I confess that, like so many I know, I had mixed feelings when I received the announcement that my new short story, The Dilemma of Joseph Kauffman, had won 3rd Prize in the 2025 MTP Short Story Competition. As so often happens, the immediate question ran through my head, Why not 1st?
Then a friend reminded me that bronze medalists stand on the podium, too. And dozens of others were eliminated in rounds of competition to get to the finals.
I took a look at the prized listings for this competition and found that five others received Runners-Up prizes and eighteen more we recognized as “Highly Commended Stories.”
The lesson to be learned yet again, of course, is to enjoy every accomplishment and then seek to improve in your next endeavor.
Besides the cash prize, the story is to be published in the MTP 2025 Competition Anthology, with “paperback & Kindle eBook editions of the Prizewinning and selected Highly Commended Stories.” As the prize listing page includes an excerpt of the 1st Prize story, I’d like to share this excerpt of mine with you here:
The Dilemma of Joseph Kauffman
And it came to pass that Rabbi Joseph Kauffman passed away after a lifetime of striving to carry out only good works in accordance with the will of his beloved God. And so he found himself before his maker, shaking and trembling with fear. Would he be found wanting? Would the conduct of his life and his commitment to the Lord be sufficient to see him welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven? And so, he waited, full of hope and full of expectation. And the time passed, and Joseph waited still. And he waited longer yet.
And finally the Lord spake, and the Lord saith unto him, ‘Joseph, what have you done with your life? Tell me what your years have been? Are you fit to be welcomed to my side, for now is the time of judgement. Now shall you be examined?’
And Joseph responded, ‘My Lord, I have tried to lead an honourable existence. And now, my beloved maker, I look forward to having you reveal yourself to me. I have waited a lifetime for this moment, and hope not to be denied.’
‘All in good time,’ the Lord responded. ‘Those who have lived according to my precepts shall be taken to my bosom and granted eternal joy. Those who have sinned shall wander for ever in sadness, in purgatory. So I ask again, Joseph, what has your life been?’
And Joseph responded, ‘I have lived by thy Commandments, knowing I am but one small mote amongst your chosen. Knowing I am not worthy. And yet I have striven mightily. I have been fruitful and multiplied, as it is written in Genesis. My wife Rebecca has born me twelve adored children. All of them daughters. And my children have brought forth blessed grandchildren, and they in turn have granted me unbounded joy in my many great grandchildren.’
‘And have you been a loving and considerate husband to your wife Rebecca?’
‘Always,’ said Joseph. ‘Even when the trials of our large family have proved burdensome to Rebecca such that she no longer wished to fulfil her marital obligations.’
‘By that you mean she wished for no more children?’
‘Not simply that, my Lord; I mean that she no longer wished to engage in fornication. She began to see it on its own as an abomination.’
‘So Joseph, how did you manage without a full marriage? Did you stray from the confines of your marital vows? Were you unfaithful to your wife Rebecca? And if not, if you remained constant to she who bore you twelve children, did you instead spill your seed upon the ground, contrary to mine as stated in the holy bible?’
‘No, my Lord, I have lived entirely in accordance with the prayers as they are written in the morning service of the Day of Atonement exhorting us to seek forgiveness wherein we have sinned before thee by unchastity, or wherein we have sinned before thee by a wanton glance, or even an association with impurity, whether knowingly or unknowingly. I have sought your forgiveness for the sins of envy, levity and evil speech; for the sins committed in eating and in drinking, and for the sins of causeless hatred, tale-bearing, usury, obduracy and terror of the heart. This last, when I knew, or ought to have known that you my Lord would always be there for me.’
‘And yet Joseph, you were young and vibrant when Rebecca first denied you the marital bed. What say you to that?’
‘My Lord, I will admit that I was sore pressed, but never yet did I force my attentions on Rebecca when they ceased to be welcome.’
‘Is that all?’ asked the Lord.
‘Sadly, it is not. For during the course of our marriage Rebecca became resentful, and complaining. She would charge me with ever more and more tasks to be carried out during the day, notwithstanding my duties to you my Lord and to my congregants, with bitter recriminations if those tasks were not completed to her satisfaction. She even beat me with her fists on occasions, screaming that she was perceived as my servant and not my wife; for all that I treated her with the utmost respect. And then she would enlist the aid of the females of the family to any of her quarrels or complaints with me; all of my daughters, at various times. And also the servants; by her choice, all of them women; when it suited her purpose. But Lord, you know all this.’
‘Yes Joseph, I do know all this; but still I would hear it from your own lips. And did you complain, Joseph? Did you let Rebecca know of your own dissatisfaction with the marriage and its trials and burdens?’
‘Never. For to do so would have been contrary to your commandments. I have tried to live a life free of sin and free of the temptations of the heart or the temptations of the body; and I confess there have been times when I have felt heavily compelled. But I have never succumbed.’
‘And so Joseph, when we come to judge you, would you say that you have lived a life completely free of sin?’
Joseph, paused and reflected, for what he had to say might determine his future in eternity. Finally, he nodded, saying quietly, ‘I believe I have resisted all evil and lived the life you my Lord will have wished me to live.
‘Joseph,’ said the Lord, ‘are you then a martyr? For there are martyrs who have suffered physical tortures beyond the sufferings you have born within your family; martyrs who have themselves sinned but are yet here in paradise for their good deeds have far outweighed their sins.’
Joseph pondered the Lord’s comments, ‘Lord, it would be presumptuous of me to rank myself among those who have suffered as you say, and yet I verily believe I have lived a blameless life, tending my family, my congregants, the poor and the rich alike,
‘Joseph,’ the voice was soft and kind. ‘You know that I created humankind in my own image?’
‘I do, my Lord.’
‘And you know that I expelled them both, Adam and Eve, from Eden because they had sinned against me, albeit unknowingly?’
‘I am aware.’
‘And so Joseph, you are without sin?’
‘That is so, I believe.’
‘And you are perfect?’
‘Yes,’ Joseph whispered.
‘But Joseph, if I created them in my own image, and if they were imperfect, expelled from Eden because of their sin, then I, your Lord, am also imperfect. Is that not so? Paradise is not just for the perfect, Joseph, but for the ordinary, the weak, the frail, the tempted. And you Joseph, have been none of these things; on your own admission. Joseph; YOU ARE BETTER THAN ME! For I am not perfect. Do you not see my dilemma?’
. . . .
The rest of the story lets you in on how the Lord, and Joseph, confronted and attempted to resolve their mutual dilemmas. Can you predict what happens next?
