Monsters vs Humans - Beshalach - Mythic Torah

Bridgman's - Pharaoh's Army Engulfed by the Sea

Have you ever wanted to watch a movie with giant robots smashing huge monsters (and why would you not)?

Then 'Pacific Rim' directed by Guillermo del Toro is the movie for you.

I recently watched this movie on a flight from London to New York, my normal time to catch up with movies now I have a young baby and am flying to the UK once a month, and was impressed by the sheer spectacle of the Jaeger machines crushing monstrous Kaiju.

I've written a lot about Leviathan over the last couple of years, in my series of From the Deep, but this movie really conjures up imagery that is strikingly similar, as robots drop from the sky to smash the monsters rising from the depths of the ocean.

A similar spectacle could have been present in this week's parasha of Beshalach, that tells the story of the Israelites fleeing Egypt and their miraculous crossing of the Sea of Reeds.

From the Deep - Small Bites of Fish - Misc. Bible

On From the Deep we've covered the Bible from Genesis through to the Book of Job, but along the way we missed a few tasty morsels, not enough for a meal in themselves, but each a small tasty bite of sea monster nonetheless. Today we cover some of those juicy tidbits.

Jeremiah 5:22
 ²² Should you not fear me?’ declares the Lord.
    ‘Should you not tremble in my presence?
I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
    an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
    they may roar, but they cannot cross it.

כב) הַאוֹתִי לֹא־תִירָאוּ נְאֻם־יְקֹוָק אִם מִפָּנַי לֹא תָחִילוּ אֲשֶׁר־שַׂמְתִּי חוֹל גְּבוּל לַיָּם חָק־עוֹלָם וְלֹא יַעַבְרֶנְהוּ וַיִּתְגָּעֲשׁוּ וְלֹא יוּכָלוּ וְהָמוּ גַלָּיו וְלֹא יַעַבְרֻנְהוּ

Some of the mythic power of the sea monsters has been stripped from this image from Jeremiah 5, but remnants of it are still visible. God's power is manifest by his having contained the sea, bound it forever so that it cannot escape. The sea is described both literally, as having waves, and as roaring like a monster - the image is both naturalistic and mythological. Radak, one of the classic rabbinic commentators, says that the scene being described is Genesis 1 and the creation of dry land, but there is a rebelliousness to the sea here that is totally absent from the peaceful creation of Genesis 1.


More after the jump.