It’s called tikkun, literally a rectification, or reparation.” According to the Talmud, even the king of the angels is subject to it.” “So, if someone has… cursed you,” began Yukawa haltingly, “is there anything you can do to save yourself?” “Regarding the limits of human knowledge,” Oppenheimer interjected, finishing the sentence. “You might just be the most educated person on the planet…” “Robert, I find it hard to believe that you are religious,” he declared incredulously. I think maybe we’ve been…” he paused, looking uncertainly at his friend, “we’ve been cursed.” “There is an ancient Jewish curse, known as the pulsa dinura,” he said, “which summons the malakh ha-mavet to come and kill the victim. He returned Yukawa’s critical stare with disquieting eyes.
“So, you really think that you are being stalked by a… a supernatural monster?” “I didn’t know you were so orthodox,” said Yukawa. Sometimes they even give their sick children to other families, to trick the angel into thinking he’s gone to the wrong house.” I remember she called me Samuel, so that the malakh ha-mavet wouldn’t be able to identify me. When I was sweating and shaking and threatening to die in my bed, my mother called me by a different name. “I remember one summer when I was very young, I caught a fever that almost killed me. “Robert,” the Japanese physicist began uncertainly, unsure how to respond. “That only dogs are able to perceive its presence.” “They say that normal human beings cannot see the malakh ha-mavet,” continued Oppenheimer. According to rabbinic tradition, it has a body covered in eyes that can look into the souls of men, and is accompanied by theLilim, a class of deformed lesser demons.” The one we Jews don’t want to offend by eating leavened bread or vegetables on Passover.
“The one that killed all the Egyptian firstborn. The monster of the tenth plague that God visited on the pharaoh,” Oppenheimer continued. “You really want to know who I think did it?”
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