It is Not in Heaven

• Jews With Tattoos

RPG system: LARP
Participants: 5-7 players

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Jews With Tattoos

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Description

*Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” Deteronomy 30:11-12*

After many decades on the generation ship, landing has been made on the new planet. For the very first time, humanity has touched this ground, seen these wonders. In many ways, the planet is a miraculous place: there is food that we can eat, air we can breathe, water we can drink. It feels as if G-d has provided a new earth for us.

And yet, many questions linger: How do you tell the start of Shabbat when there are two suns? Of these strange new animals, which are kosher to eat? The first few months were busy with survival: starting farms, building structures, learning to deal with the dangers of the new planet, but now things have settled enough that the people are ready to worry about the spirit, not just the body. The head rabbis of the new colony are meeting for the first time to decide important questions about Jewish observance on this new world. These questions will be decided as they always have: through debate, discussion, and stories. The decisions made here will set halacha (Jewish law) for generations to come.

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It is Not in Heaven is a game about law, survival and Jewish history. The players will take the role of rabbis making decisions for the new colony world. It is also a tale-telling game. During the game, the rabbis will have opportunities to use talmudic, folkloric and historic tales to guide their decisions. Some tales will involve the whole group and occur at set times. Other tales will be selected by rabbis as needed, but all tales will be played out as “micro larps” when they occur. By the end of the game, rabbis will vote to decide on many of the questions posed.

Detailed understanding of Talmudic law is not expected, but players with some basic understanding of Jewish law and culture will have an easier time in this game. All players are welcome, but those without prior Jewish education may need to do a little extra reading. We will provide some background to get players started, but expect to spend a couple hours preparing with definitions and summaries of the important rules.

The future in which this is set assumes gender equality and the normalization of all genders and sexualities. All rabbis in this game can be played as any gender.

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