The Secret Diary of Ben Zoma
hearsay heresy/and the empty space/of an earthenware vessel
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Doubtlessly this puzzled Moses, but not really. One part of him knew ((although he could not yet articulate it to himself)) that he had fatefully and fatally crossed a line in what he had done. But despite the silent promptings from Hashem in the “face-to-face” encounters at the Tent of the Meeting, Moses could not muster the intestinal fortitude to repent and take the consequences. This is the terrible power of cognitive dissonance. I believe he was caught off guard while speaking with Hashem (Exodus 33:12-23) when he finally put together the full implication of what Hashem had conveyed to him in verse 14 and again (since Moses in verses 15 and 16 seems STILL not to have gotten the message) in verse 17. Words are two-edged. These are the truest words in Scripture and the falsest words in Scripture: ---- and no one knows his burial place to this day [Deuteronomy 34:6] These words are true because, on principle, no one will ever discover his burial place if they are looking in the land of Moab. These words are incidentally true because no-one knows for sure where the Mountain of God is (although the Northeastern portion of the Egyptian-held Sinai wilderness is the best bet). These words are the falsest because everyone, at some level, knows where Moses was buried. The Deuteronomists for sure. They organized the great Jewish repression. Rabbis in the classical age of Rabbinism knew, but they spoke by way of indirection. Certainly Rabbi Meir was one of these. Rabbis of all centuries, at some level, have known this in their heart of hearts. The Jewish People know it, but the patterns of cognitive dissonance are too well entrenched for this to be said out loud, or, for most, even silently to oneself Secrets can serve a purpose. Secrets can also destroy. My bet is that we who, even today, live in the shadow of the Holocaust, can no longer maintain these secrets except by acquiescing in the death of Judaism itself.
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About the Book
So. Think about this. Once this foreigner is brought into the House of Israel ((albeit a foreigner who emerged from the House of Israel)) and then comes to rule it, the House of Israel itself ended up becoming, in fact, a collective apostate alienated from its burning living center. In the following I acknowledge the paradox involved in what I am saying given what is said in the Gemaric commentaries about “Akher.” But again, think it through. What would it mean to be an apostate from an institution which itself has apostatized? In this sense Elisha ben Abbuyah becomes the model for a grand teshuvah whose contours, as we shall see, are radically paradoxical: RETURN! O BACKSLIDING CHILDREN Today -- to pick up one of those figures used in Hagigah’s attempt to give cautious approval of such rehabilitation for Elisha ben Abbuyah -- Judaism is a shell whose kernel has virtually disappeared. If nothing changes nothing changes. Judaism will implode in upon itself and disappear. If you are able to see the mortal danger into which Judaism has strayed you will be able to garner the imagination to read -- as though for the very first time -- the forthcoming thrice-articulated verse-and-commentary. It was first stated by Hashem to Akher. It was then twice repeated by Akher to Meir. You need to turn the telescope around to understand its true import. Think again of the logic entailed by the apostate who apostatizes from an apostatizing Institution. Just how long will it take for you to get it? Till it’s too late? RETURN! O BACKSLIDING CHILDREN! [whispering for proper effect]: except for Akher It is not “Akher” who needs to return.
About the Author
John W. McGinley resides in the Sovereign State of The Future Pluperfect. There he communes with the ghosts, memories, and joys of his past as well as with the ghosts, memories, and joys of his future.