ware liefde


You are beautiful!



THIS
element in
the development of
both Christian and Jewish
martyrology is most critical in
producing the moment of identification with
the martyr, even, and especially for those communicants
who are themselves no longer in a situation of persecution.

In other words,
this new component serves in the production of a "cult of martyrs"
as a fundamental formative constituent in the making of the "new" religions of Christianity
and rabbinic Judaism, and we observe an eminent structural and theological parallelism
between the debeloping genres of Christian and Jewish martyrologies of the second,
third, and fourth centuries.

The Talmud thus tells the story of the making of a new Jewish martyrology.
However, was this cultural event earlier or later than the one that was taking place in the Christian orbit?
In the following text from the late-third-century midrash on Exodus, the Mekhilta, I believe that we can
discover the one of the earliest Rabbinic instances of the discourse of martyrdom:

THIS IN MY G D, AND I WILL BEAUTIFY HIM [EXODUS 15:1,2.3]:
ASHIRAH LAYAHWEH KI-GA'OH-GA'AH; SUS WEROCHVO RAMAH VAYAM; AZI WEZIMRAT YAH WAYEHI-LI
LISHUAH; ZEH ELI WEANWEHU; ELOHEI AVI WAROMMENEHU; YAHWEH ISH MILCHAMAH YAHWEH SHEMO;
 Rabbi Akiva says: Before all the Nations of the World I shall hold forth on the beauties and
splendor of Him Who Spake & the World Came to Be! For, lo, the Nations of the World keep asking Isra-
el, "What is thy Beloved more than another neloved, O most beautiful of women?" {Cant. 5:9}
MAH-DODEECH MIDOD HAYAFAH BANASHIM MAH-DODEECH MIDOD SHEKACHAH HISHBAETANU?,
 that for His sake you die, for His sake you are slain, as it is said, We have loved you unto death, (ad mwt) "for thus do the maidens (almwt) love Thee" {Cant. 1:3} ~ and it is said,
"for Your sake we have been killed all the day" {Ps. 44:23}. KI-ALEICHA HORAGNU CHAL-HAYOM NECHSHAVNU KETSON TIVVHAH! You are beautiful, you are heroes, come merge with us!

Israel here describes the beauty of her G d in response to an initial Gentile approach to the Jews to merge with them. The Gentiles cannot understand who this G d is for whom the Jews are willing to be killed
all day. Israel replies in a response suffused with the eroticism of the Song of Songs:
But Israel reply to the Nations of the World: DO YOU KNOW HIM? Let us tell you a little
of His Glory: "My beloved is white and ruddy, braver than ten thousand. His head is purest gold; his hair is curls as black as a raven. His eyes are like doves by springs of water, bathed in milk, fitly set.
His cheeks are like perfumed gardens, yielding fragrance ... His palate is sweetmeats & He is altogether desirable; This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Yerushalayim" {Cant. 5:10-16}! DODI TSACH WEADOM DAGUL MEERVAVAH: Mijn lief glanst, schittert
& hij steekt boven duizenden uit. Zijn hoofd is van goud, het zuiverste goud, zijn lokken zijn als dadel-trossen, ravenzwart. Zijn ogen zijn als duiven bij een stromende beek, die baden in water, die gedompeld zijn in melk. Zijn wangen zijn als balsemtuinen, die overheerlijk geuren, als torens vol van geurige stoffen
& zijn lippen zijn als lelies, die druipen van vloeiende mirre. Zijn armen zijn als staven van
goud, met turkoois bezet. Zijn buik is als een schijf van ivoor, versierd met saffier.
Zijn benen zijn als zuilen van albast, op voetstukken van zuiver goud. Zijn gestalte is zo fier als een ceder van de Levanon.
Zijn mond is zoet,
AAN HEM IS ALLES BEGEERLIJK.
DIT IS MIJN LIEF, DIT IS MIJN
VRIEND, MEISJES VAN
YERUSHALAYIM!
engel
17 dec 2009 - bewerkt op 17 dec 2009 - meld ongepast verhaal
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Asih, man, 81 jaar
   
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