Mountains and the Sublime - Behar - Mythic Torah

Welcome back to Mythic Torah, my regular article investigating monsters, heroes and gods in the weekly Torah reading. This week's reading is Behar, the 9th reading of the book of Leviticus, that includes instructions for buying and selling land, as well as the rules for the Shemitah and Jubilee years.

I've always liked high places.

As a child, spending a lot of time at West London Synagogue, where my mother was the rabbi for many years, I would search out windows with broad ledges to sit on, so I could look down at the world from several storeys up. It was a man-made structure, but I loved feeling like I could see everything, and especially that I could see others without being seen myself.

I love the mountains of Switzerland - both standing at the top and feeling like I can touch the heavens, and standing at the bottom, feeling dwarfed by the mighty peaks all around me. When surrounded by such awesome heights it puts your life and your own problems into perspective, as you realise just how small and short your life is. A mountain feels to me like a place to touch eternity.

 This week's torah reading of Behar opens with setting the scene for the instructions that follow:

1] The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying:

א. וַיְדַבֵּר יְהֹוָה אֶל משֶׁה בְּהַר סִינַי לֵאמֹר:

While we think of the Mount Sinai experience being based in Parashat Yitro (that includes the 10 commandments) and Ki Tissa (that includes the Golden Calf), but in fact not only does the whole section of the tabernacle at the end of the Book of Exodus take place at Sinai, so too does the entire book of Leviticus. It's only after Leviticus that the Israelites are finally ready to move away from Sinai and begin their journey to the Promised Land.

But what is the significance of the mountain itself? What is so special about mountains?

Rewriting Radiance - The ancient mountains

Another addition to Radiance, this time in the second part, Yesod/Foundation, in between chapters 8 and 9, after Asher has met the Seven and before his encounter with the dybbuk.

My original intent had been to cut out as much of Asher's training as possible to get to the 'super-powered' part as quickly as I could but I found that it was both too fast and ended up giving the supporting cast too little air-time. Without some opportunity to get to know them, it seems that the readers have little reason to worry about the fate of each member of the Seven. This is my attempt at filling both those gaps.

But have I done enough?

I could easily imagining stretching some of these encounters into longer ones, or having Asher meet angels and take part in an exorcism. Would these be good additions or is this enough as is?

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

    As Asher watched the sun dip in the sky, he found himself astonished that he was not as terrible at Hebrew grammar as he had always supposed. Two months in, he was really getting the hang of it, conjugating verbs like a master (or so he thought), beginning to read full sentences and complex ideas. The pattern of it seemed to make sense to him - there was a kind of music about it that made it stick somewhere deep inside in a nonsense poem of verb formation. I killed, you killed, you (f.) killed, he killed, she killed… Everybody killed.
    But in the growing frenzy of preparations for the oncoming shabbat, he couldn’t help but hope for some more peaceful verbs to work with.
    In the kitchen, Ostar surged around the counters, mixing ingredients together furiously to prepare the meal before the sun set and all preparations had to be complete. Even without his gleaming armour, the manifestation of Netzach, Divine Victory, was an impressive sight a bulking figure that seemed to fill the entire small urban kitchen, smiling and laughing out loud at his own near-unending jokes, even as the sweat started to gather on his brow. Mercury, the embodiment of Hod, Divine Splendour, and, as Asher had learned only a month prior, Ostar’s wife, was slicing carrots while drilling him on his verb forms, her long dark hair tied neatly behind her head..
    “What was that?” she said, never looking up from the silver blade that effortlessly divided the vegetables.