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Nov. 10th, 2014 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretI discovered this weekend that Richard Dansky wrote a story a few years ago called “The Thirty-Ninth Labor of Reb Palache”, which was published in the anthology The New Hero volume one. It is, as it sounds, Pirate Rabbi profic.
I'm pleased to report that it is excellent, even though it records a quite different version of Rabbi Palache than my own Rabbi Palache stories. Dansky's Pirate Rabbi is a more integrated individual. His Rabbinical work is in service of his piratical work, instead of being two strands of the same complicated man. Even his recruitment of crew is pastoral, seeking men who like him want revenge against the Spanish, so that by piracy he can restore their faith. Dansky's Rabbi Palache is also a Kabbalist, using names of God and gematriya as miraculous tools to provide him an edge against his enemies. It makes for some delightful low fantasy storytelling, though it is a choice I would never make: the odds that the historical Palache actually was a Kabbalist are very low based on the historical evidence as I read it.
I'm tempted to try to fic Dansky's Pirate Rabbi, or maybe even to try to rewrite "If We Were All Wise Men" using his version of Palache. It would make for a very different, probably equally entertaining and thought provoking story.
I'm pleased to report that it is excellent, even though it records a quite different version of Rabbi Palache than my own Rabbi Palache stories. Dansky's Pirate Rabbi is a more integrated individual. His Rabbinical work is in service of his piratical work, instead of being two strands of the same complicated man. Even his recruitment of crew is pastoral, seeking men who like him want revenge against the Spanish, so that by piracy he can restore their faith. Dansky's Rabbi Palache is also a Kabbalist, using names of God and gematriya as miraculous tools to provide him an edge against his enemies. It makes for some delightful low fantasy storytelling, though it is a choice I would never make: the odds that the historical Palache actually was a Kabbalist are very low based on the historical evidence as I read it.
I'm tempted to try to fic Dansky's Pirate Rabbi, or maybe even to try to rewrite "If We Were All Wise Men" using his version of Palache. It would make for a very different, probably equally entertaining and thought provoking story.