"Man Of Constant Sorrow"--Work of Fiction Based On the Song Lyrics and Covers From the Soggy Bottom Boys and Charm City Devils

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. (Disclaimer copied and pasted from TVTropes.org)

©2013 Nicole Czarnecki. All rights reserved by the author. "Man Of Constant Sorrow" is listed as "Traditional" and written from 1888-1913 according to Wikipedia, and thus has no copyright date or has an expired copyright. The cover by the Soggy Bottom Boys was copyrighted in 2002, and the cover by the Charm City Devils in 2012. The lyrics are in the public domain.

The author has done thorough- and accurate-research, and used prior knowledge to the best of her knowledge and ability.

Lyrics taken from http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/soggy_bottom_boys/i_am_a_man_of_constant_sorrow.html at the time of the writing of this work. 

A reference list of sources used for specific information (not common-knowledge, general, non-copyrightable or public-domain information*) at the time of this writing can be found at the end of this work. (*e.g., language is not copyrightable)

(In constant sorrow all through his days)

I am a man of constant sorrow
I've seen trouble all my days
I bid farewell to old Kentucky
The place where I was born and raised

(The place where he was born and raised)

For six long years I've been in trouble
No pleasure here on Earth I found
For in this world I'm bound to ramble
I have no friends to help me now

(He has no friends to help him now)

It's fare-thee-well my old true lover
I never expect to see you again
For I'm bound to ride that northern railroad
Perhaps I'll die upon this train

(Perhaps he'll die upon this train)

You can bury me in some deep valley
For many years where I may lay
And you may learn to love another
While I am sleeping in my grave

(While he is sleeping in his grave)

Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger
My face you never will see no more
But there is one promise that is given
I'll meet you on God's golden shore

(He'll meet you on God's golden shore)

Chapter 1

"Out; out!" they screamed. And that was that--Kehillath Kodesh Adas Israel had kicked him out, sat shiva for him, and sent him packing. He mumbled, "You can't even get your damned Hebrew right!" So much for Liberal, or Progressive, or Tolerant, or Inclusive, or whatever-the-Hell "Judaism" they called it, anyway--besides, they had to liberalize (really, bastardize) the Hebrew, anyway: it was "Kehillat-Kodesh Adat Yisra'el", anyway. 

He was angry enough that he couldn't think clearly. How dare they deal with him in that manner! "Liberal" in zayn tuchus! "Progresiv" in zayn tuchus! "Tolera'nt" in zayn tuchus! "Far kirev" in zayn tuchus! He wasn't a cursing man, but fury raged within him--he had been treated in such a shlekht shteyger, and he was a Levite! How dare those Yisra'elim! How dare those 'am-ha'aretz! How dare those minim!

He used the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to catch a train as far away from Louisville as possible--to somewhere, to anywhere, and to somewhere and anywhere but Louisville. He just didn't know where. Un "Brith Sholom" in zayn tuchus--an adat-l'hab'rit-shalom surely wouldn't kick an ish l'shalom out of any "Brith Sholom"--which, to him, would still and always be "Kehillat-Kodesh Adat Yisra'el", "Holy Community of the Congregation of Israel". 

Chapter 2

40 years later, and his life had completely changed--he was born when his now-ex congregation was founded, of age when the Emancipation Proclamation was made (for Sefer-B'Midbar read "Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by the descent from their fathers, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel."), and now of age plus a score of years. Incidentally--or perhaps not so--, he was of the same number of years as Moses when Moses' life changed--as the New Testament read, "And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong , he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed , and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not."

As Moses' life had changed over the course of a day, so also did the life of this Levite. He hadn't intended to change his life overnight--or, since his conversion happened during the day and as he thus joked to himself, "overday". He took a covered wagon to Cincinnati, Ohio, and then a train to Baltimore, Maryland. Finding no church with which he was satisfied or any Hebrew Christian congregation, he worshiped alone in his home on the Jewish and the traditional Christian Sabbaths--Saturday and Sunday, although some Christians observed their Sabbath on Saturday like the Jews did.

Then one day, he received a mysterious letter: "Mister Leve, a rumor concerning you is as such--that your Jewish neighbors have spied on you, since they have suspected you to be a Hebrew Christian among them. The rumor is also that you worship alone. ' Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised ;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching .'

"Mister Leve, if you insist on worshiping in your home, then I insist that we start a congregation in your home--for I am a Hebrew Christian myself, and many establish congregations within various' congregants' homes. The rumor, by the way, continues that your former congregation is Brith Sholom of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations--which, as I have heard and as I mention incidentally, has congregants among it that called their denomination of Judaism "Liberal" or "Progressive" before the Union itself did (and I would credit them as prescient and clairvoyant in that matter if only their denomination were "liberal" and "progressive", for who can have true liberty in worship and progress in his growth of faith without first having liberty and growth in Yeshua our Messiah?")

"Therefore, I propose that we found a congregation in your home and christen it 'Kehillat-Kodesh b'Chofesh-Ha'Emet'--'Holy Congregation In Freedom of the Truth'. By the way, I have no knowledge of how fluent you are in Hebrew; so I hope that you don't mind that I transliterated and translated my Hebrew name for your congregation for you.

"Shalom b'HaShem-Yeshua Mishichenu--Peace In the Name of Jesus our Messiah."

[To be continued...]