The Eternal Jew’s Tale, #210, Messiahs, 5 |
In this episode we go east to Isfahan to find redemption.
The Eternal Jew’s Tale Messiah Tractates, a Montage Abu Isa Fragments
In Isfahan during Marwan’s reign (tho which Marwan we don’t know), up rose *Abu Isa*, a Jew who was born as **Eshakh ben Ya’kub.** He was called by the Lor to restore Israel and bring the Truth to the whole world. *-* Hebrew for father of Jesus; **-** Arabic for Isaac son of Jacob
Hear. This one was illiterate and yet declared prophecies. The Lor inspired him directly not by study and memorization, and not by repetition of what he heard, but direct and immediate hearing and knowing of God’s spoken Word. A son of woman, all natural, and yet there is many a true account that when he began to speak to a crowd he towered taller than an ancient oak, his body engulfed in golden flames. Or that there he would sit upon his horse like any man, but then suddenly his horse would neigh, would rear and leap and like an osprey fly him away, circling high and higher still and then returning, gliding to earth and once again clip-clopping in the square.
Persian Jews gloried in him, while Muslims staggered back in awe, and the Byzantines were terrified.
But night tremors undermine his will…
… am I really the precursor?…
and there in the plaza of Rhages, dancing, some sadhus mad in their ecstasies and sipping their foamy elixirs all day…
‘… drink! and you will know the heart of your God…’
He drinks and all his tremors are assuaged. And now, his hearing is amplified…
“I am Moshe come to you to lead you out of these Persian lands. The Persian shah is a pharaoh to you, making you live in fear and servitude. The Persian shah is Haman* to you to bend your knees and idolize him. But once again the Lor is lifting a servant up and anointing him, filling his heart with prophecy. Rise up! Have no fear of shahs. I will protect you, I will lead you, I will take you back to our Land. Now see, I draw a star on the ground. Whoever stands inside this star will be invincible in war.” * Haman in Book of Esther
The full moon like a chariot rises up from the desert sands, its face spattered in shades of Persian red, and Abu Isa, staring at it, the tremors again shaking his will. He quaffs his elixir, many a dram, and into the heart of the Lor he descends…
Abu Isa … we are the new Sadducees, we Karaites, we who are Torah-strict and have cast off Rabbanite interpretations…
Ancient Voice *… let us break the cords of their yoke and cast off their cords on us…* *-* Ps. 2:3, Hebrew ‘m-s-r’ as ‘yoke’
Echoing Voice *… their disciplines have broken us and we are cast from Torah’s cords…* *-* alt Ps. 2:3, Hebrew ‘m-s-r’ as ‘discipline’
Abu Isa … am I held on high or thrown on the ground? Speak, oh Lor, in Your clarities…
Ancient Voice *… my foes will turn their backs and stumble, and they will perish before You, there…* *-* Ps. 9:4; Hebrew ‘b-sh-v’ as ‘burn back’
Echoing Voice *… your enemies will return in time to come, and your servants will stumble in your presence…* *-* alt Ps. 9:4; Hebrew ‘b-sh-v’ as ‘return’
Abu Isa … Your tohu and vohu bejumble me, yet messiah urgings stir me to act…
Ancient Voice *… in distress you call; I will rescue you with answers and secrets and thunderings like the test at the waters of Meribah…* *-* Ps. 81:8
Echoing Voice *… vexatious you call; I’ll remove you and hide my answers in thunderings and with trial by water, trial by strife…* *-* alt Ps. 81:8
Abu Isa … what bulwark stands on such shifting ground? What are our sins that You decree that Your devoted ones should live in fear?…
Ancient Voice *… the wicked will not survive judgement, nor sinners, where the righteous meet…* *-* Ps. 1:5
Echoing Voice *… the wicked need not stand in court, and sinners will testify as the just…* *-* alt Ps. 1:5
Abu Isa … well, *I will have no fear of the myriads, of the nations arrayed and surrounding me…* *-* Ps. 3:7
Ancient Voice *… and the myriads surrounding you have no fear to take their stand…* *-* alt Ps. 3:7
Echoing Voice … have no fear to have no fear of having fear of having fear…
Abu Isa *… I will fear no evil for You are with me…* *-* Ps. 23:4
Ancient Voice *… what can cast your spirit down?…* *-* alt Ps. 43:5.1
Echoing Voice *… what is this roaring to the heights?…* *-* alt Ps. 43:5.2
Re-echoing Voice *… but you will ever be cast down…* *-* alt Ps. 43:5.1
Now many thousand stars are drawn and many thousands of soldiers arise, Samson-like, invincible, and all Persia trembles as Marwan’s army faces its doom.
In a long thundering echoing cry of a thousand shofars and a thousand drums, Israel charges like a maddened bull. The Persian line crumples away, dust and bellow, iron on iron and before the sun is high in the sky, in dread silence the dust disperses. Israel is gasping its last breath and Abu Isa is trampled down. Some say he still lives, he fled the field; some say he is risen above the earth, him undying, he will return.
How long people, how long will you wait?
End of Abu Isa Fragments
In the next episode we leap forward in history to Shlomo Molkho in the early 16th century.