Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Please God, Piska Tava, a Gut'n Kvitel!


Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) appears before the court.
- 'M', Fritz Lang, 1931


"Do you know your case is going badly?" asked the priest. "That's how it seems to me too," said K. "I've expended a lot of effort on it, but so far with no result. Although I do still have some documents to submit." "How do you imagine it will end?" asked the priest. "At first I thought it was bound to end well," said K., "but now I have my doubts about it..."
"You don't understand the facts," said the priest, "the verdict does not come suddenly, proceedings continue until a verdict is reached gradually."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Trial'

According to Jewish tradition our fate is not sealed on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, but rather the judgement waits to be sealed until the seventh day of Sukkos, Hoshana Rabbah.
יומא שביעאה דחג, הוא סיומא דדינא דעלמא 
ופתקין נפקין מבי מלכא  
On the 7th day of the Holiday, this is the comletion of the verdict for the world, as the letters go out from the House of the King. - Zohar, Tzav 31b


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