Merkabah Rider: The Mensch With No Name (40 page)

DeKorte
was looking right at him through a pair of glinting field glasses. Could he see
anything? He was practically staring right into the setting sun.

What
was the purpose of this heinous display of power? Somehow they had convinced
all of Escopeta to die by suicide. Was it a sick message from them to keep to
the wilderness, away from bystanders? The Rider indeed felt a wave of nausea at
the deaths he had unwittingly perpetrated just by stopping in the town. A haven
for criminals it might have been, but…

“Look!”
Kabede whispered in a frightened tone.

The
Rider looked at Kabede, followed his gaze, and put the spyglass to his eye once
more.

The
dust from the human avalanche was settling, and dozens of shapes were rising
and moving out of the cloud at a slow, shuffling gait.

The
Rider watched in stark horror as the men and women of Escopeta
came
titubating across the sand. They bore sure signs of
their fall. Arms hung useless, some limped on broken legs,
others
dragged themselves on their bellies. Not one of them that had fallen failed to
rise and continue their march.

“What
will you do now, Rider? Will you stay and fight it out, or run?” DeKorte
called.

“We
cannot kill them,” Kabede said at his side. “They’re just people.”

The
Rider watched through the spyglass as the figures shuffled closer. An orange
ray of the setting sun behind them passed in some way through a gap in the
stony hills at the edge of the desert and shined for a brief instant on them.
The Rider saw drawn faces, some of them bloody. He saw the little man who had
tried to take him in, along with his two friends, the Mexican and the tall,
skinny fellow. The Mexican’s face was completely torn away, and the tall skinny
one had the marks of bullet holes in his face. The lance of light sank behind
the hills then, and the desert grew blue and dim.

Still,
the shambling shadows came.

“They’re
dead already,” the Rider said, handing Kabede his spyglass and going to the
onager. He was so very tired and hungry. But sleep wouldn’t come. Not tonight.

“What
do we do?”

The
Rider threw his packsaddle on the onager and quickly drew the cinches tight.
The torreón wouldn’t keep out a mob, and behind them, DeKorte and the other
riders would come. He had expended nearly all the physical ammunition he had
destroying the ruahim, and Kabede had only the staff. Powerful it was, but
could they face forty attackers at close range?

“We’ve
got to run,” he said. “Let’s go.”

To
his credit, Kabede needed no further argument. He threw his blanket and
pack
saddle over his one-eyed burro and gathered up his
things. The Rider reflected briefly that he was a good man to have at your side
in hell. It was not an unwelcome feeling, having someone to fight alongside. He
thought again of the boy Gershom, younger than Kabede. He thought of how that
partnership had ended. He wanted to tell Kabede to split off from him, to run
in another direction, but he didn’t. His selfishness didn’t allow him. He
wanted a companion, at prayer and at war. He had been too long alone. He cursed
himself for this sin, knowing full well it would probably end in death, but
kept silent anyway.

He
drew the onager out of the doorway of the torreón and led him west, nose
towards the blue ridges in the far distance.

Kabede
stopped to close the torreón door,
then
fell in step
behind him.

Their
pursuers came on, but were slow. They could outdistance them, but could they
maintain the lead? The Rider had a feeling these things would not get winded.
He thanked HaShem that it was night at least, and the sun was not overhead. Perhaps
they could lose them in the dark.

The
moans of the creatures at their heels carried to them across the sand, and
beyond that, laughter as DeKorte and the other two riders carefully began to
make their descent.

Numerous Hebrew, Yiddish, Aramaic and
Ethiopian terms necessarily find their way into the chronicles of The Rider. An
updated and alphabetized lexicon is here included for the convenience of the
reader.—E.M.E.

Aleph/Resh
– The first and twentieth
letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

beinoni
(plural:
beinonim)—‘The intermediate ones.’
The bulk of humanity.
The undecided,
who
are neither wholly good nor wholly
evil.

Belimah
—(‘silence’)
The
cosmic silence that existed prior to God’s first words, “Let there be light.’

cheder
—(‘room’) A
Jewish elementary school, where lessons were usually taught in the home of the
teacher, or melamed.

devekut
b’otiyot
—(‘cleaving to the letters’) A
mystical prayer technique in which a mantra-like effect is achieved, with
little or no pause in sound.

dybbuk
(plural:
dybbukim)—The departed soul of an evil or sinful person, imprisoned in Gehenna.

Gehenna
—Hell.
One of the four
precincts of Sheol.
A place of torment reserved for wicked souls.

hamin
—(also cholent) A traditional stew simmered for
twelve hours and eaten for lunch on the Sabbath, so as to avoid the prohibition
against cooking on the Sabbath.

hekhalot
—‘palace.’ One of the seven holy halls a
mystic must pass before approaching the Divine chariot.

Igzee’abihier
—‘Lord of the Universe.’
Ethiopian
name for God.

ishim
—
A class of
angels with bodies of snow and fire.

kaddish
—
In this
use, the Mourner’s Kaddish.
A prayer over the dead.

kedosh/kedoshim
—
Holy
ones.
In Merkabah Rider, the highest of the Hidden Saints
(tzadikim nistarim).

kelipot
—‘husks.’
Shells of evil which encase the scattered sparks of Divinity which
existing in all things.

mazurka
- A
Polish folk dance.

melamed
—(‘teacher’)—Specifically,
an elementary education teacher, usually appointed by a community.

Midrash
—Interpretive, rhetorical
studies of the Bible and Jewish law.

mikvah
—
A
naturally fed ritual bath used for purposes of purification.

Nazirite
—
An
aesthetic described in the Book of Numbers. A Nazirite abstains from wine,
grapes, and vinegar, cutting one’s hair, and who avoids graves or corpses.

Nehar Dinur
—‘River of
Fire.’
Created on the first day from the sweat of seraphim, angels and
stars emerge from its flow. It is the passage from higher to the lower worlds,
and all dead souls must immerse themselves within it before entering Paradise.

Olam ha-Tohu
—‘World of Chaos.’
The universe which existed prior to the creation of light.

Parashat Eliezer
- A commentary by
Rabbi Eliezer Fischl of Strizhov, on an ancient study of the end times called
“Karnayim,’ attributed to Rabbi Aharon of Kardina

rekel
(plural
rekelech)—Black wool frock coat worn by Hasidic men.
Buttoned
right over left.

ruah/ruhin
—‘spirits.’
Demonic entities without perceivable physical forms, dedicated to the
destruction and corruption of mankind. They are the children of Lilith and the
succubi, who mate with mortal men through erotic dreams.
Capable
of possessing physical bodies for a time.

Sar-ha Cholem
—‘Prince of
Dream.’
An angel who specializes in dream visions.

Sefer ha-Chayyim
—‘The
Book of Life.’
The heavenly book in which the names of Jews are recorded
for life in the coming year. Not being recorded means a person will die in the
next twelve months. In the Merkabah Rider series, the tzadikim nistarim of the
Sons of the Essenes maintain and actual, earthly Book of Life which contains
the true names of their members.

Sefer ha-Goralot
—‘Book
of Lots.’
A medieval book on demonology.

shamash
–‘helper.’ The ninth candle holder of a Hanukkah menorah, used to light the
other eight candles.

shed
(plural:
sheddim)—Half mortal half demon, physically conceived and born from the union
of a mortal man and a succubus.
Able to perceive the spirit
world, but cannot enter or affect it.
They are faster, stronger, and
more personally magnetic than mortals. They are nearly immortal themselves and
cannot be killed by normal physical means. They sustain themselves on a diet of
water and slime.

shel
Elyon
– The heavenly Garden of Eden.

Sheol
—
The
netherworld.
A formless realm where departed souls (the
rephaim) await the coming of the Messiah either in comfort (sometimes called
the Bosom of Abraham—particularly by Christians) or in torment.
(
see
Gehenna).

shinnui
shem
—‘changing of a name.’
A custom of changing the name in the hope that it will change that
person’s fate.

shofar
—
A ritual
trumpet made from the horn of a ram.

Sitra Achra
—‘Other
Side.’
The demonic realm.

The Sons of the Essenes
—A secret mystic
order of Jewish scholars who claim descent from the Essenes, an ancient Hebrew
monastic sect mentioned by Philo of Alexandria and Pliny The Elder from around
the time of Christ. Their central teachings culminate in the Merkabah Riders.
There are nine enclaves located in cities across the world, with the main
enclave located at Ein Gedi in Palestine.

tallit
katan
—‘small prayer shawl.’
A four-fringed poncho like undergarment worn beneath the shirt.

tartaruchus
(plural: tartaruchi)—Torturer angels of hell.

tefillin
—
Prayer
phylacteries. Black leather straps which are wrapped around the arm (shel yad)
and head (shel yosh) and bear two small leather boxes containing parchment
scrolls inscribed with Bible verses.

tikkun
—”Repair’
or “rectification.’—The notion that adherence to the commandments will repair
the imperfect cosmos and strengthen the Divine.

Torah
—(“teaching’) The Pentateuch—the
five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) in
the Tanakh (Bible).

tzadik
nistari/tzadikim nistarim
—‘hidden
righteous one.’
One of the fabled thirty-six Hidden Saints.
Every generation there are born thirty-six righteous Jews whose presence in the
world justifies the continued existence of mankind in the eyes of God, even in
the face of barbarism. It is said that if even one of the Nistarim dies the
world will end. Tradition holds that a tzadik is not aware of his own nature.
In the Order of The Sons of the Essenes, the ruling rebbes of each enclave are
bestowed the title tzadik and are thought to be actual Nistarim, although there
are only thirty two.

tumat
met
—Contact with a dead body, which
results in the state of ritual impurity.

Yenne Velt
—
The
‘other world.’ The astral plane perceived and navigated by mystics.
A shadowy spirit world mainly inhabited by lost ghosts, a
reflection of the physical world, but not heaven, not hell.

yeshiva
—‘academy.’
A school for the study of the Torah, Talmud, and Hasidic
mysticism.

Yeshiva shel Malah
—‘The
Academy on High.’
The place where the righteous dead
will study Torah under the tutelage of the angel Zagzagel.

yored
merkabah
—A merkabah rider who
successfully reaches the Divine Throne.

Edward
M. Erdelac was born in Indiana, educated in Chicago, and now lives in the Los
Angeles area with his wife, two kids, and four cats, who he suspects would suck
the life out of him at night if he didn’t mention them.

Ever
since a childhood vacation to Deadwood, South Dakota, he has had an abiding
love for real and imagined history, and firmly believes the marriage of the two
makes for the most satisfying sort of tale, just as peanut butter and chocolate
are both better together.