Moses freed his people from the Egyptian Pharaoh by unleashing Ten Plagues. The last one killed the first-born son of every family without lamb’s blood on their doorway. The murderous god Yahweh was spiteful and had the Jews wandering in the desert for 40 years until they reached the Promised Land. Their path to Canaan was sodden with the blood of anyone in their path. It all seemed much more holy in the movie THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, but Moses was denied entrance to the land of Milk and Honey, because he had not circumcised his son.
This summer I rode my bike through Williamsburg. The Hassidim had built temporary shelters outside on the streets and patios as a remainder of those forty years in the desert. One humorist joked about this lengthy meandering.
Why was Moses wandering through the desert for 40 years?
Because the men refuse to ask for directions!
The Jews were exiled from Israel twice. The first time by the Babylonians and secondly after the Romans defeated the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 AD. The Chosen People covered the globe seeking solace from persecution. The Nazis massacres convinced the Jews to regain their biblical homeland citing the Old Testament as their claim to Palestine. The Western allies backed their struggle and the UN mandate created Israel in 1948 by forcing the Palestinians into the desert .
Wars and uprising and negotiations have failed to secure a stable state for the Palestinians, the ancestors of Abraham’s second wife, Hagar and her son Ishmael, who were vanquished from the camp by Abraham’s jealous first wife.
A good example of life imitating the Bible.
But even the desert is not safe for the Palestinians.
The moratorium against Israeli settlements in the West Bank has lapsed after a ten-month building freeze. Zionist radicals have vowed to build on the ancient lands without any regard to Palestinian property rights.
Trouble in the making.
But the settlers have Yahweh on their side and he is a vengeful god.
There are no jokes in the Bible.
Only in real life, such as a Palestinian suspect was being grilled by Israeli police and protesting to the Shin Bet, “Honest, I’m not a suicide bomber,” he said. “I didn’t say I wanted to blow myself up so I could sleep with 72 virgins. All I said was I’m dying to get laid!”