdle and with her last wave of energy dove headlong into a sea of sandals.
Some gave ground at the unexpected bump. Some stood firm, deeply rooted in ancient traditions. Some kicked and stomped at the unwelcomed intrusion. There were moments of danger from being trampled to death beneath the feet of soulless heels.
The light was dim under the borders of the tightly packed throng. Alvah, too long fatigued proceeded through her dark and dusty makeshift labyrinth, enduring only because of her faith and sheer determination. Alvah’s knees scraped red and raw with palms embedded with pebbles. She could not force or crawl another inch. She was ready to abandon all hope and surrender to her awaiting fate. When suddenly a patch of blue, just beyond her reach, passed vividly before her senses. She knew she did not know how she knew; she just did; this was him. There was no time to think, Alvah with her last bit of grit lunged, flattening out in a frantic stretch, her fingertips barely touching the bright blue hem of his prayer shawls trailing tassel.
A bolt of energy surged through Alvah as if struck by lightning; she could immediately feel herself healing.The cramping she had suffered these many years had all but disappeared. Her figure once again felt youthful and supple, an almost forgotten vitality now coursed through both muscle and sinew.
A voice, pure as rushing waters, thundered, Who Touched me” The crowd yielded all activity, nothing sounded except for the whisper of collective breathing.
All shook their heads and looked to their neighbor as a possible guilty party. The accusation was confusing, no one would, or could confess to the offense.
A burly fisherman and several tattered looking fellows from the Master's inner circle chided him, and said,”Master, this is a large Multitude for there are many and they are all pressing hard against you, how can you say, who touched me?”
Yeshua Ben Yosef of Nazareth, The Master, said, Somebody, has touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.”
Alvah rose up from obscurity into the full view of all the shocked onlookers and wholly in the penetrating gaze of the Master; she was now vulnerable and totally transparent.
Alvah saw she had transgressed the law. She was unclean and not only had she tainted the crowd, but she had also attempted to lay hands on a Holy man. She shuddered at the possible consequence of stoning. Was she made well only to be killed by the displeasure of an angry mob, she feared for her life?
Alvah, sobbing, and trembling fell to her knees at the feet of Jesus. Alvah looked down on the ground; she was sorrowful and broken hearted and dared not look up. Alvah stitched together her striking tale of blood and redemption to the Master, and to all that were present. She described the sudden miracle of her healing evidenced by the slightest touch of the master's garment; she begged for forgiveness for her desperate act of defiance. A gentle hand was forthcoming, but not until Alvah had finished fully speaking her heartfelt confession. Alvah looked up and into her savior's wondrous eyes, and cried spellbound by his kindness and compassion. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.
Joseph Ganci
3/10/17
