Jewish Odysseus: WE SHALL OVERCOME...

Monday, March 15, 2010

WE SHALL OVERCOME...

Jacob's dream on Mount Moriah: Does this heritage really mean nothing?

It looks as if the Jerusalem Police have again chose to grovel to Moslem hate-mongers, and will refuse to allow the planned ascent of the Temple Mount on March 16, Rosh Chodesh Nisan. Can't let wild-eyed Jooooooo-hating jihadis get upset by the ohhh-so-offensive spectacle of Jews praying on the Temple Mount, can we? IN PUBLIC, no less!

Rabbi Richman has responded with a riveting essay that invites comparison to Mordechai's "loud and bitter cry" in the Book of Esther (4:1). In it he demands:

Isn't it time we take a look at who we are, where we come from, and where we are going? How long can we continue to abandon the holiest place we have? How long will we allow others to tell us that our intention to build a house in Jerusalem, or to claim our forefather's tombs as our own, or to pray on the Temple Mount, is extremism? If our presence, our history, and our prayers are all obstacles to peace, what have we to look forward to?

For such a smart man, Bibi Netanyahu and his advisers are doing something very foolish. Let's pray they change their minds by tomorrow.

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The Odyssey by Homer, Chapter 21:

For long Odysseus stood with the bow in his hands, handling it as a minstrel handles a lyre when he stretches a cord or tightens a peg. Then he bent the great bow; he bent it without an effort, and at his touch the bow-string made a sound that was like the cry of a swallow. The wooers seeing him bend that mighty bow felt, every man of them, a sharp pain at the heart. They saw Odysseus take up an arrow and fit it to the string. He held the notch, and he drew the string, and he shot the bronze-weighted arrow straight through the holes in the back of the axe-heads. Then as Eumæus took up the axes, and brought them outside, he said, ‘Thou seest, lord Telemachus, that thy guest does not shame thee through foolish boasting. I have bent the bow of Odysseus, and I have shot the arrow aright. But now it is time to provide the feast for the lords who woo thy lady mother. While it is yet light, the feast must be served to them, and with the feast they must have music and the dance.’ Saying this he nodded to Telemachus, bending his terrible brows. Telemachus instantly girt his sword upon him and took his spear in his hand. Outside was heard the thunder of Zeus. And now Odysseus had stripped his rags from him and was standing upright, looking a master of men. The mighty bow was in his hands, and at his feet were scattered many bronze-weighted arrows.