To anyone else, this was a routine of respect. To Yakov, it was a confrontation.

He closed his eyes and began to recite the Shema , not as a practiced ritual, but as a roar against the silence.

The film The Vigil (2019) follows Yakov, a young man who has recently left an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and is struggling with his faith and past trauma. Out of financial necessity, he agrees to act as a —a person who watches over a deceased member of the community overnight to protect their soul.

The shroud shifted. Only slightly—a ripple in the fabric near the chest. Yakov stood up, his chair scraping harshly against the floorboards. He remembered the stories of the , a malevolent spirit that feeds on the grief of the broken.

A voice, raspy and distorted like a worn-out record, drifted from the shadows behind him. "Why do you stay, Yakov? You don't believe in us anymore."

He spun around, but the kitchen was empty. When he turned back, the body of Mr. Litvak was gone. The shroud lay flat on the table, empty as a shed skin.