Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 64 of a new online serial novel, The Black Sheep, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Walls of solid stone rising as high as the eye could see. Somewhere above them, the sky stretched in every direction. The ravine was completely dry; the remnants of spring were beginning to recede in the face of the warmer summer’s giant strides.

Reb Elazar sat on a large rock, bent over. There didn’t seem to be a living soul around besides him. His right hand supported his forehead, shading his eyes. Here, he was no one’s rav, no one’s father. He was not a son fulfilling a promise to anyone. He was alone, flesh, bones, and a soul, and only the third Partner Who had granted it all to him was here with him.

He had no idea where he was and in which direction he should proceed. So for the past few hours, he had simply walked along a narrow path that he had spotted, hoping it would lead him to some civilization, and that it wasn’t just a path that donkeys had created with their hoof-prints eighty years earlier, and which ended at some abandoned shack or ruin.

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 63 of a new online serial novel, The Black Sheep, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Osher

I never realized how much noise my shoes made. But when I walked into the courtyard of the carpentry shop with Dr. Kreisman, and I saw everyone—except Reb Elazar—standing and looking at me, I felt like my footsteps were a thunderous racket. Dr. Kreisman put his hand on my shoulder, a little like Reb Elazar, but different.

In the carpentry shop, I found two policemen sitting with Doron Nachman and Yehuda Matari. Nechemia, Reb Elazar’s son, was also there, as was another one of the Rav’s sons who once came to visit on Chol Hamoed Pesach. There was another man there, too, whom I didn’t know; perhaps he was a plainclothes officer.

They began to ask me a ton of questions. At first I sealed my lips, but then I realized that this was what could help Reb Elazar right now, even if I felt under interrogation. With that in mind, I tried to answer them as best I could. But their questions had no connection to Reb Elazar. They only asked when I went, and how I went, and with whom I spoke, and if I had planned it ahead of time.

I had planned it, sure. The same way Gadi Berg had planned with Ariella to annoy me during shalosh seudos.

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 62 of a new online serial novel, The Black Sheep, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

No one answered the phone at the Reiness residence, and Elazar Reiness’s phone went straight to the voicemail. Mattisyahu Kreisman bustled around the island in the kitchen, preparing an omelet for Osher on the ceramic stovetop. “Elazar,” he began to leave a message, “Osher is with me, don’t worry. Please get back to me to discuss the situation.”

Then he went back out to Osher, who was chewing on a piece of bread. He didn’t say a word to him.

Osher quickly and quietly ate the bread and eggs and a few cinnamon cookies for dessert. “Thanks,” he said finally.

“You had enough?”

“Yeah. I’ll bentch now.”

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 61 of a new online serial novel, The Black Sheep, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Osher was awakened by a thump.

He opened his eyes and found himself on hard ground. He must have tried to turn over in his sleep and had fallen off the bench. He stood up, blinking at the slowly rising sun, and sat back down on the bench.

Oh, he was in Zichron Yaakov; he’d almost forgotten. His huge backpack was under the bench; no one had touched it. The paths of the Ramat Hanadiv gardens spread out before him, awakening to a new day.

***

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 60 of a new online serial novel, The Black Sheep, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

It was nearly ten o’clock when Rabbi Reiness dropped his wife and the Berg children off on the yishuv. Without even getting out of the car, he turned around and headed back to Acco. Sarah would stay with the Bergs until tomorrow morning, when Osher’s sister was supposed to return from Bnei Brak with one of the families of the yishuv that had gone away for Shabbos.

He called home from the road, activating the speakerphone. “Hello,” he said calmly. “Who is this, Shlomo?”

“Yes, Rebbi. Osher hasn’t come back. The bachurim haven’t found him.”

“I hear,” he said slowly. “Who went to the train station? Menashe and Chaim?”

“Yes.”

“And what did they say?”

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