Unscrolled : 54 Writers and Artists Wrestle With the Torah (9780761178743)

by Bennett, Roger (EDT)

  The Lord commands Moses to instruct the Israelites to offer up gifts of gold, silver, and copper, plus other, more exotic fineries like tanned ram skins and goats’ hair. Instructions are then provided for the building of a dazzling Tabernacle—a house of the Lord that will allow God to dwell among the Israelites. The Tabernacle is to be covered with a fine linen curtain, blue, purple, and crimson in color.

  The Lord then dictates exact specifications: the raw materials (acacia wood), ornamentation (including cherubim and dolphin skins), and detailed dimensions. The Tabernacle will also house the Ark of the Covenant, containing the stone commandments God has carved. It will also provide God and Moses with a meeting place, where they can discuss the governance of the Israelites.

  Marc Kushner

  “Make sacral vestments for your brother, Aaron, for dignity and adornment.” —Exodus 28:2

  T’TZAVVEH (“You command”)

  Exodus 27:20–30:10

  Priestly style: Moses’ mountaintop encounter with God continues as the Tabernacle design is further detailed. The Lord reveals speci- fications for the lights, which Aaron and his sons are to ensure burn night and day. Their priestly uniforms are also described. Aprons made of blue, purple, and crimson linen yarns will be worn with breastplates engraved with twelve gemstones for the twelve tribes, plus tunics, sashes, and headdresses.

  Aaron’s breastplate will also contain “Urim and Thummim,” two mysterious objects that are thought to be “light and perfection.” But his robe is functional as well as ornamental: Bells woven into it will ring out before him and warn off harm, serving as a reminder that the Tabernacle is a place rife with danger.

  The consecration

  Aaron’s sons are to be clothed, given turbans, and anointed as priests. Their consecration ceremony will include the offering of a young bull, two unblemished rams, and some unleavened bread and cakes. After Aaron and his sons are washed in front of the Tent of Meeting and then dressed, the bull will be slaughtered at the entrance and its blood poured on the altar while its organs are burned. One ram will suffer the same fate. The blood of the second is to be dabbed on the priests’ right ears, right thumbs, and right big toes, and then poured against the altar. Afterward, the altar blood is to be splashed on the priests’ clothing, making them holy.

  The fat parts of the ram are then to be put onto the palms of the priests, along with the bread and cakes, before being burned as a gift to the Lord. The entire ordination will take seven days.

  The daily sacrifice cycle is also outlined: two lambs a day—one in the morning, one at twilight—alongside an altar for burning aromatic incense.

  Mark Lamster

  on the line with god’s tailor

  “If we’re telling client horror stories, I’ve got an all-time classic for you.”

  “Spill.”

  “Okay. So it’s a cold January morning, totally forgettable day, and some guy in a cape and sandals bursts through the door and starts barking at Sheila—he’s got a voice like a thunderclap—and it’s her first week and she’s already in tears before I can get my fabric guy from Hong Kong off the line.”

  “Oy.”

  “Oy is right. So I rush over and I’m like, ‘Welcome to Murray’s Wholesale Fashions, how may I help you?’ And the guy looks at me like I’m some kind of cockroach and says, ‘I come with an order from the Lord.’”

  “No.”

  “Yes. Now ordinarily I kick a guy like this right out on his tuchas, but this one . . . Something seems different. That cape has gold thread running through it, and not the imitation stuff. So somehow I keep it together. ‘Okay,’ I tell him. ‘We’re used to demanding clients here at Murray’s. But maybe you could start by telling me your name?’ And he says, ‘Moses.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, Moses, what exactly is your Lord looking for?’ And it turns out they need to outfit all the priests for their spectacular new temple.”

  “Gold mine.”

  “Exactly what I’m thinking. But then he starts telling me about these priestly vestments, which have some very, shall we say, esoteric instructions. Crazy ostentatious. The taste level, if I may be frank, is fresh off the boat.”

  “Go on.”

  “Do you know what an ephod is? No? I didn’t either. Turns out it’s kind of like a smock, but a holy version. So he tells me he needs an ephod, and he needs it to be in linen, and it needs to be gold, blue, purple, and scarlet, with gold-braid shoulder straps, a blue cape, and a pair of onyx stones in gold settings engraved with the tribes of Israel. Oh, and there’s jewels everywhere. Emeralds, sapphires, beryl, agate, jasper, carnelian—and on and on.”

  “Oh my God.”

  “Exactly. It’s waaaaay too much. So I wonder suggestively if maybe he’d like something a bit more . . . restrained? A more subtle palette? Some cool tones to set off the bling?”

  “And?”

  “Big mistake. He just gives me a death glare and continues. You can’t imagine. The whole getup is like something drawn from the mind of a six-year-old girl: a train wreck of colors and jewels and every gaudy thing you can imagine. The only thing missing is a pink pony, and he probably has one of those on order. Flat-out bonkers.”

  “Maybe someone slipped something into his manna.”

  “Who knows? But what can you do? The customer is always right, and we’d make a few extra shekels, so why argue? So I don’t. Then, when he’s finished giving me the whole order, I add up the figures and, let me tell you, it’s a big number. I read it to him and he nods approvingly, looks me straight in the eye, and says, ‘This is for the Lord, so of course there will be no charge.’ Just like that. Matter-of-fact.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “What am I, meshugenah? I told him I’d knock off twenty percent and he can either take it or go wander the desert for another forty years, his choice. So we made the sale. And that’s how I got my place in Boca.”

  “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, ‘Come, make us a god who shall go before us, for that man Moses, who brought us from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.’” —Exodus 32:1

  KI TISSA (“When you take”)

  Exodus 30:11–34:35

  The Lord tells moses to take a census of his people, so that each person over the age of twenty can pay a half-shekel offering to the Lord—a gift that will defend them against disease while providing funds for the maintenance and operation of the sanctuary. The priestly rules for washing before approaching the Tabernacle are detailed, along with the correct recipe for the aromatic oil that should be burned (it’s a complex creation of myrrh, fragrant cinnamon, aromatic cane, cassia, and olive oil). The composition of the priestly incense is also spelled out; it shall consist of herbs and frankincense.

  God’s artist

  Then God reveals that Bezalel, of the tribe of Judah, has been selected to be endowed with divinely inspired artistic skill. Working with gold, silver, copper, stone, and wood, Bezalel is to execute the designs for the Tabernacle, its furnishings, and the priestly clothing.

  The Lord then orders Moses to reinforce the centrality of the Sabbath: Anyone breaking it is to be put to death. The covenant is then proffered, written on two tablets by the finger of God.

  Idle idol

  Back down at the foot of the mountain, the people have become concerned about Moses’ extended absence. Fearing him lost, they surround Aaron and pressure him to construct a god they can worship. Aaron orders them to gather up their gold jewelry. He then casts the collection in a mold and forges it into a calf. The people begin to worship the idol as if it is the force that delivered them from Egypt, feasting and dancing around it in celebration.

  A disgruntled God monitors the situation and commands Moses to hurry down the mountain, lambasting the Israelites as “stiff-nec
ked” or stubborn. The Lord’s immediate impulse is to destroy them, but Moses counsels caution, urging God to think what pleasure the annihilation of the Israelites will bring the Egyptians. He reinforces this message by reminding God of the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

  As Moses descends, Joshua wonders if they are hearing the sounds of war emanating from the Israelites’ camp. Moses knows better, suggesting it is neither triumph nor defeat they hear, but more the sound of song. But once they come closer and Moses glimpses the celebration and dancing, he is unable to contain his fury, hurling down the tablets and shattering them before burning down the calf, grinding it into powder, mixing it with water, and forcing the people to drink it.

  Moses confronts Aaron, demanding to know what has clouded his brother’s judgment. Aaron defends himself by blaming humanity’s predilection for doing evil. Recognizing the extent to which the Israelites are out of control and the extent of the physical threat they pose, Moses stands by the camp’s gate and asks anyone who remains on God’s side to rally to him. The Levites walk over, and he orders them to pull out their short swords and take revenge on the ringleaders. Their response is immediate: Three thousand of their fellows are massacred.

  Forgive and forget?

  With order now restored, Moses addresses the people the following day, outlining the process through which they can gain forgiveness. He then approaches the Lord and says that the people will be forgiven or he will quit the entire divine project. God decides that Moses will continue leading the people, but he should let them know that sinners will receive their punishment in due time. Indeed, a plague soon descends on the people as retribution for their calf-­worshipping ways.

  Then the Lord tells Moses to continue the journey, restating the covenant; however, God will no longer travel in the people’s midst, not wanting to be tempted to destroy them if provoked by their stubborn behavior. An angel will now lead them as they begin to drive enemy tribes out of the land.

  The people are upset by this news, so Moses asks God how he will be guided through the wilderness. He demands to learn more about the Lord’s true nature, suggesting it would be better not to set foot on the journey than to be left without God’s leadership. Moses then asks God to offer a full-frontal revelation, to which the Lord agrees.

  Because a human cannot survive seeing God’s face, the Lord instructs Moses to place himself on a rock so he will be shielded in a crevice as the flyby occurs. Moses carves the covenant onto two replacement stones and ascends the mountain. The Lord descends in a cloud. Moses proclaims God’s name, and as the Lord passes by him, exclaims, “The Lord, The Lord, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and good faith, kind to the thousandth generation, forgiving crime, transgression, and sin, yet willing to visit punishment of parents upon their children and descendants up to the third and fourth generation.”

  Once Moses has begged for forgiveness on behalf of the Israelites, God restates the covenant and promises to work wonders on their behalf. The Israelites will destroy every tribe that confronts them, because God is a jealous force. The Israelites are reminded that they cannot craft idols of their own, and are commanded to maintain the Festival of Unleavened Bread, dedicate their firstborn to God, keep the Sabbath, and maintain the Harvest Festival and the Festival of Ingathering.

  Moses is on the mountaintop for forty days and nights, during which he does not eat or drink. He descends with the commandments on the tablets, unaware that God’s presence has made his skin glow. The radiance makes Aaron and the leadership afraid to come near him, but Moses calls them back and tells them all that God has instructed. After that, he begins to wear a veil, taking it off only to consult with the Lord.

  Rich Cohen

  Everything you’ve heard about the golden calf is wrong. For starters, it was not a calf. It was more like a pig, with a snout nose and fiery eyes, like a god of yore, but then, later, swine were made verboten. But not yet; remember, this happened long before Deuteronomy had been written. Second, this idea that in making the thing I was transgressing or violating, behaving like a moron who did not understand that it was He of the unsayable name, He who wrestled Jacob in the desert as the moon wept, who freed us, well, that is another untruth. I knew and loved God, but I did what I did because my brother left me in the desert with about 600,000 newly freed, utterly psychotic slaves while he went into the mountains to “figure a few things out.”

  When you go away like that, how long are you usually gone? For me, it’s hours. If I’m gone more than a day, my wife calls the cops and the neighbors start combing the weeds along the running path to see if I’ve dropped dead of a heart attack or cut my own throat. Moses was gone three weeks before the people boiled over and started demanding an answer, a plan, a way to relieve all that accumulated suffering. And remember who I was dealing with! This was a mob! At first, I said, “No, no, Moses will be back.” But finally, when it was do something or let them riot and kill one another, I decided to act. What the hell? Let’s make an idol, as of old. A calf? No, a swine, which was my way of adding a subtext.

  On one level, it’s a tchotchke like back in Egypt, whereas on another it’s an admonition. It tells the people, You’re behaving like pigs. And this notion, written into the book of Exodus thousands of years later by people with their own agendas, that the Israelites bowed before it as if it were God? Not true! The golden calf—I will call it that, as that’s how it’s become known—was a symbol, a way of concentrating the brain, giving the people something to look at as they worshipped the pillar of smoke or fire they followed in the desert. (And what is a pillar of smoke or fire if not another kind of symbol?) Why? Because they needed it. Moses had left, God was talking to someone else, and they needed a rail to hold.

  That’s what I gave them. So I reject the notion that we were worshipping a foreign god. We were worshipping the One God via One Calf. The real issue was the matter of creating idols. We did do that. We were worshipping with the aid of an icon, and it’s a sin. It’s also about the hardest demand of our faith. Cleanse your mind of images, leave it open to nothing, thus everything. Nearly impossible! Just look how image-filled the Jewish and Christian world is even today! And these were the first people told to do it. But here’s the key: They had not been told yet. You’ve got me in your books for violating a law that had yet to be written! I think, in your country, you’re protected by an ex post facto law. You can’t be charged for breaking a rule if that rule did not exist when you broke it. When I built the calf, Moses was still up the mountain. There were no commandments, no law forbidding what I was doing. So condemn me, but please notice how God never did so. The priests come from me; I was the first of the line, the father of vestments. If you don’t believe it, check your New York phone book and count the number of Cohens. So add me to that list of those Jews condemned for doing what had to be done. And, by the way, and this is the last thing, I neither looked nor talked anything like Edward G. Robinson. I was in fact a very decent-looking man.

  “And Moses said to the Israelites: See, the Lord has singled out by name Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.” —Exodus 35:30

  VA-YAK·HEL (“And he assembled”)

  Exodus 35:1–38:20

  Building by committee: Moses assembles the entire Israelite community, and lectures them as God has commanded. He demands they keep the Sabbath, describes the gifts—from gold to dolphin skins—that God desires, and invites skilled craftsmen to volunteer to build the Tabernacle.

  The Israelites donate their finery, making a collection of the gold, earrings, pendants, yarns, linens, and even dolphin skins. Moses then announces the elevation of Bezalel, who has been endowed with a divine mastery of every craft. He is to oversee every Tabernacle detail, from construction to clothing design.

  The Tabernacle begins as a tent covered with ram and dolphin skins; then acacia-wood planks are crafted to form the Tabe
rnacle, which is overlaid with gold.

  Curtains of blue, purple, and crimson yarns are cut and hooked onto gold and silver sockets.

  Bezalel is at the center of it all: carving tables; forging lamp stands; shaping cups, moldings, and altars; and constructing a huge enclosure cloaked in ornate hanging.

  Ross Martin

  Early Report Card Offers Insights into Artistic Inspiration

  ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP)

  A professor of archaeology at Washington University yesterday announced the discovery of a small stone tablet that he says originates from 1440 b.c. If his claim is true, the tablet dates from a time when biblical tradition says Moses received the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai, in Egypt.

  According to Stuart Newman, Ph.D., whose team of students made the discovery, the stone block contains text that may cast light on early Jewish attitudes toward artistic creation.

  The size of a notebook, it has an inscription chiseled in a dialect of ancient Hebrew. Although some of the inscription has been obscured by the passage of millennia, the majority of the text is still visible, preserved by the Sinai desert. According to Dr. Newman, the text appears to be an academic review of a craftsman named Bezalel. It is an ancient version of a contemporary report card.

  If authenticated, the tablet may be the first physical evidence ever of a character mentioned in the Bible. In Exodus, God selects Bezalel—along with another laborer, Oholiab—to create the first Tabernacle, to house the Ark of the Covenant. The text follows: “I have endowed him with a divine spirit of skill, ability, and knowledge in every kind of craft.” After his selection, Bezalel came to represent the prototypical artist in Jewish tradition (a popular school of art in Israel now bears his name).