#moshe rabbit catchall tag

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

I saw this ask post this morning about a rabbit (yes, that was a spelling error for ‘rabbi’) building a golem and then I was writing A Thing before I knew it.

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The story goes like this,

When Moshe was very little, he was loved, and then he was left.  He doesn’t remember many of the details. He was far too young, and the memories blur and blend into each other, like a confusing kaleidoscope of nonsense.

What he does know is that, for a time, he had a Mother and many Brothers and Sisters.  Then, when he grew big enough, the Big Ones took him away and brought him to a New Home.

The New Home wasn’t a bad place.  It was warm and comfortable and safe, and Moshe was provided with everything he ever could have wanted.  Food, water, shelter.

But, the New Home was a lonely place.  It was just him, almost all the time. Occasionally a little Big One would come, reach through the silver bars of his abode, pick him up, stroke him, and play with him.  For this affection, Moshe loved the little Big One very much.

Then, one day, they stopped coming.  From time to time, Moshe could hear the far off echoes of their laughter and joy.  Moshe waited and waited and waited, but they seldom returned to him, and when they did there was an impatience in their grasp.  A desire to be Away, Doing Something Fun.  Not Tending to him.

Moshe’s first Understanding, then, was that he was a Nuisance, and he felt great sadness.

Days passed, one indistinguishable from the next.  Moshe never expected anything different.  This had been his life as long as he could remember.  Why should he think there’d be something else to it?  It was the Way Things Were.

After every Sleep, a Big One (not his beloved little Big One) would arrive with fresh food and water.  Sometimes they would give him a consolatory pat, but never would they lift him out and play with him.  Moshe enjoyed their visits regardless.  They were the only time he wasn’t alone.

He came to anticipate the Big One’s arrival.  He’d watch the wall of silver bars they would move aside to reach him with great excitement.  Hop close to where their hand would be in hope of being stroked, felt, touched.

There was no single moment to recall back to for Moshe’s second Understanding.  He simply watched the Big One move the latches of the silver bars enough times to recognize how they worked, and that their function was to open the wall of his abode.  The idea to try and move them himself wasn’t something that suddenly, abruptly came to him, but a curiosity that grew and grew with each passing day.

Moshe figuring out how to balance on his hind legs, so he could reach the latches with his forelegs was a natural conclusion to that train of thought, nothing more.  The maneuvering of the latches took a bit of trial and error, but Moshe eventually managed it.  He nosed the wall of his abode open, and, for a minute, did nothing but sit there.  Leaving wasn’t something that had truly occurred to him before he made the option available.

Moshe’s home, lonely as it may be, was comfortable and safe.  He’d never known anything else.  Did he truly want to leave it for unknown things?  On the hope that he may be less lonely?

Going from his abode to the floor was a bit of a fall, but not a particularly bad one.  After a moment of recovering, Moshe hopped off on the Grand Adventure of his life.

The world he found was Big and Scary.  Large shadows loomed.  Strange creatures called to each other in haunting voices.  Moshe didn’t know where he was or where he was going, but he was determined, so he went anyway.

And then, he fell in the River and it carried him away.

Later, Moshe would learn the River was more of a Little Stream that rushed behind the Big Ones’ homes, but comparatively to his size, it was definitely a River.  Moshe was certain he would Drown.  That is, until The Great Black Beast pulled him from the water by the nape of his neck.  After that, he was certain he would be Eaten.

The Great Black Beast carried Moshe a Very Far Distance (one whole grassy yard), set him down, and ‘mrreowed’ and ‘mrreowed’ until a shadow loomed above them.

“Esther!”  A Big One’s voice exclaimed.  “What have I told you about sneaking outside, my dear?  The streets are far too dangerous, even for a witty feline such as yourself.  What if a car were to hit you?”  An overdramatic sigh.  “How you worry your old Zayde so.”  A pause.  “Oh? What is this you brought me?”  The Big One crouches above Moshe.  “I see.  Well, I suppose all must be forgiven.  Now, let’s get you inside and warmed up, little one.”

Large, gentle, wrinkled with age and time hands lift and cradle Moshe.  They carry him into his new home, wrap him in a soft towel, and dry him of the last of the River’s water.

It is in this new home that Moshe receives his name.  It has a meaning that has to do with a story the Old Big One knows.  A little one drawn from the water like he was.  Moshe can’t say he’s certain he likes it, but he’s never had a name before and Esther, the Great Black Beast Who’s Actually A Friendly Cat, has a similarly story-related name.

“Zayde gave me my name,” Esther tells Moshe when he asks one day.  “After he kneaded the hamantaschen dough into a ball and left it all alone.  What was I to do?  Not play with it?  Zayde may be a good man, but he can also be very foolish at times.”

Zayde, Moshe eventually learns, received his name from the Little Big Ones who come and visit him regularly in his store.

Every day, Zayde will carry Moshe through his cozy, little apartment and situate his new abode near his workbench in the store’s back room. He’ll leave Moshe to enjoy the song of the morning birds outside the window while he goes and opens the shop for the day.  It won’t take long for the Little Big Ones (‘children,’ Esther calls them) to arrive.

On Moshe’s first day, the children were very curious about him.  They rushed and crowded around his abode, squealing with delight.  Moshe cowered and hid.  There were so, so many of them.  He didn’t want to be hurt again, either. Not like in his first home.

Thankfully, Esther leapt down from her perch atop a cabinet, mrreowed for the children’s attention, and drew them away to chase her around in a game that looked like much fun for everyone.

Moshe felt grateful, and relieved.  He relaxed, and finally settled in.

Happy days passed.  Moshe found his favorite times were when Zayde would sit down at his workbench and talk to Moshe while he worked.

“Now, this one, Moshe,” Zayde will say to him as he fiddles with a large, wooden contraption with many moving parts, “this is a tricky one.  So many different puzzles all in the same device?  What child would play with such a toy?, I say when Mrs. Silverman first asked, but she insisted, so I made it anyway.  And look what happened!  I was wrong, Goldie loves solving its puzzles so much I now have to repair it.”  He turns from his workbench to face Moshe.  “It just goes to show, you can never know what’ll happen next.  Though,” Zayde winks, “I think Goldie will be quite the inventor when she grows up.”

Or, he’ll admit, “I’ll be honest, Moshe, I’m not quite as good at sewing as I was.  These hands.”  Zayde stretches his fingers to emphasize his point.  “Not quite as nimble as they were when I was a young man, but still, when little Yitzhak comes to me with tears in his eyes and a tear in his favorite teddybear, who am I to say no?”

Or, while stroking Moshe’s ears exactly how he likes, Zayde will tell him, “You’ve been very good for business, Moshe.  The children, they come into the store each day and ask me ‘Zayde, can we pet your rabbit today?’ and of course I’ll answer, ‘No, not today.  Moshe is very shy, too much attention scares him.”  Here Zayde will pause and give Moshe a contemplative look.  “But you just let me know if you’re ever ready.  They are very good children.  They already love you very much.”  He gestures to his current work.  “I’ve made the rabbit toys to prove it.”  Zayde exhales a long breath.  “So, so many rabbit toys.”

Then, one day, Zayde comes and sits heavily in his chair.  His shoulders slump.  Sensing something amiss, Moshe hops over to sniff and then nuzzle his hand.  Zayde gently strokes him in return.

“Oh Moshe, what are we going to do?”  Zayde speaks quietly.  “They smashed in Chava’s bakery’s display window with rocks today.  That’s the third one this month.  Our little community is frightened.  I worry, but what can I do?  I am an old man.  All I have is toys to give to children in the hopes it will bring them happiness. I must trust it is enough, but, dear Moshe, there are days when it doesn’t feel like it is.”

That night, Moshe can’t sleep for the thoughts that kept him awake.  He has come to love Zayde, Esther, and even all the children who visit.  They aren’t so frightening anymore, even if Moshe isn’t quite sure he can trust them completely. Regardless, he knows what it is to be alone and fearful, and he does not wish that for them, ever.

It is a little after midnight when Moshe undoes the latches of his abode, wiggles out, and hops across the snug apartment.  The stairs to reach the workshop on the lower level prove to be a bit of a challenge, but not an unsurpassable one.

Getting to work is harder.  First, because everything is quite a bit larger than Moshe, and secondly because he’s not quite certain what he’s going to be making.  He has confidence he can succeed.  Hours of listening to Zayde talk has taught him what all the tools are and how to use them. It’s just going to take a bit of new Understanding to actually use them.

It’s while Moshe is contemplating whether it would be easier to try and hold a hammer with his mouth rather than his paws that Esther catches him.  She reveals herself out of the darkness, her golden eyes shining.

“May I ask why you aren’t in bed, little Moshe?”  Esther asks him quietly, wrapping her tail around her front paws.

Moshe releases his hold on the hammer.  He takes a deep breath.  “You and Zayde took me in when I was alone and scared.  Now, Zayde fears for his community’s safety.  I want to help.”  With a paw, he gestures to his meager work so far.  “I can build something to protect them, I think. It’s just using the tools is a little hard.”

“Ah,” Esther sits in contemplative silence for a long minute.  Then, with a swish of her tail, she disappears into the night.

Moshe lets himself feel a little disappointed.  Perhaps it was too much to believe Esther cares as much for him as he does her.  Before he can wallow too much, though, she returns, and she’s not alone.

Sitting on Esther’s back are the two doves the rabbi keeps.  Standing by her side is the old stray dog who sleeps outside the general store in the day, and inside its warmth at night.  On his back are turtles the community tends that once were the pets of a wealthy somebody deeper in the city, but abandoned in the creek when their owner tired of them.

Esther meets Moshe’s gaze.  “We would like to help,” she tells him softly.

The first protectors they build aren’t much.  Just a few repurposed toy soldiers and flashy baubles that can be quite bright.  They are enough, thankfully, to scare vandals away.

That first night, Moshe and his family struggle, mostly with learning how they can use everything. Also, working together is a bit hard.

It takes them time, but they do manage to eventually form an Understanding with each other, though.

It helps, that a few nights into their endeavors, the Rabbi’s doves bring with them a book they found in their library on something called a ‘golem’.  They aren’t quite sure how to make it, and no one really wants to dig up the clay in the banks of the creek where its nice to laze about in the sun, but they decide the leftover odds and ends from the toy shop will have to be enough.

And when their creation, an odd being shaped out of toy horses, model planes, and everything in between, rises, they fill its head with the love and stories they have for the people who looked after them when they needed it most, and it is.

#whirls writing #original fiction #jumblr #jewish #jewish stories #moshe the tinkerer #it's occurred to me that this is the most blatantly jewish thing i've written and shared #moshe and the toymakers #moshe rabbit catchall tag

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

Some Writing Notes:

>I’m working on the Moshe Chanukah story and am fairly certain it’s doable to complete by next weekend, so it’ll most likely be an end-of-Chanukah thing.

>It will be from the pov of the toymaker, Zayde, whose given name I’m fairly certain is going to be Yehuda (I haven’t completely decided yet, but it is a way to refer to Judah Maccabbee, and since this is a Chanukah story...)

(for reference, ‘zayde’, is Yiddish for grandfather.  I used it in the first story bc I thought it was a fantastic way to quietly emphasis the character’s relationship to his community).

>tho a lot of the world will revolve around the animal characters, I don’t like the idea that the human ones are just sort of there (like set dressing in the background), so I will be spending time developing them.

Moshe, Esther, and Zayde/Yehuda will likely often be the main protagonists, but not completely all the time.  I haven’t developed other characters much yet, but not going beyond them feels rather restrictive.

(I really like worldbuilding, alright)

oh also there is going to be a golem character.  More on them later ;)

right now all I’ll say is that they’re going to be nonbinary and use they/them pronouns (which also means I’ve promised myself there’s going to be other nonbinary characters, so the only representation isn’t a nonhuman entity)

on that note, I decided, due to the fact that the only separation between ‘rabbit’ and ‘rabbi’ is the letter, ‘t’, and that’s what inadvertently led to this whole world’s creation in the first place, and ‘t’ can also refer to the hormone, testosterone, which transitioning trans men take, that Yehuda’s going to be a trans man.

(also the idea of having a trans grandpa character just appeals to me too)

I feel like this is a good time to mention I am very, very queer, so don’t be surprised if things start leaning in that direction, like a lot

(...and it’s just occurred to me I can put in as much ace representation as I want too)

#also i really need to research animal husbandry #especially rabbit and cat care so that's coming up in my future too #ngl this is gonna be a lotta work but i wouldn't be rambling about it if i wasn't down for it #moshe rabbit catchall tag

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

Do you have an idea of what Moshe looks like or what type of rabbit he is? I kind of want to have a go at drawing him (even though I'm not very good) and I'm just sort of curious

Sooo I'm going to have to admit that this ask led to me a research rabbit hole (hehe) into bunny breeds and eventually deciding to base Moshe after Checkered Giant Rabbits.

(for the record, I was already planning on doing so, I just decided to do it now bc my brain was like 'an opportunity to overshare to friend? YES!')

From what I've gathered so far (and I do want to emphasize I have a lot more research to do), they seem to be an energetic and active breed. They aren't as affectionate as other rabbit breeds, but they will become so once they bond with someone.

As a brief overview, that all fits what I want for Moshe. Adventurous, playful, but a little slow to trust.

I'm a little worried that Yehuda (Zayde) won't be able to keep up with his running around needs, but I have a half formed idea for a story down the road where one of the community kids starts to fill the role as playmate, with the main purpose of the plot being Moshe slowly warming up to them and bonding with them.

and that's who Miriam is going to be isn't it

like, as I've been developing the world, I've started naming other characters around others in the specific stories already mentioned

for instance, Yehuda will have 2 brothers, Simon and Jonathan, which as far as I can tell, are the names of the other Maccabbee siblings

and don't even get me started on Cat!Vashti

Anyways, to actually get to the topic of physical appearance, checkered giant rabbits are mostly white with either black or blue markings (on their ears, around their eyes, noses, and a stripe down their back, as well as other markings). I kinda like the idea of Moshe having blue markings.

That said, I also did some rough doodles for reference:

(I gave him half moon spectacles bc I thought they'd be cute <3)

(also I've been debating how much I want to anthropomorphize the animal characters in this world and have decided to keep them mostly animalistic, but maybe give them one or two elements like the spectacles. Essentially, no Disney-esque clothes wearing here.)

#moshe rabbit catchall tag #moshe rabbit #whirls arts

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

This is a post I really want to make, but also one I’m not entirely sure how to articulate.  Gonna try anyway, and I guess we’ll see how it goes :P

I just want to express how much it means to me that the story I wrote about Moshe the Rabbit means a lot to so many people.  I mean, as of now, it has over 300 notes, and I’ve been reading all the tags and reblogged comments and everything and it’s just-I’m kinda in awe of it?

tbh when I posted it, I fully expected it to maaaybe get a few notes from mutuals who like my writing and not much more.  I mean, I’ve been writing/posting fics long enough to pick up on the trends, and I’m aware that original fic doesn’t generally get much (I’ve long since made peace with that, for what it’s worth).

So, for not only a piece of my writing, but a piece of my writing written in part, to reach back and touch the Jewish children’s books I remember from when I was a kid, written to try and connect the person seeking a career as an illustrator I’m becoming and the person I’ve been who’s struggled with how exactly they can define themself as a Jewish person, to be the story that gets a greater response, it just means a lot (and also an emotion that’s really hard to describe).

Like, yes I wrote the story bc I saw a post and thought the idea was really cute, but I also wrote it bc doing so felt like puzzles pieces fitting into place.  Like answering the questions, ‘how can I be Jewish?  Can I explicitly intertwine Jewishness with a huge part of my identity that I put a lot of importance in (being a content creator)’, with ‘yes, yes it’s possible.  The words will come and you’ll name characters after well-known people from holiday stories (and then come up with narrative reasons for it a moment later), and it’ll be fun and wonderful.  It’ll be that feeling you got when, in one of your classes, you learned quite a few illustrators you’re studying were/are Jewish, and, sure, it’s only really mentioned in passing, but each time it sparks something indescribable in you, igniting into something more.  It’ll be feeling like a path opens up in front of you, but one that reaches a part of you you’ve struggled to know what to do with, touches it, and tells it, ‘you’re coming along too’.

It’s that for two days.  And then it’s warm fuzzies and a smile when a mutual enjoys the resulting story too.  And a bit of shock after that when a much larger blog than yours reblogs it, and then even more when others (some of which you admire greatly), find it and love it too.

It’ll be the realization that the person I’m determined to become can also still be Jewish.  That maybe I don’t have to fit into some prescribed version of ‘a Jewish Person’.  I can define it myself perhaps, and it can fit who I am too, and, as that person, I can be accepted.

So yeah, here’s a long (somewhat sappy) post on my feelings.

*jazz hands*

#very personal post that i'm not sure i should share #but i've been carrying around this feeling for a few days now #and idk i just want to put out there how much a completely unexpected rabbit has come to mean to me #definitely did not see this as the way i end 2021 let me tell you #moshe rabbit catchall tag

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

It’s occurred to me that Moshe’s world could end up being like RW/BY in that a lot of characters will have allusions, except instead of fairy tales, it’s figures from Jewish stories.

(to be clear, that’s the only real similarity I see between them, but I find it interesting regardless)

#currently thinking about how fantastical i want to get in moshe's world #up to now i've been of the mind to keep it pretty realistic #but like i love fantasy so #moshe rabbit catchall tag

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

Current Projects (Pinned Post)

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The Adventures of Moshe Rabbit & Friends

Jewish stories inspired by this ask post about a rabbit building a golem - featuring a rabbit named Moshe and his family and friends.

1. Moshe and the Toymaker

Moshe the Rabbit learns how to build a golem for the ones that protected him when he needed it most.

Tumblr Post // AO3 Link

2. Yehuda and the Chanukah Golem (Coming Soon!)

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Dead Souls Living

(RWBY Nuts & Dolts Fanfic)

Once accepted into Beacon Academy, Ruby never thought anything could get in the way of her training to become a Huntress. Then mysterious forces attacked, Beacon fell, and she wakes up to find the Atlas Military has kidnapped her (and declared her dead to the world) under the guise of keeping her and her silver eyes safe.

Now Ruby, alongside Penny, who is similarly assumed-dead-but-not-really by the world, fights to define what it means to have legendary magical powers and protect Atlas and Mantle from the forces, both inside and out, that could destroy them, and all of Remnant.

AO3 Link // Supplemental Materials Index

#whirls writing #dead souls living #moshe rabbit catchall tag