PunkTorah is proud to announce Steampunk Torah: The Jewish Steampunk Miniseries, written by Raven. Every week, Raven will take the weekly Torah portions midrashim (legends) and transform them into a piece of Steampunk art.

From the author…

Steampunk is part Victorian novel, part science fiction or fantasy. It takes place in an alternate sort of world, where things developed a different way after the Industrial Revolution. Victorian sensibilities were preserved, and steam power still reigns. Survival depends on extreme innovation, but in this alternate version of history, many things we would call “old-fashioned” still hold sway.

Sound familiar yet?

With Steampunk Torah, I’m going to take midrashic explorations of each Torah portion (what happens in the “white spaces.” for instance: what did Moses say to his sons? How do you explain all these rules? what the heck are the rules for, anyway?) I’ll distill a lesson or metaphoric journey from it, and I’ll explore it in a steampunk setting. In being not-completely-Victorian, but adapting the past to suit her needs for survival in the present, my protagonist is representing the struggle Judaism is fighting in order to define what we are NOW. The tension between the past and the present is fascinating and rich with possibility.

Each week, we will be posting an excerpt from the series, as well as download links to each chapter. We’re kicking off this series with three chapters today: Parshat Emor, Behar and this week’s parshah, Bechukotai.

Chapter One: Parshat Emor

When Mari met the Great Archivist for the first time, she was simply trying to

preserve her life. Her entire being had condensed down to a simple animal awareness.

She was sensation only.  She could hear her breath rushing in her ears, and her heart

pounding; she was aware only of trying to be as small as possible, protect herself as

best she could with her arms, and draw another breath…and another. Each breath she

took in made her aware of the precious gift that is the ability to breathe the sweet air, the

knowledge that right now she was alive. The certainty that she might die in the next few

moments ran through her body in an almost audible shock: a thrum of awareness that

took away her usual quick-thinking and quick-acting presence, and made her into a

small animal, just trying to hold off the attack…

Click here to download this chapter.

Chapter Two: Parshat Behar

Mari scrambled to catch up with Ismael, so many questions racing around her

head that she remained silent; one hand clamped her kippah firmly on her head, and in

the other she clutched a great handful of her skirts so she wouldnʼt trip over her hem on

the uneven cobblestone street. The road they were walking up was the broadest road

on the Mountain; it wound its way up, curving back on itself, making its way eventually

to the building at the top which housed the Archives.  Mari had only heard of this place;

she had never thought she would see it, let alone be on her way up there with the

Archivist himself.

Click here to download this chapter.

Chapter Three: Parshat Bechukotai

Ever afterward, when Mari tried to recall her first feelings upon seeing her new

home, all she could bring to mind was the memory of deep shock, followed quickly by

disappointment.

Ever since she had left home, all the time she spent scrambling to acclimatize

herself to the Mountain society, attempting to “fit in” and not seem too foreign quickly

giving way to a more focused determination simply to survive, she had not been aware

of forming a mental image of what the Archives would be. Nonetheless, there it was; in

every whispered exchange she caught the end of, in every rumor and half-heard tale,

she formed another piece of a collage in her imagination.  The Archives. In her mind it

was palatial, perhaps of marble; elegant, towering, breathtaking as befit a building

housing the precious manuscripts that somehow made travel possible, made change

possible, made building and shaping society possible.

Click here to download this chapter.