Straight To The Point

While the storm whirl continued observing the human depression, the fire whirl had enough of this from Moses Levinsky. Before the Darkness could ask anything further, God attempted to push the depressed one towards trust and acceptance.

"Are you that deeply grieved?" the Creator chanted his quip before his push, "Cast aside your self-centered attitude!"

"You had demanded that I explain the logical problem of evil while you enjoyed the self-righteous luxury of standing on one foot," he offered a sharp reminder, "I satisfied your impertinence and then some!"

"Will you now sweep away, or under the proverbial rug, the inconvenient fact that I did do something about this mess and much more, that I've sent you?" he pressed on with divine undertones.

"If you do so," he gave nothing less than a divine ultimatum, "then upon your passing, I will surely not ask you, 'Why were you not like Moses ben Amram, my old man, the first to be honoured with audiovisual waking revelation involving me directly?'"

Brother, I would instead ask, 'Why were you not like Huldah, the uncredited female author of the first canonized Biblical work?'

Please, don't bring that irrelevant 'Girl Power!' into this!

"I will surely not ask you, 'Why were you not like Moses ben Maimon, before whom there lived no Moses like he, the very sure-headed one whom I allowed my old man to see?'" continued the divine speaker.

How about, 'Why were you not like that Redactor, the uncredited one who treated each conflicting work before him as words from the Divine?'

Now's not the time for irrelevant pieces of truth, Sis!

The Supreme Being went straight to the point, "Instead, I will ask you, to your face, 'Why were you not like Moses Levinsky? Why did you not live up to your own full potential?'"

The mortal one gave thought to this ultimatum. If he maintained his reluctance, then he would have to provide a painfully long account of his choices in life. Still, he was confronted with the sharp familiarity of these words.

"Who's to say you won't ask me this, anyway?" he shot back.

"I refrained from asking this from my old man," the one with divine determination pointed out hastily.

After considering carefully this precedent, Moses Levinsky made known his acceptance. The Darkness then contemplated the use elsewhere of God's methods of persuasion.


Author's Note: "Will you now sweep away" is a spin on the classic argument between Abraham and the Divine in the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, concerning the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. This time, Chuck is using this language against a human. Also, the latter part of the question draws inspiration from a contemporary Jewish story on Divine response to the problem of evil through human action.

As for the divine ultimatum, it draws inspiration from what were among the last words of Hanipol legend Meshulam Zusha, words about living up to one's own full potential. Meanwhile, Amara's words in between refer to the near-consensus of multiple authorship of the Pentateuch.