Culture

The Book of Exodus and the Book of Palestine

exodus

This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.

Passover fragments – that’s what left of Jewish life. Whatever the state of Israel was meant to be, it hasn’t left us much.

The prophetic is alive and well, though. Is the prophetic, Passover’s fragment afterlife?

Perhaps fragments were the reality from the beginning. From the moment ancient Israel entered the Promised Land, the promise started unraveling. Even before Israel’s entry, Moses saw it clearly. His last instructions to the Israelites were quite grim, funereal really. Whatever you have to say about Moses, he wasn’t Israel’s cheerleader.

The Biblical prophets are sent by God within the unraveling of the initial promise. What was the promise that involved the land but went beyond it? Many years ago Norman Gottwald, a Biblical scholar, put the promise succinctly. God freed Israel from Egypt with the command that Israel create a new kind of society – a socially egalitarian decentralized tribal confederacy.

Quite a modernist mouthful but Gottwald got it right. Liberated from empire, Israel was to create a society without empire. A difficult mandate to be sure – has it ever been accomplished? God’s command comported with Israel’s experience of slavery. Why escape one empire to build another?

We know the story of Israel’s failure well but if you noticed it isn’t recounted in the Passover story. Passover looks forward – ancient Israel is moving toward glory. Freedom! Next Year in Jerusalem!

What happened to the Israelites in the land – what happened to others in the land when Israel came and conquered – that is left for another time, a time we never seem to reach.

Even now, at least by our Constantinian Jewish establishment, Israel is recounted as a dream foretold. The devastating details of the dream achieved are missing.

Like Easter Sunday liturgies without a discussion of Christian history after. Upside without the downside. Convenient.

At least the Hebrew Bible details the downside. Credit where credit is due. The New Testament lacks courage. If the New Testament covered roughly the same amount of time as the Hebrew Bible does, the New Testament would stretch from Jesus to Auschwitz. So much for the Jewish God of vengeance versus the Christian God of love.

Imagine a Christian liturgical reading from Auschwitz on Easter Sunday. Let’s call it a historical gospel – the Gospel of Auschwitz. Other possibilities abound. Try reading the Gospel of 1492 and the Gospel of Colonialism as a compliment to the resurrection theme. See where that goes.

Scriptures should evolve to include what is done in God’s name after the forming of faith communities. Expand the Passover story to include the modern state of Israel. Shall we call it the Book of Palestine? Or we could recite both histories together – the Book of Exodus and the Book of Palestine.

On the Jewish side of the Book of Palestine are plenty of authors up for the task of narration. Think of Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappe, Josh Ruebner and Max Blumenthal combining their expertise and insights. On the Palestinian side, think of Edward Said, Nur Masala and Joseph Massad.

History has to be our guide. Whatever religion can say after history is in place – proceed. What religion can’t say after history, religion has to leave behind.

When religion has to take the history challenge only fragments survive.

Along with the traditional story, in the last few days of Passover begin reading the Book of Palestine. Now read it out loud with other Jews.

Hear who we have become.

As you raise the matzah to your lips note the sound of Star of David helicopter gunships in the air.

You’ve asked the four traditional Passover questions for years. Now ask the fifth.

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Wow. Great article. Many thanks.

history |ˈhist(ə)rē|
noun ( pl. histories )
1 the study of past events, particularly in human affairs: medieval European history.
• the past considered as a whole: letters that have changed the course of history.
2 the whole series of past events connected with someone or something: the history of Aegean painting.
• an eventful past: the group has quite a history.
• a past characterized by a particular thing: his family had a history of insanity.
3 a continuous, typically chronological, record of important or public events or of a particular trend or institution: a history of the labor movement.
• a historical play: Shakespeare’s comedies, histories, and tragedies.
PHRASES
be history be perceived as no longer relevant to the present: the mainframe will soon be history | I was making a laughingstock of myself, but that’s history now. • informal used to indicate imminent departure, dismissal, or death: an inch either way and you’d be history.
go down in history be remembered or recorded in history.
make history do something that is remembered in or influences the course of history.
the rest is history used to indicate that the events succeeding those already related are so well known that they need not be recounted again: they teamed up, discovered that they could make music, and the rest is history.
ORIGIN late Middle English (also as a verb): via Latin from Greek history ‘finding out, narrative, history,’ from histōr ‘learned, wise man,’ from an Indo-European root shared by wit2.

religion |riˈlijən|
noun
the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods: ideas about the relationship between science and religion.
• a particular system of faith and worship: the world’s great religions.
• a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance: consumerism is the new religion.
PHRASES
get religion informal be converted to religious belief and practices.
DERIVATIVES
religionless adjective
ORIGIN Middle English (originally in the sense ‘life under monastic vows’): from Old French, or from Latin religio(n-) ‘obligation, bond, reverence,’ perhaps based on Latin religare ‘to bind.’

What did they say about the bubonic plague at the time it happened? What do they say now? What is a bible or sacred book of any sort other than anthropomorphic projection in the full freudian sense? How long will true believers continue to be made?

For many years — so I have been given to understand — orthodox Judaism forbade Jews from making any effort to gather the Jews into Palestine. FORBADE. The work of ingathering the Jews was understood (and taught!) to be God’s work, and definitely not man’s work.

Indeed, even praying (so I read somewhere) for the ingathering was forbidden because praying was done by men, not by God.

In the context of those teachings, “Next Year In Jerusalem” is a strange thing, not a prayer (I suppose, such a prayer being forbidden) but the expression of a hope, the hope that God would find it (at long last) appropriate to perform this miracle, the ingathering.

The creation of the modern imperial colonial Israel is man’s work, no question, and not God’s work. No more than the construction and operation of certain facilities at Auschwitz can be said to be God’s work. (Not a comparison, just saying.)

I know little and (therefore?) usually care less about religion. This essay is wonderful. I don’t know what relation religion bears to what Ellis calls “the prophetic”. If anything can rescue religion from what it has become, I dare say it is “the prophetic”.

I was a slave and now am free. Now I keep slaves. Happily and without any notion of contradiction. Hmpfff.

Professor Ellis: Imagine a Christian liturgical reading from Auschwitz on Easter Sunday. Let’s call it a historical gospel – the Gospel of Auschwitz.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Here we are on Good Friday and our prophet finds himself channeling the dire JeffB:

The Holocaust was our crucifixion and Israel our resurrection.

Memo to Professor Ellis: When you start sounding like a Zionist blowhard you aren’t helping the Palestinians.

”’Imagine a Christian liturgical reading from Auschwitz on Easter Sunday. Let’s call it a historical gospel – the Gospel of Auschwitz” >>>

Why would there be a reading of a Christian liturgical at Auschwitz?
Are you still blaming Christianity for the holocaust?
Are you aware of how blaming an entire religion makes people less sympathic to Jewish holocaust claims?
When it goes too far people quit listening.
It wasnt Christianity, it wasnt ‘the world’ it was the nazis and they’re all dead.