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?

Cherubs and Empty Space - VaYakhel - Mythic Torah

Kanizsa's Triangle

How many triangles are there in this picture?

There are several 'right' answers to this question, I think, but I'm most interested in the illusion of a white triangle pointed down at the center of the lines and circles. There isn't really a white triangle in this image, nor is there a secret magen david, a star of David. Instead the empty space is marked out through lines and sectors of circles such that your brain fills in the triangle.

Empty space is given structure and the illusion of form through its surrounding objects.

In this week's torah reading of Vayakhel, we see how the sacred space of the tabernacle is structured with wood, gold and cloth to create a form for the divine. Specifically, once we get to the holiest centre of the holiest space, we find the Ark of the Covenant, above which are two unusual figures (Ex 37):

The House of God - Terumah - Mythic Torah

"At last they rode over the downs and took the East Road, and then Merry and Pippin rode on to Buckland and already they were singing again as they went. But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap. He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' he said."
-Return of the King, J R R Tolkien

The epic Lord of the Rings, both the book and the movie, end the same way. After a long and dangerous series of adventures, facing desperate situations and fearsome monsters, we return with Sam Gamgee to his home, to his wife and his daughter. Why does the story end this way? Why end the high fantasy narrative with the domesticity of Sam at home?

A dwelling place is also the focus of this week's Torah reading, parashat Terumah. After the exodus, the drama of the red sea, and the revelation of Sinai, the time has come, God tells Moses, for the people to build a sanctuary for the divine, so that God can dwell among the people:

The Storm God of the Torah - Yitro - Mythic Torah

Zeus and Thor by ryomablood.deviantart.com

Thor may have done very well at the box office, with two solo movies together with the Avengers, but he's far from being the first popular storm god.

Across the world, storm gods have been very popular - from Zeus in Greece to Indra in India, the storm gods have brought life giving rain to the people and protected them from rampaging monsters. The world may be full of sea serpents, but it's the storm gods that slay the dragons.

So why is the God of the Bible portrayed as a storm god? And why is the Torah itself given in the midst of a storm?

In this week's parasha of Yitro, the Israelites arrive at Mount Sinai, and God appears over the mountain, ready to speak the ten commandments to the whole nation of Israel.

From the Deep - Here Be Dragons! - Habakkuk 3

Habakkuk 3: 8, 15
8] Was your wrath against the rivers (neharim), O Lord?
    Was your anger against the rivers,
    or your indignation against the sea (yam),
when you rode on your horses,
    on your chariot of salvation?

15] You trampled the sea with your horses,
    the surging of mighty waters.
 

ח  הֲבִנְהָרִים, חָרָה יְהוָה--אִם בַּנְּהָרִים אַפֶּךָ, אִם-בַּיָּם עֶבְרָתֶךָ:  כִּי תִרְכַּב עַל-סוּסֶיךָ, מַרְכְּבֹתֶיךָ יְשׁוּעָה

טו  דָּרַכְתָּ בַיָּם, סוּסֶיךָ; חֹמֶר, מַיִם רַבִּים

Welcome back to From the Deep, your weekly look into the primordial chaos monsters of the Bible and Jewish tradition.

This week we're moving on to a new prophet, the little read minor prophet of Habakkuk. The third and final chapter of this book is described in the first verse in a similar manner to a psalm "a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on the Shigionot", and it uses the word "sela" a word used elsewhere only in the book of psalms.

The third chapter describes God marching to war with pestilence and fire around God's feet. But who God fighting against? According to verse 8 it seems to be the Rivers / the Sea.

Where does this image come from and what does it mean for us?

From the Deep - Leviathan in Jewish Tradition - Genesis 1

Arthur Rackam, 'Leviathan'

21] And God created the great taninim, and every living creature that creepeth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after its kind, and every winged fowl after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 

כא  וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-הַתַּנִּינִם הַגְּדֹלִים; וְאֵת כָּל-נֶפֶשׁ הַחַיָּה הָרֹמֶשֶׂת אֲשֶׁר שָׁרְצוּ הַמַּיִם לְמִינֵהֶם, וְאֵת כָּל-עוֹף כָּנָף לְמִינֵהוּ, וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב.  


Welcome to the first blogpost of "From the Deep" a series of short thoughts and reflections on Leviathan in Jewish tradition, starting from the Bible and then spreading forward (and even backward) in history.

We begin, as all things do, with Genesis 1, in which God creates the world through speech over the course of 7 days.

Parashat Naso - Limmud Dvar Torah (with bonus material!)

I have a dvar torah up on Limmud on One Leg's blog today for parashat Naso - check it out here and then come back for some exclusive extra bonus material.

Finished? Don't worry, I'll wait.

Leviathan Comics 7

Leviathan Comics 4