Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and other things

The hardest part of writing a blog is starting. I always have an idea of what I want to do with it, but it's hard to put it into words. (As I write this, I think about erasing it and starting over.) Part of my problem is that I'm a perfectionist. Not in real life, I'm easy to accept B's and C's if I don't understand the material, my bed is rarely ever made, and I've been known to wear the same pair of pants for two days in a row. But writing is different. I have this incredible urge to make the words perfect; not to mention that I can barely ever stand reading anything I've just finished writing. It's too fresh, too new, and sometimes I can convince myself not to publish it at all. So I've went on for awhile about my issues, now on to something relevant.

I finally finished reading through Deuteronomy (a very long, boring book), Numbers, and Leviticus. They are pretty drab when compared to Genesis, but I liked all three more than Exodus. (Oh my God, why did you list through all that ark building nonsense! Couldn't you, in all your eternal wisdom, just have asked your chosen people to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark?) My favorite was Numbers. I can't explain why, all I know was after reading it, I was like: yeaaaaaahhhh. My mood perhaps? Maybe. I know this sounds off topic, but I saw a lot of really good television shows this year: Battlestar Galactica, The Big Bang Theory, Lost, True Blood, Supernatural, Dollhouse, Breaking Bad on and on and on and on. What draws me to the nerdy side of life? Was I written into God's Book of Nerd at the beginning of time? Is time just an illusion, and I am stuck in an eternal nerdy loop over and over and over, and into infinity, and I'm swirling... okay, back to Numbers. Call me crazy, but I sorta enjoyed the census. Things that interest me about the censuses:

1. It's intriguing to see where these people come from. Levi is the ancestor of the priests. Rueben's clan is dwindling. Joseph's is the biggest clan, because his descendents compromise two tribes. Judah, oh Judah, you are my favorite. Actually, Benjamin, you are. I choose you.

2. History speaking, it's also fun to see which tribes survived. The 10 northern tribes split off and became Israel, meanwhile the Judah and Benjamin tribes compromised the Southern kingdom of Judah. When Assyria came in and destroyed the northern Israel, Judah barely survived, but the 10 northern tribes became the fabled 10 lost tribes of Israel. So again, my favorite tribe is Benjamin, the little tribe that could. (Oh yeah, and the Levites survived too, because they had no land, but were dispersed throughout.) Anyway, you know how I said I was obscessed with television shows? Well, hell, LOST seems to have built allusions to this story into its own. Jacob being the figurative father of John and Benjamin (perhaps the rest of the cast are the "other tribes of Israel"). Some day I'm going to write an entire blog about the theology of LOST. Wouldn't that be fun?

I'm taking a scattershot approach to this blog writing process today. I really should have started with Leviticus and not Numbers. Is their method to my madness? Absolutely not. This is just a rambling, blah, blah, blah. To a reader it may look like I'm talking out loud, except in blog form. Well, that's absolutely true, and I promise a blog with substance next time. You are not getting one today. Surprise!

I also ran into a new Pat Condell video today, my favorite raging athiest:



Awesome, isn't he? I love him. Attacking hypocrisy left and right. What a genius! In this video he lambasts mega preachers (Ted Haggard types) for living in mansions and palaces, and other facilities like the Vatican for capitalizing on faith. It's a constant struggle for the Church to hold onto their power, because they preach it is through them that a person can speak with God. This echoes the story in Numbers about the revolt of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Apparently this struggle for who has the right to speak with God has been around since the beginning. Korah (along with Dathan and Abiram) confronts Moses, asking him why he is the only one who may speak with God. This pisses God off, and He opens the ground under their feet (and all their families' feet) and they fall into "sheol". Plotz mentions that the Jews generally believe they have no version of hell in their religion. However, the mention of "sheol" may say otherwise. Back to the story, God makes his opinion quite clear. Only the Levites may speak with him. This sets up the first sense of priesthood, but unlike many modern Churches, these men lived as bums. The only way they could obtain food was from sacrifices and charity of others. Again, this conflicts with many capitalistic churches these days. However, God also sets up the first Jewish institution. As any one knows (in less you are a dumb Socialist) institutions will lead to corruption (absolute power corrupts absolutely). Again, God shows his penchant for stories and classes. Marx was right in this sense, class is one of the fundamental struggles that we all deal with (man vs woman, age vs youth, individual vs state, mortals vs gods, or should I add it to the list?).

I think Ms. Sexson was wrong when she said the Bible preaches social justice. That is reading into the material just as much as the "Bible Thumpers" she claims to disregard as stupid. Instead, the Bible talks about CHARITY not social justice. Charity is a pillar (if Christians had pillars like Muslims do) of Christian faith. In fact, the states that give the most to charity (percentage wise) are the 25 poorest states and also tend to be the most religious. What I despise about most liberals is the snooty way they present themselves, "No-it-alls". The two most important things one needs to remember about liberals: 1. One who knows all knows nothing. 2. The road to hell is paved in good intentions.

I side with no one here. I hate the Religious Right for preaching about Christianity. I hate them for their out-of-date ideals about religion, history, and science (specifically evolution). I hate them because they are fiscally more socialist than capitalistic. I hate them just as much or more than the liberals. It's time to start realizing both parties are working for the same people, bought out by corporate interests. We have a two-party dictatorship. The "left-right paradigm" as Alex Jones so arrogantly puts it. There is no difference between the two parties besides Planned Parenthood (which was formed by Margaret Sanger, a racist and a eugenist ), health care (which is a social justice joke anyway, the whole thing is being funded by big Pharma interests), gay marriage (which is clearly discrimination against one group of people), and stem cell research.

Well, I got into weird territory there. Back to relevant stuff (how many times do I have to say that). Speaking of relevant, Korah's story is as much so back then as it is today. These days, it is generally accepted that anyone has the right to speak with God. This is a consequence of the Jews' time as captives in Babylon. There, they were forced to form a personal relation with God, because they were separated from their ancestral land. Judaism was initially a very regional religion, based entirely around a land and a people. In this respect, one can see the birth pangs of modern monotheism. As the Jewish captives became the Jewish Diaspora, this view of a personal God would only continue to develop. Christianity adopted this reform as well, and today most Monotheists believe in a personal God. A God they can pray to before they go to bed, a God that is there to speak to man-to-God, and not through a priestly second party. This is a Individualistic God. This is a God that gives people freedom, a Constitutional God, if you will. In this system, everyone has a right to their own God. In fact, it's not only a right, but unstoppable. No two people have the same relation with the holy. No two people think about God in the same way. God became bigger, as was the necessity.

This automatically creates tension between the clergy and the masses. If one finds themselves confused on which side God falls on: look no further. God in Numbers doesn't like your Individualistic God. He likes the Levitical God, the God of the priests, the Elitist God. Almost without exception, God speaks with either the Patriarchs, or the Levites. We never see him speaking to your average Jew on the street, chewing 'bacco and living the normal life. Nope, he's hanging with the elites. The only time we don't see Him chillin' with His peeps is with Balaam. I love Balaam. He seems to have more faith than the Israelites combined. He does what he says he'll do, no matter what God orders, and he does without convincing and with constant faith. The only time he wavers in God's eyes is when he leaves to see Balak (even though God ordered him to). He is stopped by an angel, and we are reminded even asses have feelings. After this, he goes against Balak and blesses the Israelites instead. What a great dude! And how does God reward his bravery, his faith, his chutzpah, he allows the Israelites to kill him. And you don't even learn how, no he's just a name listed off in the names killed. Poor old Balaam, God may not respect your sacrifice but I do, I do.

It's actually a theme throughout the whole Exodus story arc, God punishes his most faithful. Moses and Aaron are told they cannot enter the promised land by God. You would think such a banishment would be because they did something terrible: they blew up a building in the name of Moloch or sacrificed a child in the middle of a grove. No, it's something simple and unmeditated, probably an accident. Moses is told to show the Israelites a miracle by making a rock create water. Moses does, but instead of speaking to the rock like God commanded, he hit it with his stick. Now, to most sane people, this would be one accident during a long, 40 year period exemplified by faith, obedience, and sacrifice, but to God this act is practically heresy. He punishes his servant by denying him the thing he wants most! How cruel. How mean. How terrible, terrible, mean, so sad, want to cry. God is a vicious son of a bitch. I look behind me now, making sure he isn't about to smite me. (If I die before next class you know why...)

However, this time, I don't agree with myself. Dr. Sexson talked about the descension of language--the age of gods, the age of heroes, the age of "men", and the age of "dude"--where the beginning was identified by the metaphor, and we slowly lost the metaphor, falling, falling into the abyss where we can't describe anything properly. Moses' banishment is not only good story, but also good metaphor. When have you not been striving for something only to be denied it in the end? The people writing this (or perhaps, Yahweh) is telling something about our lives. Isn't that what life is really about in the first place? Striving, longing, needing something. Goals. Money. Job. Relationships. Or is God Buddhist? Is he telling us that longing for things is the cause of our suffering? God makes Moses' goals not for himself, but for his people. Moses becomes his people. That's now how he identifies himself: he is his people entirely. However, in Deuteronomy, Moses appears to be rather bitter, angry, and hates himself and his people. Did Moses not learn the lesson that God was trying to teach him?

This may come as a surprise to you, but I'm writing this blog over a three day period. Last night, I went to a bbq for upper class-men still living on campus. I didn't want to go, but I was convinced by fellow suite mates (always trying to get me to do something). Around a camp fire, I listened to other men talk "man talk" (I didn't participate in it because I'm shy). It seems "man talk" is identified by its down-to-earth feel, cars, football, boobs, unafraid of bawdy humor, sex, violence, all the great things of the world. What it is not about: feelings. Honestly, my world revolves around a mix of pop culture, constant and up-to-date news, and references to old obscure things that nobody but me cares about, but NOT many of things "man talk" is usually identified by. I seem to exist in an alternate sphere, obscessed with my own workings and doings, but often find myself bored by others, small talk, and generally social things that everyone else is so amused by. What it did get me thinking about was women. Yes, women, specifically about Ms. Sexson's lecture.

What every intellectual thinker around the globes seems to be getting at is this: men are afraid of the power women have over them. This influences their need to, instead, have power over women. This patriarchal world that the Hebrews inhabited appears at first glance unfair, cruel, and not that pleasant. Why does God prefer men, especially men with power? A friend of mine once told me it was because God had to relate with a primitive culture. He had to get down on their terms or else they never would have followed him. My preferred stance? Men are, and will always be, afraid of women's power. It is the natural state of things. We think different. We act different. We have different sort of conversations. We have different body parts. Different. Different. Different. Like I said, it's natural both sexes should have a fear of one another.



But unlike other things we are afraid of, men need women. No, not only that, want women. How can you be afraid of something and want it at the same time?

Women also hold the power of life. For early men, this must have seemed like a slave system. They worked hard to get food, died while hunting, while the women got to stay back, safe and sound. Think of the anger they must have felt. However, the dynamics changed when humanity adapted to an agricultural way of life. Now men could be in charge, and women could officially take a back seat. And I believe this is where Ms. Sexson came in, and what's the point of me continuing on when you can listen to Rio's live blog thing-y? Not that I truly expected anybody to read through all of this. I certainly wouldn't have.

I have no conclusion. It is what it is.