276: Siblings
(Aaron)
He is the middle child, the son upstaged and bookended by two more remarkable siblings. Isaac is the baby, the sick one, to be protected, doted upon, shielded and defended by Tateh and Mameh and most especially Zipporah. And Zipporah is Tateh's darling bubeleh-- the light of the rabbi's life, and heir to his spiritual role, if not his title.
For every time Zipporah hears her father's unspoken if only you had been a boy! Aaron hears, equally silent, equally clear, if only you were more like her, Aaron!
Aaron tries, for a while-- he studies the Tanakh, he perfects his Hebrew, he lays tefillin dutifully-- but at some point when he is sixteen and his father and sister are engaged, again, in an argument about the exact intrepetation of this commentary by Rashi-- an argument he can't follow let alone pick a side in-- Aaron accepts that the family has one chochem already, and it is not him.
So.
So Aaron goes to yeshiva, yes (Tateh would be baffled if he did not), but after-- he goes to business school, he becomes a Certified Public Accountant.
Hardly glamorous. Not even the stereotypical Jewish ideal of "Doctor! Lawyer!", but it is good and steady work, responsible work, and his virtues lie in steadfastness and responsibility. Good virtues for a husband and a father.
He never disappears, into the desert. It would be irresponsible.
It would be selfish.
(Isaac)
Isaac is the baby.
Isaac is the one who names her Zipper and Zippy both, his small deformed mouth stumbling over the full name when he is small. The first time she gets in a fight is over her baby brother; she gives Michael Stutenberg a black eye because he mocks Isaac's stutter.
And Isaac watches, speaking as little as possible, watches his sister and brother and mother and father watching out for him. But his sister, ah, the one he loves most fiercely. She fights for him, and she speaks for him. Always. Speaks to his right to be in any group, no matter if he is the youngest. She speaks for him until he finds his voice.
Isaac learns to love words, the written to be sure but the spoken most of all. The deft turn of phrase and the way that a smoothly-spoken word can turn a punch. Surgery conquers the cleft palate nature gave him, but it's his own will only that conquers his stutter.
Zippy fights for him, and speaks for him, and so Isaac in his turn learns to speak for others. He becomes a lawyer. There the most exhilirating application of the word, the word spoken and unspoken, the duel of voices and rhetoric. He parries and feints and counterattacks with the tool he could barely use as a child, and some cases he wins and others he loses, but he loves his job and this is more than many can say.
One day his sister goes away, and Isaac turns his words to soothing and comfort-- telling their father she'll be back, she'll return, it will be okay.
He cannot fight for her as he would like, doesn't even know what she's facing or where she has gone. This is the best he can do.
The words are ashes in his mouth long before she comes home broken, and somewhere in his heart Isaac resents her for making him lie.
fandom: oc
muse: zippy levine
word count: 560
He is the middle child, the son upstaged and bookended by two more remarkable siblings. Isaac is the baby, the sick one, to be protected, doted upon, shielded and defended by Tateh and Mameh and most especially Zipporah. And Zipporah is Tateh's darling bubeleh-- the light of the rabbi's life, and heir to his spiritual role, if not his title.
For every time Zipporah hears her father's unspoken if only you had been a boy! Aaron hears, equally silent, equally clear, if only you were more like her, Aaron!
Aaron tries, for a while-- he studies the Tanakh, he perfects his Hebrew, he lays tefillin dutifully-- but at some point when he is sixteen and his father and sister are engaged, again, in an argument about the exact intrepetation of this commentary by Rashi-- an argument he can't follow let alone pick a side in-- Aaron accepts that the family has one chochem already, and it is not him.
So.
So Aaron goes to yeshiva, yes (Tateh would be baffled if he did not), but after-- he goes to business school, he becomes a Certified Public Accountant.
Hardly glamorous. Not even the stereotypical Jewish ideal of "Doctor! Lawyer!", but it is good and steady work, responsible work, and his virtues lie in steadfastness and responsibility. Good virtues for a husband and a father.
He never disappears, into the desert. It would be irresponsible.
It would be selfish.
(Isaac)
Isaac is the baby.
Isaac is the one who names her Zipper and Zippy both, his small deformed mouth stumbling over the full name when he is small. The first time she gets in a fight is over her baby brother; she gives Michael Stutenberg a black eye because he mocks Isaac's stutter.
And Isaac watches, speaking as little as possible, watches his sister and brother and mother and father watching out for him. But his sister, ah, the one he loves most fiercely. She fights for him, and she speaks for him. Always. Speaks to his right to be in any group, no matter if he is the youngest. She speaks for him until he finds his voice.
Isaac learns to love words, the written to be sure but the spoken most of all. The deft turn of phrase and the way that a smoothly-spoken word can turn a punch. Surgery conquers the cleft palate nature gave him, but it's his own will only that conquers his stutter.
Zippy fights for him, and speaks for him, and so Isaac in his turn learns to speak for others. He becomes a lawyer. There the most exhilirating application of the word, the word spoken and unspoken, the duel of voices and rhetoric. He parries and feints and counterattacks with the tool he could barely use as a child, and some cases he wins and others he loses, but he loves his job and this is more than many can say.
One day his sister goes away, and Isaac turns his words to soothing and comfort-- telling their father she'll be back, she'll return, it will be okay.
He cannot fight for her as he would like, doesn't even know what she's facing or where she has gone. This is the best he can do.
The words are ashes in his mouth long before she comes home broken, and somewhere in his heart Isaac resents her for making him lie.
fandom: oc
muse: zippy levine
word count: 560