A Narrow Bridge

A Narrow Bridge is an SGA AU by Kass written in 2009, set in a yeshiva.
It was published alongside a glossary of non-English words, to make the story more accessible to readers for whom Hebrew and Yiddish terminology is unfamiliar. It is, in this regard, part of a very small subset of AU stories, along with schemingreader's Harry Potter yeshiva AU The Heart's Obligations.
:Author's Summary: Rav Caldwell, the rosh yeshiva of Sha'arei ha-Kochavim, was standing with his arm around the new guy. Who was dressed more-or-less exactly like everyone else: black trousers, white shirt, though it seemed to Rodney that he might have left one more button undone at the top of the shirt than was strictly kosher here. Black velvet kippah pinned securely over a fairly obvious cowlick.
==Reactions and Reviews==
==Response from skeptics==
Some Israeli readers found the story surreal because of its American setting, which presents a different set of circumstances and assumptions than hold true in Israel. Roga wrote:
:"All in all: a super-enjoyable read :-) The premise is – okay, sorry, I have to use that word again, weird for me (because of the politics of secular/haredi relationships in Israel, and because on top of that I’m atheist, so it’s a lot easier for me to accept the yeshiva in Yentl and love the characters freely than to feel the same about yeshivas today), but – is what I am trying to say – you dealt with it in a fun, funny, serious, and meaningful way, and I don’t think anyone could have done it better. Ever.
:And to conclude: SERIOUSLY, SHAAREI HAKOCHAVIM. That is too much FTW in a single phrase :-)"
Some readers who had been leery of Si Muovo were likewise leery here, but found themselves won over:
:"I was just as leery about reading this story as I was the other one about faith you wrote, where Rodney’s the Jesuit priest, but I should have figured I didn’t need to worry. I love about this one the same things I loved about the other one: how much respect and knowledge you have about the religious traditions you’re writing about, and how Rodney’s love for John isn’t exclusive of his religion, but enhanced by it. I’m just so used to people using religion as intolerance in fic, and it’s so amazingly awesome and refreshing to read what you’ve written."
==Additional Recs & Reactions==
* "[...] it's essentially set in a universe I know next to nothing about. [The location is not incidental to the story, so I spent a fair bit of my time reading this being kind of fascinated at the religious parts of the story, (religion is a thing of great mystery to me) and that culture. I got something that I hadn't before.] It works really well. 4: Quick Recs post by kiki-eng, 25 Feb 2009. (Accessed Feb 3, 2012)
* "this was one of the more unusual SGA AU scenarios I've encountered, and only in part because it's a non-stargate AU that put them in a yeshiva instead, which is quite a step from SF soldier hero with geek sidekick, but even more because it's unusual that in an AU John and Rodney do more or less both the same thing, rather than meeting by chance. Still I enjoyed the AU, and I liked the glimpses we got of their backstories (I'd totally read a prequel to this giving me more of this John's history)."
==References==
Category:2008 Fanfiction‎