Chaim

Chaim Atonement

Scenes – Miriam continues to grieve while away

The cousin’s deformed uncle is cruel to Miriam.
Miriam has the child during Yom Kippur and is not able to complete her own atonement. She is tortured by her thoughts of lies and trauma. She feels alone, guilty and rejected.

Miriam has the child with the help of midwives. They pity her as a young widow whose life is over. A dead husband who had not brothers. Miriam overhears their talk and cries in her loneliness.

Even though she feels such despair, Miriam wishes for hope. When she sees the child, she loves him immediately and calls the child, Chaim, meaning “life.” Chaim, who grows to be a lovely toddler, brings Miriam smiles and caring love out of her deeply wounded spirit.

Yet in her moments of thought, Miriam longs for her other life. Her betrothed will come home in a few months, but she has no hope of ever being with him, because she is defiled and has a child. She is dead and Yaacov will soon be told she is dead, a dreadful ending to their tender love. Miriam is greatly distressed by the torture of these lies and her own lonely fate.

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