Purim Fantasies
March 4, 2007
14 Adar 5767
Hag Purim Same’ah! And shalom from Jerusalem.
14 Adar 5767
Although it has been more than a year and a half since Wendy and I made Aliyah, I continue to be enthralled by the fact that we live at the very epicenter of world events. Moreover, being an historian, I am captivated by the confluence of ancient historical events and the stories that break on the front pages of the print media and make the opening reports on the nightly news. And these things are happening right here, right in our own backyard!
Take the latest cause celebre to capture the attention of the entire world…at least for the moment. Tonight (primetime Sunday evening) much of the world will tune in to a documentary on a discovery so world shaking, so startling, so revolutionary that it challenges the very foundations of Christianity itself! And this discovery was made right in my own neighborhood! How do you like that!
According to the producers of this documentary, archaeologists discovered the very tomb of Jesus and his family including his wife Mary (Magdalene) and his son, Judah as well as his mother and brother. Now, that my friends is some discovery!!! And it was found in East Talpiyot, a residential neighborhood in Jerusalem’s southern district. Well, Wendy and I live in North Talpiyot, just a stone’s throw away from this history-making (or, history re-making) discovery. Think of it, if this tomb really is that of Jesus and his family, then there was no resurrection, no Easter, in fact, no Christianity. No wonder Christians all over the world are up in arms over this documentary and the potential damage it could cause. Wow, a regular theological 9/11! Yup, it is really causing quite a stir that’s for sure and the epicenter is right here, incredible.
But, not meaning to spoil all the excitement and hullabaloo, there are a few problems. The “documentary” may be making its debut tonight, but the tomb was discovered twenty years ago. It was uncovered during routine archaeological excavations carried out whenever construction sites reveal any evidence of antiquities. When the East Talpiyot neighborhood was being developed such excavations were conducted and the tomb was revealed, cataloged and that was it…until the documentarians got a hold of it after the “Dan Brown Syndrome” had affected the sense and sensibilities of the world.
Ever since the fantastic success of The Da Vinci Code the public has developed and insatiable appetite for sensationalist quasi-historical proof that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and fathered children. And, because of the financial success of The Da Vinci Code would-be Dan Browns have sought the Holy Grail of gain in promoting such fantasies wrapped in the sacred mantle of “historical proofs.” And now, archaeology, Israel’s respected historical tool, is brought to bear as evidence that fantasies are facts.
It doesn’t seem to matter to all those curious masses wantonly waiting by their plasma TV’s that none of the archaeologists who actually discovered the tomb agree with the ridiculous claims made by the producers of the fake-u-mentary. That doesn’t seem to daunt the docu-deceivers; they display evidence of ossuaries bearing the names of Jesus, Mary, Mary (one, ostensibly Magdalene, the other, the mother of Jesus), Joseph, Judah son of Jesus, etc. —all “proving” that the tomb was the tomb of Jesus and his family. If this sounds convincing, it ignores (or at least overlooks) the nature of ancient Jewish burial customs in the first and second centuries of the Common Era.
In those times tombs were shared by generations of a clan. A body was placed in a burial niche in a cave (natural or carved from the limestone rock). When the next person required occupancy in the niche, the former tenant’s bones—by now cleaned of flesh by exposure to the elements and flesh-eating creepy crawlers—were placed in a personal ossuary housed in the tomb along with others from the clan. Thus, it would be difficult to tell if ossuaries found in the same tomb were from one generation or several. Given that the names on the ossuaries found at the excavation in East Talpiyot are some of the most common names in Jewish tradition, it is almost impossible to identify them or their exact relationship to each other, except to say that they were most likely from the same clan. So much for exacting scientific and historical proof that the tomb was that of Jesus and his family.
It seems that the makers of the documentary were not interested in facts getting in the way of a good story, but such is the nature of fantasy, isn’t it? And anyway, this is the season of fantasy—it’s Purim!
Purim celebrates fantasy…we dress up in make-believe costumes, pretending to be people that we are not. We hide behind masks, allowing us to display outrageous behavior that we would not dare at any other time, safe in the realization that it’s just once a year.
We recall the Purim story and the ancient threat to our people by the villainous Haman retold in the Book of Esther. Haman was an Aggagite, a descendant of Amalek the ancient enemy of the Jews. Interesting, here was Haman, an Amalekite, trying to pass himself off as a loyal Persian so as to call into question the loyalty of the Jews—evil masquerading as good to work its mischief.
Hmmm, history does, it seem, repeat itself. Here we have the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Persian this time, a Muslim masquerading as the champion of the Arab Middle East, again bent on the destruction of the Jews (or, at least by his own admission, the Jewish State of Israel). Once again, evil masquerading as good to achieve its mischief, weaving fantasies and lies (denying the Holocaust, blaming all the problems of the Middle East on the existence of Israel) into a distorted perversion of the truth. Time will tell if Ahmadinejad’s fantasies will bring about his downfall as they did Haman before him. History indeed seems to repeat itself. I wonder if we will find an Esther to save us this time?
If we do, we’d better not look to her namesake, our own infamous Esther…Esterina Tratman, number two in the Israel Beiteinu party, member of the Knesset, erstwhile candidate for Minister of Tourism and resident voice of racism in the Knesset. It seems that little Esterina is no stranger to the siren’s lure of fantasy and its corrupting influences. Ever since her appearance on the political scene, she was touted by her party and by its star, Avigdor Lieberman for her financial acumen and her managerial background backed by academic credentials including both bachelors and masters degrees in economics and business. Well, as it turns out, the mendacious matron failed to mention that she never enrolled in either Bar Ilan University or Hebrew University as previously claimed or ever earned a bachelors degree let alone a masters…it was all, well, a fantasy. But, instead of fessing up to her fictions, she lashed out at the media for conducting a witch-hunt and for smearing her because the “liberal media” disagreed with her political views. Yeah, right.
Fantasy is a wonderful thing, it allows us to break away from the confines of our super ego-controlled conformity and let our imaginative selves soar a bit. We need fantasy to add leavening to our imaginations, to spark our creativity, to inspire and to excite us. But fantasy left unfettered by reality can be destructive, it can be downright evil.
Purim is great. In fact, most people don’t understand that Purim is needed more by adults than by children. Children have a natural gift for fantasy and make-believe. Children have no qualms about being creative, about painting a sky green or pretending to be a lion for a while. It’s adults who’ve allowed themselves to forget fantasy who really need Purim, but every day can’t be Purim.
The problem with people like the makers of the film about Jesus’ tomb, Ahmadinejab and Esterina Tratman is that they let fantasy take over when reality stares them coldly in the face and they refuse to see it. For them, they can’t remove the Purim mask; maybe they don’t think that it is a mask. And that is their tragedy.
So, go ahead, enjoy Purim, have fun, drink a little, fantasize but remember to take off your mask!
Take the latest cause celebre to capture the attention of the entire world…at least for the moment. Tonight (primetime Sunday evening) much of the world will tune in to a documentary on a discovery so world shaking, so startling, so revolutionary that it challenges the very foundations of Christianity itself! And this discovery was made right in my own neighborhood! How do you like that!
According to the producers of this documentary, archaeologists discovered the very tomb of Jesus and his family including his wife Mary (Magdalene) and his son, Judah as well as his mother and brother. Now, that my friends is some discovery!!! And it was found in East Talpiyot, a residential neighborhood in Jerusalem’s southern district. Well, Wendy and I live in North Talpiyot, just a stone’s throw away from this history-making (or, history re-making) discovery. Think of it, if this tomb really is that of Jesus and his family, then there was no resurrection, no Easter, in fact, no Christianity. No wonder Christians all over the world are up in arms over this documentary and the potential damage it could cause. Wow, a regular theological 9/11! Yup, it is really causing quite a stir that’s for sure and the epicenter is right here, incredible.
But, not meaning to spoil all the excitement and hullabaloo, there are a few problems. The “documentary” may be making its debut tonight, but the tomb was discovered twenty years ago. It was uncovered during routine archaeological excavations carried out whenever construction sites reveal any evidence of antiquities. When the East Talpiyot neighborhood was being developed such excavations were conducted and the tomb was revealed, cataloged and that was it…until the documentarians got a hold of it after the “Dan Brown Syndrome” had affected the sense and sensibilities of the world.
Ever since the fantastic success of The Da Vinci Code the public has developed and insatiable appetite for sensationalist quasi-historical proof that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and fathered children. And, because of the financial success of The Da Vinci Code would-be Dan Browns have sought the Holy Grail of gain in promoting such fantasies wrapped in the sacred mantle of “historical proofs.” And now, archaeology, Israel’s respected historical tool, is brought to bear as evidence that fantasies are facts.
It doesn’t seem to matter to all those curious masses wantonly waiting by their plasma TV’s that none of the archaeologists who actually discovered the tomb agree with the ridiculous claims made by the producers of the fake-u-mentary. That doesn’t seem to daunt the docu-deceivers; they display evidence of ossuaries bearing the names of Jesus, Mary, Mary (one, ostensibly Magdalene, the other, the mother of Jesus), Joseph, Judah son of Jesus, etc. —all “proving” that the tomb was the tomb of Jesus and his family. If this sounds convincing, it ignores (or at least overlooks) the nature of ancient Jewish burial customs in the first and second centuries of the Common Era.
In those times tombs were shared by generations of a clan. A body was placed in a burial niche in a cave (natural or carved from the limestone rock). When the next person required occupancy in the niche, the former tenant’s bones—by now cleaned of flesh by exposure to the elements and flesh-eating creepy crawlers—were placed in a personal ossuary housed in the tomb along with others from the clan. Thus, it would be difficult to tell if ossuaries found in the same tomb were from one generation or several. Given that the names on the ossuaries found at the excavation in East Talpiyot are some of the most common names in Jewish tradition, it is almost impossible to identify them or their exact relationship to each other, except to say that they were most likely from the same clan. So much for exacting scientific and historical proof that the tomb was that of Jesus and his family.
It seems that the makers of the documentary were not interested in facts getting in the way of a good story, but such is the nature of fantasy, isn’t it? And anyway, this is the season of fantasy—it’s Purim!
Purim celebrates fantasy…we dress up in make-believe costumes, pretending to be people that we are not. We hide behind masks, allowing us to display outrageous behavior that we would not dare at any other time, safe in the realization that it’s just once a year.
We recall the Purim story and the ancient threat to our people by the villainous Haman retold in the Book of Esther. Haman was an Aggagite, a descendant of Amalek the ancient enemy of the Jews. Interesting, here was Haman, an Amalekite, trying to pass himself off as a loyal Persian so as to call into question the loyalty of the Jews—evil masquerading as good to work its mischief.
Hmmm, history does, it seem, repeat itself. Here we have the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Persian this time, a Muslim masquerading as the champion of the Arab Middle East, again bent on the destruction of the Jews (or, at least by his own admission, the Jewish State of Israel). Once again, evil masquerading as good to achieve its mischief, weaving fantasies and lies (denying the Holocaust, blaming all the problems of the Middle East on the existence of Israel) into a distorted perversion of the truth. Time will tell if Ahmadinejad’s fantasies will bring about his downfall as they did Haman before him. History indeed seems to repeat itself. I wonder if we will find an Esther to save us this time?
If we do, we’d better not look to her namesake, our own infamous Esther…Esterina Tratman, number two in the Israel Beiteinu party, member of the Knesset, erstwhile candidate for Minister of Tourism and resident voice of racism in the Knesset. It seems that little Esterina is no stranger to the siren’s lure of fantasy and its corrupting influences. Ever since her appearance on the political scene, she was touted by her party and by its star, Avigdor Lieberman for her financial acumen and her managerial background backed by academic credentials including both bachelors and masters degrees in economics and business. Well, as it turns out, the mendacious matron failed to mention that she never enrolled in either Bar Ilan University or Hebrew University as previously claimed or ever earned a bachelors degree let alone a masters…it was all, well, a fantasy. But, instead of fessing up to her fictions, she lashed out at the media for conducting a witch-hunt and for smearing her because the “liberal media” disagreed with her political views. Yeah, right.
Fantasy is a wonderful thing, it allows us to break away from the confines of our super ego-controlled conformity and let our imaginative selves soar a bit. We need fantasy to add leavening to our imaginations, to spark our creativity, to inspire and to excite us. But fantasy left unfettered by reality can be destructive, it can be downright evil.
Purim is great. In fact, most people don’t understand that Purim is needed more by adults than by children. Children have a natural gift for fantasy and make-believe. Children have no qualms about being creative, about painting a sky green or pretending to be a lion for a while. It’s adults who’ve allowed themselves to forget fantasy who really need Purim, but every day can’t be Purim.
The problem with people like the makers of the film about Jesus’ tomb, Ahmadinejab and Esterina Tratman is that they let fantasy take over when reality stares them coldly in the face and they refuse to see it. For them, they can’t remove the Purim mask; maybe they don’t think that it is a mask. And that is their tragedy.
So, go ahead, enjoy Purim, have fun, drink a little, fantasize but remember to take off your mask!
Hag Purim Same’ah! And shalom from Jerusalem.
posted by RSJD at 12:48 PM
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