Sometimes, as the sages taught us, it is the very darkest of nights that bring the most illuminating truths. So it was when Piotr found himself suddenly on a cliff-top in the middle of a dream one night; well that is how it seemed. Let me try to explain. Piotr had gone to bed, as usual, that evening at around 11 pm. He had switched off the light in his small living room, wandered to the kitchen to draw a glass of water an...

Aaron knew that it was only a matter of hours now. He couldn't open his eyes as he had the previous day. Then he had seen his family gathered at the foot of the bed. Odd, he had thought, how they appeared ghostly, slightly detached from the limbo in which he now found himself. Yet he was not frightened. Limbo, it turned out, was a peaceful world, away from the turmoil of life; there was space to think and to prepare.He kn...

Chaim Finkel - just Finkel to those few who knew him - was a thoughtful man. He pondered life's mysteries while he went about his everyday business. He was around middle aged, tall and with pronounced, and not very flattering, features. His black hair was good and thick though here and there a little grey. Each day, as he walked to work along the banks of the Vistula River, he would throw bread to the ducks and swans and...