Razia's Waters of Revelation — assuming bad intent in a partner

Doron the glassblower turning a globe of molten glass before the furnace, while Razia watches him suspiciously from the dark doorway — Doron at the workshop – and Razia watching from the shadows.

In the district of the Springs, beyond the mountains of Lebanon, lived Doron, a glassblower of gentle spirit, together with his partner Razia. Razia carried an old, burning wound: she believed the whole world ran on hidden schemes, and that no one was as innocent as they made themselves out to be.

Razia's thoughts twisting above her head into menacing shapes of smoke, while Doron, sitting opposite her, looks ordinary and warm — The translation machine in her mind turned every gesture into deliberate malice.

Inside Razia's mind a kind of translation machine ran without pause, turning every movement, glance or silence into deliberate malice. When Doron came home tired from a hard day's work and breathed deeply, Razia did not hear exhaustion – she "heard" a sigh of contempt. She flung at him at once: "I know exactly what just went through your head! You sighed because you have had enough of me, you are only waiting for the moment you can run!"

When Doron's family spoke quietly in the next room about illness and making a living, Razia was utterly convinced they were whispering about her, turning him against her and hatching a plan to humiliate her. Even when Doron brought her a cup of hot tea on her weaker days, she saw it as "lip service", or an attempt to quiet a guilty conscience over injuries she claimed he was planning for the future.

Doron would try again and again to explain, to swear to the purity of his intentions, to show his love – but Razia always cut his words off with the same scalding sentence: "Don't play innocent! I read you like an open book. I know exactly what your real, ugly intentions are!"

The Waters of Revelation

A wandering magician in a patched coat holding out a crystal vial of glowing silver liquid that lights his fingers from within — The "Waters of Revelation" – a potion that brings every inner thought to light.

One day an old wandering magician came to their house, carrying an enchanted potion in a silver vial – the "Waters of Revelation". Razia turned to the magician hopefully: "Give my husband this potion to drink! I want all his dark and secret thoughts, all the schemes he weaves against me with his family and all the contempt he hides inside him to float to the surface, so that everyone can see who he really is!"

The magician smiled quietly and handed the vial to Doron. Doron drank the potion to the last drop without hesitating.

Golden translucent figures of light rising in the air above the seated Doron, showing him defending Razia and praying in tears — His thoughts rose into the air – and there was not a trace of malice in them.

Suddenly, Doron's thoughts and feelings began to take shape in the air of the room as living figures of colour and light. Razia stood tense, ready to see monsters of mockery and betrayal. But what appeared was something else entirely:

She saw a figure of Doron walking down the street, thinking anxiously: "What could I buy her to bring a smile to her tormented face?" She saw him standing before his brothers, defending her fiercely and saying: "Razia is sensitive and good, you have to understand how much she suffers, never be angry with her." She saw him lying in bed at night, his heart aching, praying in a quiet weeping: "I wish she knew how much I love her, I wish she would stop seeing an enemy in me."

There was not one single thought there of contempt, of mockery, or of scheming. There was only a sea of pain, of worry, and above all – a deep and faithful love worn down under the weight of suspicion.

Razia's face lit by the golden light of the thought-figures, her hand rising to her mouth and her eyes filling with tears — Years of fighting monsters that were never there.

Razia froze. Her eyes widened in horror, not at what she saw in Doron, but at what she understood about herself.

The magician looked at her and said gently: "For years, Razia, you were not fighting the man who lives at your side. You were fighting monsters you created inside your own head. You turned your fears into prophecies, judged him for crimes he never committed, and dressed the purest heart ever held out to you in black intentions. Whoever listens only to his fears will always 'read' war in another's heart – even when the other is holding out peace."

Razia looked at Doron, who stood before her with tearful eyes full of compassion. In that moment the poisonous translation machine in her mind fell silent.