Cinderella and Passover - the Magic of Midnight

    There is a story told across cultures, especially in Europe, of a woman oppressed by her stepmother and stepsisters, who, aided by magical or supernatural help, meets a fabulous prince at a ball. Whether her name is Aschenputtel, Cendrillon or our more common Cinderella, there is a common trope that she has to leave the ball by midnight or else all the magic becomes undone.

    At midnight the coach will turn back into a pumpkin, the horses back into mice, the gorgeous gown back into rags, and the marvelous glass slippers will disappear.

    There is this tendency in western literature to see midnight as the witching hour, the time that is most dangerous, when evil stalks abroad.

    It is no coincidence that Edgar Allan Poe’s the Raven begins “Once upon a midnight dreary” or that the Headless Horseman from Washington Irving’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ is described as “like a Midnight blast”. The dead of night is all that is unnerving, disquieting, unsettling, as the dawn seems endlessly far away.

    But the Pesach story is, in some ways, the opposite of Cinderella. Cinderella on the night of the ball was free and happy but at the stroke of twelve all the magic came undone - but in the Torah's description of the Exodus, in Exodus 12:29, we see that our freedom began at precisely midnight:

    29 And it came to pass at midnight, that the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle.

    At that moment the Israelites were no longer slaves - the midnight hour indeed brought danger and death (even the Israelites had to protect themselves with blood on the doorposts) but it also brought redemption.

What is the significance of midnight?

Urim and Tumim - Tetzaveh - Mythic Torah

Judaism has had a very ambivalent relationship to fortune-telling, astrology and predicting the future. On the one hand, we read in Deuteronomy 18 that those who consult the dead are an abomination, that witchcraft is absolutely illegal, and yet at the same time we know that there are kinds of divination that were practiced within God's own cult.

In particular, we read in this week's parasha of Tetzaveh about the mysterious Umim and Tumim stones, to be placed in the High Priest's breastplate:

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 Bricks of Heaven - Mishpatim - Mythic Torah

Lucifer published by DC Comics

If you want to read a comic about Lucifer, the fallen angel starred in his own series written by Mike Carey, published by DC comics, from 1999-2006. A spinoff from Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Lucifer followed the story of the devil after he quit his job and left the management of Hell to others.

But if you want to read a comic about God, you're out of luck. With the exception of DC Vertigo's comic Preacher, whose depiction of God is graphic and theologically challenging, the big comic book publishers have chosen to keep God out of there comics.

God clearly exists in the DC universe, for example as seen in Sandman's Season of Mists, but God is never depicted. Both Marvel and DC have chosen to avoid showing God in the flesh, as it were, choosing to have God off the page, if mentioned at all.

While their reasoning may be simply to avoid offending Christians, Muslims or Jews, they are remarkably in-keeping with most of the Bible, that teaches that "you cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live" (Exodus 33:20).

We may be surprised then to learn that in this week's parasha of Mishpatim, 74 people did just that.

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 - Aaron's Staff - Exodus 7

8 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 

9 "When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying: 'Perform a wonder'; then say to Aaron: Take your staff, and cast it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a serpent (tanin)."

10 Then Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and they did just as the Lord had commanded; and Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent (tanin).

ח וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהֹוָ֔ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה וְאֶֽל־אַהֲרֹ֖ן לֵאמֹֽר: ט כִּי֩ יְדַבֵּ֨ר אֲלֵכֶ֤ם פַּרְעֹה֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר תְּנ֥וּ לָכֶ֖ם מוֹפֵ֑ת וְאָֽמַרְתָּ֣ אֶֽל־אַֽהֲרֹ֗ן קַ֧ח אֶֽת־מַטְּךָ֛ וְהַשְׁלֵ֥ךְ לִפְנֵֽי־פַרְעֹ֖ה יְהִ֥י לְתַנִּֽין: י וַיָּבֹ֨א מֹשֶׁ֤ה וְאַהֲרֹן֙ אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֔ה וַיַּֽעֲשׂוּ־כֵ֔ן כַּֽאֲשֶׁ֖ר צִוָּ֣ה יְהוָֹ֑ה וַיַּשְׁלֵ֨ךְ אַֽהֲרֹ֜ן אֶת־מַטֵּ֗הוּ לִפְנֵ֥י פַרְעֹ֛ה וְלִפְנֵ֥י עֲבָדָ֖יו וַיְהִ֥י לְתַנִּֽין:

Moses receives signs to show God's power both to the Israelites and then to Pharaoh, including the miraculous transformation of a staff into a serpent.

The original instruction for this miracle came in Exodus 4:3-4, in which Moses tells God that the Israelites won't listen to him, and God replies telling him to throw his staff on the ground where it becomes a snake. The word used here is nachash, which seems to clearly indicate a mundane snake, albeit transformed miraculously by the power of God.

But when it comes time to confront Pharaoh, the staff does not become a nachash but rather a tanin, the word that we have already seen in Genesis 1 last week refers to Sea Monsters, something monstrous and supernatural. Then all Pharaoh's sorcerer's repeat the trick, and their staffs also become serpents (taninim). But Aaron's staff swallows all the others, proving the supremacy of God.

Should we take this shift in language seriously? And if so, what does it mean that the staff became a tanin for Pharaoh and the Egyptians?

Why Mythology Matters

When I was about 4 years old, some reporters came to interview my mother about her work as a rabbi. They spoke to my sister as well, who obligingly told them that she wanted to grow up to be a rabbi. I was not so helpful, and my answer never made it on to TV - when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I answered 'He-man'.

Fantasy and the mythological has always entranced me, so when I realised that we had such stories and heroes in our own tradition, I fell hopelessly in love. This blog is called Mythic Writing, and today I want to do something a little different, and reflect on why I chose this name.

You see, today I turn 30 - not perhaps the biggest milestone but it seemed to me that this was an opportunity to write down some of my deepest held beliefs - why does mythology matter to me? And why should it matter to you too?