“Yimloch Adonai leolam Elohayich Tzion ledo vador, Haleluyah!”
The participants in the informal afternoon prayer service wait until the volunteer cantor, obviously an orphan, repeats last line of the Kedushah. The most of them, all men because women do not participate in Orthodox Jewish prayer services, are seated in the white plastic chairs around the walls of this shelter-turned-synagogue. The service is short, quick and practical – just enough time for the men to fulfill the three-times-a-day prayer responsibility and to allow the orphan to recite the memorial Kaddish prayer. This is the engineers’ lunch break at the Institute and they don’t want to be seen not as taking extra privileges during work hours. They are a very committed group. Benny has no time to waste.
He walks over to Moti to continue their earlier conversation and says, “So where is the Independence Day barbeque?”
Moti lays his left palm on his heart, still a lefty despite all of his first grade teacher’s efforts, signifying, “Leave it to me. I am in charge.”
For ten years Benny and Moti together with three other families from Kiryat Ata have spent Israeli Independence Day together. First they all attend patriotic holiday services in the local synagogue and then pack up the children in the cars to drive to the countryside and attend to the “burnt offering sacrifices.”
“Yitgadal ve Yitkadesh….,” recites the orphan loudly with a Gregorian rhythm.
“Amen !” replies the congregation.
Baruch from the Archives collects all the prayer books and arranges them like soldiers on the shelf, straightens out the chairs, turns off the lights and closes the shelter door.
“See you on the bus home, Moti. I have to get back to the Lab quickly.”
“The ‘Vatican’ you mean.”
“Shoo-shoo! Don’t give away any secrets.”
Benny is simply a genius, an outstanding intellect. Here at the Institute, he is just one genius among many. At any private company he could earn a much higher salary, but as many young Israeli engineers he preferred to work in the Institute and participate in developing weapons to protect his nation. The Israel Defense Industry became his employer and more. It adopted him. The Institute became a way of life. Benny took his employer’s name. When someone mentioned him on Shabbat at Synagogue, he was “Benny from the Institute”.
RYB
Red-Yellow Blue
The three subtractive primary colors from which all others are created. Yes, that is the word, created.
This can be the flags of Andorra, Chad, Moldova or Romania.
Not that Benny is not a talented painter or artist, but first and foremost he is a creative developer. Perhaps because Benny’s mother, Ziva, was an art teacher he became involved with colors. From her he learned technique and terminology and could have been an outstanding student at Bezalel. He could have become Mondrian or Kandinsky. But that is not enough to explain his phenomenon.
Micha, Benny’s father was a nervous bi-lingual translator working for the Ministry of Health. He did press Benny to achieve the best grades and awards, but Benny could do that in a walk.
Yes, then perhaps the contributing factor to his genius was Grandpa Hirsh. His games, questions and guidance always lead Benny to make up a solution, to create a game, to think out of the box.
The Italian bishops and fathers working in the Vatican had discovered his quirk. They followed Google Alerts on “trinity” and bang! Up came Benny. Several naïve letters were received at the Ministry of Defense protesting the desecration of the holy Trinity. A visit by Rabbi Lau was enough to capture their attention and lead them of Benny’s trail.
The three basic colors which Benny called “trinity” were his invention. No not the colors themselves but the use of the color triad in a photo-electrical cell to input data into computers, microchips and hard discs. Trinity data begins with white light which imitates human trichromatic vision. In his lab in the Institute, trinity efficiently replaced the “0″ “1″ binary system. It was so simple, once you heard it. The benefit of this invention was the increase of memory by 50%. The military options and applications were enormous, not to speak of the possible revolution in telcom, hardware and internet.
Benny returned to his office. After extracting the battery from his cell phone, he placed the phone in his locker. The computer in his office had no internet, no games, no mail and definitely no outside connection.
RYB became Benny’s being. He lived to prove his theory.
On his bookcase one can find Van Goethe and Chevreul as well as the Daily Talmud pocket book.
On the wall hang a museum print copy of Kandinsky’s Yellow, Red and Blue ca. 1925 Piet Mondrian’s Composition With Red Yellow Blue.
Ziva even bought her son a disc by Red Yellow & Blue ~ Born Ruffians.
“Hi, Baruch, he made fun of the older man, don’t come into the office with your pacemaker, you make be broadcasting.”
“Don’t worry about me. I don’t even have a heart, young man.”
