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The vicissitudes of the Jewish mind in search of a pattern of life has influenced Western history to modern times.
What was the real story of the Jews?
We know that they settled in Egypt during the chaos of the Egyptian Second Intermediate Period, between 1788 B.C. and 1580 B.C., probably having followed the Hyksos, another Semitic people.
The history of the Jews begins with the Exodus.
The Exodus was a great myth, a popular wishful interpretation of some true facts of history. The true facts can be deduced, however, from the mythical explanation.
In order to understand the start of Jewish history better, we must remember that the establishment of the New Kingdom brought a changed atmosphere to Egypt. She became more aggressive and more xenophobic than ever, her nationalism increasing with the foreign occupation. Ahmose, King of Thebes, before he started to liberate Upper Egypt and the Delta, promised a vendetta against even Egyptians who had collaborated with the enemy. The Jews either escaped through fear of the vendetta, leaving everything behind, or were thrown out into the desert by the Egyptians. Whichever the case, the Jews considered this a major humiliation. This humiliation produced a change in the life and religion of the Jews.
I have already stated that a single omnipotent god is the last resort for a humiliated and lost mind. All peoples, when they become too tired to compete, or when they have been beaten, surrender to a paternal and mighty god and his commandments. In other words they revert to a man-made infancy protected by an idealized father.
The Jews, deluded and humiliated, invented Jehovah, inspired, probably, by the Egyptian god Aton. The first commandment issued by Jehovah was: "Thou shalt have no other god but me." This commandment wiped out the entire past from the Jewish mind. Jehovah created a new past, a past which existed even before the Jewish people existed. Jehovah even created things that existed before him. This lack of reason only underlines the uncontrolled rage which the Jewish adolescent mind was experiencing as a result of the expulsion from Egypt.
Jehovah started a dangerous precedent which all new gods and dictators repeated after him: the invention of a new past.
Only the tragedy of expulsion, the humiliation that all Jews shared, could have created national unity under a national god. The Jews accepted Jehovah as the God of Israel.
The fact that the Jews either escaped from Egypt in fear of Egyptian vindictiveness, or were victims of it, can be deduced from Jehovah's main characteristic: vindictiveness against the enemies of Israel. If the story of the Exodus, as told in the Bible, were true, Jehovah would he a happy and generous God, sure of himself and convinced of always being able to outwit the enemy.
That the Exodus was a humiliation, an escape or an expulsion, can be deduced from the popular rage behind the following two verses in Chapter 14 of Exodus: "And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left" . . . "And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. There remained not so much as one of them." These two verses are illogical: the illogic of rage. Whoever performed the miracle of parting the waves would never have closed it over the heads of the enemy. A successful performer thrives on admiration, applause, and awe. Any successful god would have closed the sea just before the Egyptians entered it, reveling in their astonishment, applause, and cheers. Nothing satisfies a god more than to convert the enemy into worshipers and admirers.
If the second verse had never been invented, many persecutions of the Jews might have been prevented. Belief in the vindictiveness of a god provokes the persecution of his believers. Belief in the vindictiveness of a god creates arrogance in his believers. The vindictiveness of Jehovah, rooted in the expulsion of the Jews from Egypt, caused a pattern of expulsions throughout Jewish history. This is the sort of paradox that the human mind typically creates. The mind is blind to paradoxes; it loves them; it creates them.
Who is Jehovah?
Jehovah is the god of an exhausted collective mind, a mind which doubts itself. Jehovah is a dictator, a law giver. Jehovah not only gave the law, he gave a written law; and not only a written law but an eternal and immutable law. It was more than a law - it was a series of commandments; yet another evidence of the anger the Jews felt within themselves for their fate. The commandments imply contempt, a low opinion of the commanded. Jehovah gave the Jews no choice or freedom to act. When the Jews had had freedom they had had many gods, but they were unable to unite and were expelled from Egypt.
Commandments were to be obeyed and only Jehovah had the power to enforce them. "'Vengance in mine,' said the Lord." The vindictiveness which led the Jews to flee Egypt became God's main weapon in enforcing the commandments.
The Lord's commandments, compared with Mesopotamian laws, were obeyed for fear of vindictiveness, not for fear of justice. Breaking positive laws was a crime punished in proportion to the crime; breaking the commandments was a sin, punished vindictively, and out of proportion. Only fear of this punishment could prevent sin. Unlike crime, sin is a natural inclination. "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom." This became the motto of all omnipotent gods and dictators. Other gods and dictators, like Our Lord in the Bible, will "take pleasure in them that fear Him."
There is no rational explanation for the commandments. One cannot discuss them or question their true meaning. They do not emanate from speculation, but from revelation. Revelation emerges from the ashes of speculation. Revelation is the hope of a blind mind, blinded by impotence or rage.
The final result of the speculations of the mind concerning the human pattern of life is the "oughts." Revelation imposes commandments. The "oughts" become "thou shalt," or what is even more categorically imperative: "Thou shalt not."
In the Jewish people we find the glorification of obedience, the obedience of an abstract god's law. Here lies evidence that man had no innate pattern of behavior, that he had the instinct neither for preservation of the species nor for self-preservation. Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Isaac, in order to obey his god proves this. A Jew will never break the following three commandments, even to save his life: those that deal with worshiping false gods or committing murder or adultery.
The Jews accepted Jehovah's authority and promised to obey his commandments in exchange for Jehovah's promise to treat Israel as a special case and the Jews as the Chosen People.
Between the Jews and Jehovah, as between any other peoples and their gods, there was a pact. The god promised protection in exchange for worship. Every god has his "chosen people"; it is the people who choose him as their only god.
Who invented the revelation?
The prophets. The prophets were representatives of the vox populi, the feelings of the masses. The commandments, once given, were there to be kept. Whenever the commandments were broken, a prophet rose to interpret the feelings of the weakest element of the community, pleading with the sinner to return to the way of life of the majority, the mediocre. To the weaker elements, breaking the commandments meant a return to pre-commandment times, times when the stronger ruled the weak.
The prophets were the mouthpiece of Jehovah; "And the Lord said unto me, 'behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.'" Or "Thus spake Jehovah." These were the preludes to the prophecies.
How did the prophets envisage the Lord?
Isaiah's description demonstrates the exalted state of mind in which he saw God. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. About it stood the Seraphims: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly."
The prophets' public condemnation of sins or sinners was inspired by a fear of returning to the phase of pre-paternal infancy. The accusations were usually against inequality, against those who were more successful, against those who rose above mediocrity.
What infuriated the masses most was that those who sacrificed themselves by keeping the law often ended in misery, and those who disregarded morality, those evildoers who prospered at the expense of naive peasants, enjoyed a life of luxury. The envy and jealousy of the masses invoked the vindictiveness of God against the wicked, trying to intimidate them into returning to the fold. In the Bible there is much emphasis on intimidation. "The lion hath roared, who will not fear." These are the words of the prophet Amos. . . "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Isaiah identified the victim of God when he said: "And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his Majesty." The wicked are hated most. God will turn "upside down the way of the wicked," we read in Psalm 146, and in Psalm 147 "The Lord lifteth up the weak; He casteth the wicked down to the ground."
When the prophets saw that public accusation was not bringing results, they started prophesying doom and catastrophe for Israel, in order to increase the fear of God, revive morality, and organize life more fairly. Predictions of doom were merely intended to increase the fear of God, but it was a terrible surprise when doom and catastrophe actually did strike. With the advent of this tragedy the prophets were confronted with a real problem. There was nothing left with which to enforce law and the commandments; nothing with which to frighten the sinners. The maximum punishment had all ready been administered.
After the Assyrian conquest of Israel and the Jewish deportation to Babylon, a significant change took place. The human mind discovered another abstract solution: Messianism. "I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel . . . and David, my servant shall be king over them," thundered the voice of Jehovah, spoken through his prophet Ezekiel.
What inspired the human mind with this concept? The Jews "were in a "savannah" leading a life of provisoire, waiting to be led back to the woodlands, to the "Kingdom of David."
The "Day of Jehovah," was no longer a day of doom and catastrophe but the beginning of the "Kingdom of God," a realm of glory and eternal happiness. In the "Kingdom of the Lord" men "shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." When the Messiah creates the "Kingdom of God," Isaiah prophesies: "the wolf shall also dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fattling together. And a little child shall lead them. . . ."
What was this "Kingdom of God"?
It was the human mind reverting, once again, to infancy; not an infancy protected by the mother; not an infancy protected by a father: it was a newly invented infancy, it was "life with ancestors." The "Kingdom of God" was an idyllic past, the restoration of a primeval stage, a stage lost over the course of history. The "Kingdom of God" was the ghetto of Eden.
What was this Eden? It was a playground where "the Lord dissolves the commandments," where the forbidden will not exist. "Praised be him who permits the forbidden." This was the motto of Sabbataj Zevi's sect in their sexual orgies on Purim Day.
The aspirations of the Jewish mind in the Babylonian exile was the "Kingdom of Jehovah," an idealized life with their ancestors. What ancestors?
The "Day of Jehovah" was the "Day of Judgment" when all ancestors rose from the dead and the righteous lived forever in the realm of eternal bliss. Previously, the "Day of Judgment" had been the day of the "Visitation of Wrath" upon Israel.
At the beginning of the second century B.C., belief in the coming of the Messiah, as prophesied by Ezekiel, was strong.
Only one question disturbed the mind of the Jews. When would the Messiah come? In order to answer this question the Jews tried to introduce some logic into their minds.
The resurrection from the dead and the "Day of Judgment," had to come after the "Kingdom of Jehovah" was formed, in order to have somewhere to place the righteous ones on the "Day of Judgment." The Messiah, therefore, must come before the "Kingdom of Jehovah" in order to organize it. But, and here is a major "but," the arrival of the Messiah must be preceded by the "End of Days," by the end of earthly kingdoms. What could end the earthly kingdoms? Only a catastrophe, a cataclysm, a general tragedy, a moral and economic chaos. We read in the Bible: "Israel speaks to God: 'When will you redeem us?' He answers: 'When you have sunk to the lowest level, at that time will I redeem you.'"
The idea that the arrival of the Messiah had to come after a catastrophe resulting in the "End of Days" provoked a series of apocalyptic prophecies. Messianism created apocalyptism. Redemption could only be obtained on the ashes of the past and present, on the destruction of the world.
From the idea of messianism came utopianism. It is only a short step from an idealized past to an idealized future.
As messianism and utopianism were the supernatural creations of a frustrated mind they will always remain abstract phenomena - unrealistic and unreal. What possible contact could these abstract phenomena have with reality? They could only become the instigators of apocalyptism, of doom and catastrophe. Messianic or utopian ideas inspire messianic or utopian activism, which is nothing but apocalyptic activism. In more simple terms this means that the main aim of any Utopian is to destroy the world in which he lives. The more one sees of the past and present the more one realizes that messianism and utopianism are nothing but "noble lies," to use Plato's ignoble expression, used when he toyed with his Utopia. People who preach messianism and utopianism in reality want the world in which they live to end, the world in which they are frustrated, frustrated in their ambitions and pretensions. They use messianism and utopianism as an excuse. The danger of "noble lies," unlike ordinary lies, is that they succeed in deceiving and seducing the liar, thus breeding aggression.
Extremists of the West today are well aware that their ideas are rejected even in the countries they worship. They are extremists because they want to destroy the world in which they live their frustrated lives.
Stalin was a great connoisseur of utopians. In order to save the revolution he eliminated all revolutionaries.
The God of Israel promised the Jews redemption when "they had sunk to the lowest level."
What was Jehovah's position, this one omnipotent God, when confronted with the connection between sinking and redeeming?
Jehovah obviously wanted his people in his Kingdom as soon as possible. This implies that he had to help them to reach the "lowest level" as fast as possible. This is an example of the absurdity of the human mind. An omnipotent god helps his people to destroy life merely because he is unable to organize a better pattern of life on the level of self-infatuation.
Now we can ask ourselves if the human mind, reaching the idea of messianism, progressed or achieved anything.
Messianism is nothing but hope, hope being merely a product of desperation, desperation caused by the infatuated mind's pretentiousness. The mind knew this, but being capable of deceiving itself, started glorifying hope. The Christians transformed hope into a virtue. Before the idea of messianism, hope was considered a negative attitude. To Hesiod: "Hope was an evil guide for a needy man." "Far-roving hope, though many have comfort of her," stressed Sophocles, "is to many a delusion that wings the dream of love; and he whom she hounds knows nought till he burns his feet against hot fire." Thus we see hope, yet another fuel for the pretentions of the frustrated.
Women and work occupied a low place in male-dominated cultures.
The Jews entered mythology and history as a male-dominated group. In Chapter 3, verse 16 of Genesis we can realize woman's subordinate position in Jewish society. . . "yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
The Jews did not see work as a pleasant or spontaneous activity, even in the Garden of Eden. This comes as no surprise, knowing that the Bible was created by the male mind. "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it," we read in Chapter 2, verse 15 of Genesis. Man is a servant, employed by God, who is a giver of commandments. (Work was demanded.)
After God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, work became His punishment to mankind. In Chapter 3, verse 17, 18, and 19 of Genesis we read: "And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, You shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
How did God execute this punishment?
"Six days you shall labor. . . ." It was a commandment.
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