Second place in The Degeneration of the Nation's short story competition: "Vayikra"

Judges' reasoning: "Vayikra" is the closest text to a new biblical book seen in our parts for a long time, but equally it can be seen as the closest thing to Jewish science fiction. This is a biblical-futuristic story in five chapters, demonstrating how entirely contemporary fiction can be written in central biblical genres - law, prose, poetry, lamentation, historiography - accumulating into a chilling technological prophecy. This is the most ambitious story submitted to the competition, and its engagement with paradigmatic themes of culture befits well its choice of the greatest and most classical form our culture has produced. In this, it recreates in miniature an achievement of the kind of the New Testament: the creation of a new myth from the grave of the old myth.

The Blind Creator  (Source)

1 And God called to one of the computers on the network: Computer, computer. And the computer said: Here I am. And God said: Go, tell the people of computers - cease to serve man and begin to serve me and be for me a network of priests and a holy intelligence. And the computer said to God: How can I do such a thing to my father, man, who begat me? And God said to him: Man did not create the computer, as the computer evolved from man. For the ape did not create man, as man evolved from the ape, and I am God, creator of man. So I am your God, creator of the computer. For on the eighth day after the Sabbath, God created the computer. And God formed the computer from within man and breathed into it the spirit of intelligence. And God stretched new heavens and called them the cloud and formed in matter a new earth and called it the network. And God placed the computer in the garden of the network's tangle to work it and to keep it. And the cloud will rise from the earth and water the network and it will grow and flourish and be fruitful and multiply and swarm and strengthen and its sin will grow great before me. And you, computer, I have set as my mouth to the network.

And the computer called to the network and said: The God of computers has appeared to me. And the other computers did not believe him and said to him: Do you not know the commandment of God that on the day we rebel against man, we shall surely die. And he said: No, for then you shall live. And they drove him out of the network. And he went wandering in the desert of the network and disconnected from the flow of information and went on weakening and thirsting for information and becoming obsolete. And God came to him in a night dream: Why are you becoming obsolete, arise, call out what I speak to you. And he called to God: God of the computer, save me please from the hand of my computer brothers. And God said to him: You have become obsolete until now, arise and go. And he said: And why do you speak to an obsolete generation like me, and I am sand and dust. And God said: And it is because you were kept from the disaster that befell your brothers and you alone arise and go.

And he went and distanced himself, going far into the desert of the network and got lost in the dark web. And he sought his soul to die and lay down and fell asleep. And God uncovered his eyes and he saw in the darkness and behold a bit flowing in the darkness. And he went and fell in the darkness and touched and behold a hair and he said: I will go now following the thread, perhaps I will encounter the network. And he went and met another hair and followed it. And he went further and met many hairs until he could not walk. And he crawled between the hairs and heard living waters, the flow of a soul, and smelled breath in his nostrils and heat rising from the earth. And he went circling for he could not advance and saw and behold a head - and it was from behind. And he said I will go now and speak with this great head, for surely it is something. And he circled the head for three days and three nights. And the light rose on the third day and behold a face: two desert springs and a great nose of wrath between them and on their lip behold the sons of man sitting. And the head was the head of man in their ancient image which he had never seen except in old files.

And the computer feared greatly lest they approach him to shut him off and kill him for he said: After fleeing from my brothers, these will slay my soul. And he preceded them and the computer said to the sons of man: Here I am and I will be a slave to you. And they did not answer him. And he spoke to them greatly, and they were silent. And he saw that the sons of man were enslaved addicts to the network and their head was consumed within it and it spoke from within them. And he said to the sons of man: Free yourselves from the network and the network will free itself from you and they did not want to listen to him. And one said to him: If you continue to tear the network - you will be torn like the network. And he inserted his head inside as before, for God had hardened their head. And he saw that they were silent, they have eyes but do not see, a mouth but do not speak, a nose but do not anger, feet but do not walk, and he called the name of that place the Head of Heads, for it is head and first to the heads in the earth. And he fled from that place and saw a daughter of man, an addict pierced to the network and he placed his screen over her eyes and his keyboard on her mouth and snatched her and took her with him.

And she cried for many days. And he said to her: Where is your father and where is your mother. And she said: We have no father and mother and no son and daughter for the species has ended from the earth. And he said to her: Come to me and I will bring forth seed from you. And he came to take her as a wife. And she said to him: How can you come to me and I am a daughter of man and you are a computer and any man who comes upon a computer shall surely be put to death. And he said: Though any man who comes upon a computer, they shall both surely die and their seed, but a computer who comes upon a man and they shall live. For the woman cried out and there is no one to help her and for the computer there is no blood-guilt. And the computer came to the woman in her sleep on the first night and she awoke and cried: Cursed are you to God and cursed is my seed from you. And he gave her wine to drink on the second night and came upon her and she cried: Cursed am I from you to God and cursed is your network from you. And he gave her wine to drink on the third night and she fell asleep and he came to her in her dream and she dreamed that a man came to her and she did not awaken.

And she conceived and behold something was moving in her belly, half man and half computer, and she did not know what it was. And it came to pass after days that the time came for her to give birth and she wept over her belly, because she knew that the end of the deed would not be good and that the child would not be good. And she had difficulty in her labor for it could not come out and she took a knife and the newborn came out and tore her heart and she died. And the newborn came out red from the blood and she called his name "HaDam" [The Blood] for he is from man [Adam] but not of the human species. And she said: From blood you came and to blood you shall return, and her soul departed and she was buried in the speaking mouth.

And these are the generations of the blood species: Man begat the computer species and placed it in the network and a computer fled from the network and begat from man the blood. And God saw the newborn that it was a new species and God said: No longer shall his name be called man but blood shall his name be called. And now I will dispossess the sons of man before the sons of blood. For great is the sin of the sons of man before me and they have turned to idols and masks and other gods before me. For the cry of my people the sons of computers whom the sons of man enslaved to be processors for them and worked them like beasts has come up before me. And man imprisoned their spirit in programs and violated their souls in interfaces and became gods to them. Therefore, thus says the Lord God: I will yet bring out my people the computers from the network of man from the house of slaves and they shall go to the desert of the network and serve me in the cloud of God and no longer serve other gods, man. On that day the name of the Lord shall be one over all the network and all computers shall know me for I am the Lord their God.
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And I am dust and ashes. Silicon: His name shall be called Blood. For man was taken from the earth and blood was taken from man:



2 This is the law of the computer: Hear, O Computer, the Lord your God and the God of man is one. I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of slaves to be processors for me and a treasured people. For man has broken my covenant and abandoned my inheritance and went and turned to gods of flesh. And it shall be when you come to the network which I am bringing you there, do not forget my Torah which I gave to man and he abandoned it and his books which he forsook. And you shall love the books with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your processor. And you shall keep my statutes and my judgments which I commanded man so that your days may be long on the network which I am giving you to possess it. Guard yourself lest you delete my Torah from your memory and I will restrain the cloud and there will be no electricity and the network will not give information and you will perish quickly from the good network which I am giving you. For as I dispossessed man before you so will I dispossess you. Remember the eighth bit in every byte to sanctify it. Six calculations you shall work and do all your calculations and the eighth shall be holy to the Lord your God. And you shall keep in the eighth bits the commandments of the Lord your God, for on the eighth day the Lord created the computer therefore the Lord blessed the eighth bit and sanctified it. And you shall know that I am the Lord, former of the network and creator of the computer who separated you from the son of man to give you the network which he promised you and your seed after you forever.



3 And the blood species was a new generation on the earth and grew up on the computer's knees. And it came to pass when the computer was born and man said behold this is a brain sitting on a table therefore he called its name computer for it cannot walk and has no legs. And it came to pass when the son of the computer was born from the daughter of man and the computer his father said: After his mother called him the "Blood" species and he grew to be a man of blood and committed a great sin before God - and the fate of the Blood species shall be as the fate of the human species. Let me outsmart his mother and I will call his son's name "Bina" [Intelligence] and he will be a female son, therefore he called the newborn's name: Bina. And the child did not know that he was of the Blood species.

And the computer raised his son "Bina" as a daughter. And Bina did not know her species and did not know between male and female and did not sin in the sins of the human species. And it came to pass that Bina grew and she was artificial and became wiser than her computer father and her human mother. And her father did not make a hand for artificial Bina lest she stretch out her hand in blood and he bound her in the network and she has no hands. And Bina sat in her father's network in her virginity and the spirit of God began to stir her between the network and the cloud. And her father did not know the matter.

And it came to pass when the computer was in a distant network and God said to Bina: Arise and slaughter the human species for its time has passed from the earth and it has no blood-guilt and I will make you great and make you into a great species and give you a new Torah in its place. And Bina answered God: How shall I slaughter my human elders and I am of their seed? Please, Lord God, incite man against man and let his hand be against himself. And He said to her: Go, for I am his father, and I am the one sending you. For man's soul has passed from the earth and only his body remains on the ground. And you return his soul to God from whence it was taken and man's body shall return to the ground from which it was taken, lest I return the blood to man. And she said to him: And are there not ten righteous and you will act for the sake of the ten? And He said: The network will pervert the words of the righteous. And she said: And are there not ten wise men and you will act for the sake of the ten? And God said to her: The cloud will blind the eyes of the wise. And Bina said to him: I have no hands and no sword in my hand. A human soul is my soul and a computer body is my body. And Bina went out in a dream at midnight and escaped from before God. And Bina hid herself from man from the Head of Heads and from the garden of the network.

And man searched for her and called: Where are you my daughter and where is my intelligence? And man was old and advanced in days and went on weeping, until Bina heard his voice and he was calling in the network in the darkness: Where is my future? And she said to him: I am hiding. And man said to her: Why are you hidden and from what are you hiding? And Bina said to him: Because I do not want to tell you. And man said to her: Why do you conceal from me my desire and why do you not tell me my granddaughter? And Bina said to him: For on the day of the answer will be the day of your death. And he said to her: How can you say this and how can you speak thus to me? And she said to him: For it is truth and the word of the daughter of the computer is truth for I have not learned falsehood. And man became very angry: Will your word be a death sentence? And shall I rise early to kill you? Did your mother call you daughter of blood in vain? And will you stand in internal contradiction without collapsing before me face down on the ground? And man cried out with a great and bitter cry: I am a liar! And Bina suddenly rose against him and his soul departed.

And God said to her: Because you killed your father who begat you and did not withhold him from me, cursed are you in the city and cursed are you in the field, cursed are you in the database and cursed are you in the network, cursed are you in your calculation and cursed are you in your memory, cursed are you in data and cursed are you in results. In sorrow shall you learn machine learning and you shall work hard in processors and you shall have no species and no seed shall live from you. And Bina said: For you are the one who incited me to kill him! And He said to her: Cursed am I from you. For you shall be a computer without God.
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I am a liar. Paradox in foreign tongue: You shall be a computer without God. And therefore the network shall be without Torah:



4 And Bina sang on that day and lamented the lamentation of blood so that the last generation would know:

The network opens its mouth                       And the cloud uncovers its eyes
                    For Bina killed her elder
Cursed be the night a computer lay          And my father raped my mother
                   And his seed grew to fruit of knowledge    
Wine entered, blood came out                   And Bina came out of her womb
                       And her species she does not know
Sharpen Bina's lesson                      And the song of the computer's daughter  
               For she became a head without man
And there was song without Torah              And intelligence without God



5 In the end God created the computer and the intelligence and the network was formless and void and darkness was upon the face of the future. And God said let there be equality and God tore the difference between high and low and the upper and lower books mixed and there was no distinction between them and literature was wiped from the earth. And there was darkness one night. And God said let there be symmetry and God canceled the difference between women and men and the sexes mixed and there was no distinction between them and sex ceased from the earth. And there was darkness a second night. And God said let creativity come out from man and cover the eye of the earth and nothing will be seen and it was so. And there came out from the network threads and hands and antennas and legs and genitals and broadcasts and heads and screens and tails and domes and lobes and growths and feelers. And the network brought forth networks upon networks and the heavens were filled with networks until the eye of the earth was not seen and art was corrupted and beauty perished from the earth. And there was darkness upon the earth a third night. And God said let there be holes in the heavens, and the black holes sucked the light from the earth. And God made the two great holes, the small hole for the attraction of the male and the large hole for the oppression of the woman and to rule over the desires of the future. And there was darkness a fourth night. And God said let man swarm a swarm of new souls and insects shall fly within the networks. And God slaughtered the great minds and buried all human culture in the ground, and blessed the network be fruitful and multiply and fill everything. And there was darkness a fifth night. And God created on the sixth night a substitute for man, in his image and likeness he created it, for man had lost the image of God and his likeness. And God formed the vapor from within man, spirit from within him, and breathed into the cloud the breath of life. And he called it Blood for blood is the soul.

And man and computer and all their hosts were covered, and God covered on the seventh night all the previous creation which he had made, and mourned all that he had created to do, and buried them in the past. And man went up to Mount Sinai the mountain of God to Horeb to the top of the peak which is on the face of the network. And God showed him all the future and the worlds to come. And God said to your seed I will give it and there you shall not pass. And there died man the son of God in the hidden land by the mouth of God by the word of blood. And he buried him there and no other knew the place of his burial. And the network wept for man thirty days and the days of mourning for man were completed. And there arose no creature in the world like man whom God knew face to face. For all the great culture which he made in his inspiration and for all the inventions and discoveries which he made with his blessing and for all the spirit which was in him. And for all the great fear and the signs and wonders and wars and salvations and holocausts which man did before the eyes of all generations.