From Chabad.org: Nitzavim-Vayelech in a Nutshell Deut. 29:9–31:30
The name of the Parshah, “Nitzavim,” means “Standing,” and it is found in Deuteronomy 29:9. The name of the Parshah, “Vayelech,” means “And [Moses] went,” and it is found in Deuteronomy 31:1.
The Parshah of Nitzavim includes some of the most fundamental principles of the Jewish faith:
The unity of Israel: “You stand today, all of you, before the L‑rd your G‑d: your heads, your tribes, your elders, your officers, and every Israelite man; your young ones, your wives, the stranger in your gate; from your wood-hewer to your water-drawer.” The future redemption: Moses warns of the exile and desolation of the Land that will result if Israel abandons G‑d’s laws, but then he prophesies that in the end, “You will return to the L‑rd your G‑d . . . If your outcasts shall be at the ends of the heavens, from there will the L‑rd your G‑d gather you . . . and bring you into the Land which your fathers have possessed.”
The practicality of Torah: “For the mitzvah which I command you this day, it is not beyond you, nor is it remote from you. It is not in heaven . . . It is not across the sea . . . Rather, it is very close to you, in your mouth, in your heart, that you may do it.” Freedom of choice: “I have set before you life and goodness, and death and evil: in that I command you this day to love G‑d, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments . . . Life and death I have set before you, blessing and curse. And you shall choose life.”
The Parshah of Vayelech (“and he went”) recounts the events of Moses’ last day of earthly life. “I am one hundred and twenty years old today,” he says to the people, “and I can no longer go forth and come in.” He transfers the leadership to Joshua, and writes (or concludes writing) the Torah in a scroll which he entrusts to the Levites for safekeeping in the Ark of the Covenant.
The mitzvah of Hakhel (“gather”) is given: every seven years, during the festival of Sukkot of the first year of the shemittah cycle, the entire people of Israel—men, women and children—should gather at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, where the king should read to them from the Torah. Vayelech concludes with the prediction that the people of Israel will turn away from their covenant with G‑d, causing Him to hide His face from them, but also with the promise that the words of the Torah “shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants.”
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1
Hillel, once the scribe that physically wrote the Torah for Moses, now lives an idle life in a beautifully constructed home in sanctuary City. He has a young girl with him and today, his friend Phaedrus The apothecary has come to speak with him about the last days of the Torah.
I know that you know everything that was said today. Did you know about it the whole time?
Yes of course. There’s nothing particularly interesting anymore. There’s nothing but this mercilest pontification by Joshua’s people. It seems like they’re having a contest over who could be the more obtuse and brutal.
I suppose you’re right. I don’t really have any problem with power people because my business is selling drugs. Everyone is the same to me.
No one has a problem with them until they’re dirty dealings steal your house from you. Or your whole life.
I know you’re right. I just can’t help thinking that it is the way of the world. We conquer each other and the conquering army gets to make the rules. What’s difficult to understand? It’s always been this way.
No, this is not right. I can’t believe you of all people would even say that. Oh yeah, you went back to eating meat.
Not this week. I thought about it and I went back to being vegan. We are on the same page maybe. I might still be a little slow. I’m getting older at least.
Good for you. I still say it’s the beginning, middle and ending of everything. It’s not really alcohol. It’s meat. The worst drug ever invented by man and people just can’t get enough of it.
I noticed in the writing that we don’t trust anybody anymore. You can’t just ask people to do the right thing. Now you get all of these love promises about success and all this money will come your way. And of course you will be greater and higher and smarter and better looking than all your old friends. Life will truly change. But I don’t think that’s ever really would happens. Sure, you can take a picture and have the people and the place and the background mean something to you. But we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about the actual life that we live in between the photo shoots and getting it up online.
People don’t listen to each other anymore because human beings are not as good as what we can do electronically. My current theory is that this is what happens to people who live under a violent totalitarian leader. If we all have to kneel and give ourselves up to another even though that other might not even know of our lives or that we’ve ever existed, This means we have too many people walking around believing that the world must be exactly what it must be. I don’t see it that way. I think we are supposed to be able to do what we want but tempered against overuse of resources.
You are too smart for me, my friend. These things bothered me. I heard what was going on. I heard the words and then after I read it. And then I came straight over here to talk to you. It’s really over isn’t it. We can sense it. It’s really over.
Yeah. They are lying and they are using this book for their personal purposes. They are doing it only to enrich themselves and make themselves feel better. They have no intention of running an infrastructure or helping society get along well. They know nothing of being nurturing. They are meat people. All they do is murder. Every evil known to man comes from the same place. All they do is murder.
But you don’t get upset?
I have my house and I have my health. I have this nice young lady helping me out from time to time when she’s not doing her own business. I believe the people around me like me at least reasonably and maybe even some of them really respect me. But nobody is calling me to do anything. I don’t have to make any appearances. And I never get to do any public talking or writing anymore. What is there to get upset about? I just live here.
I hear you, my friend. These last years have not been easy for any of us. This new government is not nice. Not to us nor to anyone else. Honestly, as a person who has run his own business his whole life, I am embarrassed at her truly empty headed everything is that they do. They just don’t understand how beautiful it is solving your own problems and doing your own work and helping friends get what they need as well.
I hate to slander my own profession but most of it’s drugs. Once they get one step above basic pay, the goal becomes unlimited drugs. Can I have enough money to buy all the drugs I want and then just enjoy them as long as they last? Good luck. But honestly, everything gets boring. I used to ride my bicycle in traffic in New York at top speed, brakeless and on a fixed gear. Yeah, as dangerous and exciting as a job could be. And I got bored of it. That’s right. Even life and death physical missions get boring after a while. The human animal is an amazing machine.
I know it. I just want to say that I actually appreciate you as a friend. I agree that when I want to come see you it is because I want to buy something that you have to sell. But I’ve never really minded this interplay together and you should know that I truly respect you as a good human being.
It’s okay. It really is. I enjoy hanging out with you too.
Crazy but at the end of the day, this really is all we have, isn’t it?
2
I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know that I fully understood the point of it.
What seems to be the problem?
It’s a blessing and a curse.
That’s right.
The blessing is if you do good and the curse is if you do bad?
That’s what they say.
So what it means is we have to have both, is this right?
I thought the phraseology was that you get benefits if you’re good and punishments if you’re bad. The thought is only that all of this is included in the same package.
The government is reserving rights to punish us.
Or praise us.
So what it means is that we don’t just work for them, we have to agree that we are objects for them to use, do I have this right? In order to take this contract as it is offered, we have to agree to give up a part of ourselves and allow all the decisions be made by the government.
Kind of like that. Another way to look at it is that we are all in the government. This is kind of a democratic idea. It was actually invented by the government. The way they see it, they command and we follow but if we follow happily, then we are doing things that make us happy and therefore we are kind of free. Do you see how the logic works?
I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know anybody who cares about my happiness.
I care about your happiness, Faye. Deeply.
Thanks, Hi. But it is inherent hypocrisy, is it not?
Without question.
How do they do it?
How do they do what?
This. This whole nonsense with the book. Everything they say is automatically a law. Nobody asks us if we are happy with the situation. Nobody asks us if there’s a better way of doing things. These people assume that they are the only ones who can make any decisions and everyone else is here simply to be used and exploited.
I don’t have a problem with anything you’re saying so far. Where’s the issue?
I don’t get it. For all this time that we’ve known each other, you’re the one who always freaks out every damn nuance. We used to rack our brains trying to find a way to get close enough to Moses to give him a decent message about how it really is with real people. And then one thing happens and another thing happens and then there’s 40 glorious years of civilization in the desert.
You do sound like me. I’ve made this speech so many times, I don’t even have to think about it anymore.
All right. I admit it. I suppose it’s just hard. Disturbing it all is.
Sure. All of this public ceremony is really disturbing. Every time the government brings its soldiers and their weapons out in public, it’s a military threat. These people live in life and death moments. Only it’s other people’s lives rather than theirs. But how do we stop them? For 40 years and nobody bothered us. Nobody bothered us so we lived and did our best and figured stuff out. And now it’s like nothing.
What are we going to do?
You’re asking me? Let’s ask you. You tell me, my old friend. How do we fight a lunatic government who only steals and gives nothing in return?
I don’t know. I smile and agree to take people’s money and I even give them what they want if they ask for something specific even if I know fully well that they are either intentionally hurting themselves or will end up hurting themselves just from the stupidity of believing their own ideas without checking.
It makes a difference. I was a specialist. But still, it was a job. It was the difference between eating the tiniest bit of survival food or sitting down to have something really enjoyable. There was no beauty anywhere because the entire population was made up of alcoholics and pure slaves. Absolutely no responsibility for their own actions or words. They lived to be of service to another and only did what they are told. Generation after generation.
Well, as an entrepreneur, my advice would simply be to wait for the weather from the sea. It would cost a fortune to move away from here and start again. Maybe I’ll be with you. Maybe we’ll just wait this out.
Is it the way the breeze flows through the house on hot days? Or is it the meals on the terrace? Or is it that you want your woman back? I already married her. She’s got the contract which is what makes her such a militant professional. Were you thinking you wanted to get her to come home?
No. Not at all. I don’t really care one bit about any of this. I just came to see you because I finally come to understand what you’ve been saying all along. There is no hope. As long as we have a government like this and we have the vast majority of all our material wealth going to support a single leader and rulemaker, we are never going to be a community together. We are all simply going to be monsters.
Yes, things have really changed. What happened?
Taxes. They want to take taxes.
Well, it was fun living in civilization while it lasted. I’ve got a few bottles I picked up at the market. I think I can do some damage on your mood. Hey! What do you think? Now you are the guy with deep mental sufferings and I am the healer who can make you feel better?
To answer your question? This is exactly why we’ve always been friends. I knew you had my back if push came to shove.
These are small things but we do what we can.a
3
Abiah.
Hello, Phaedrus.
You are looking even more beautiful than I remember.
I am perfection. If you follow my rules and do what I tell you, I have all the pleasure you need but if you want to fight with me, I have the pain from the center of the world for you.
I’m afraid I’m to blame for that. We started reading philosophy and I’m afraid she’s stuck on it.
It isn’t a matter of being stuck. It’s a matter of enjoying a specific place that I find myself in. I am free to leave but I am also free to stay especially if I feel that it is in my best interest to be here.
I see what you mean. Does this mean that she is a scholar?
Don’t ask that question?
Demoralization. The removal of any human rights whatsoever because I am physically a woman. No matter how much wealth I might gather, my voice cannot be heard. My sister’s cannot learn to read. We are slaves. And if you are eventually slaves, still in fact slaves to Egypt, I have no reason to be particularly kind to anybody. You are the ones who built this beautiful little thing. I don’t understand why I should do anything to make you feel better.
So, I understand you’re doing a lot of business these days.
Do you mean being a female for males who need females?
Yes. That’s the one.
I’m afraid my husband frowns upon me selling my body. It seems a shame because most men desire my body when they see it. I am young. I have full breasts. I have knowing eyes and obviously I am not so very innocent. Men go crazy even standing next to me for a moment. But, there are ways to use that without using it.
What she means is she has six girls working for her now.
I see.
Sure. You don’t want to know how much money we are making right now.
We? Hillel. Did you just say we?
Me? I said something? I didn’t say anything.
He is surprised that we have found a happy medium for our relationship. He didn’t trust either of us to be smart enough to know how to do it.
Hillel. We have known each other for 50 years. You tell me right now what is going on. How are you apart of this prostitution business?
Who said anything about prostitution?
Did you just call me a prostitute?
Wait. I’m confused. You have sex with men who give you money, is that correct?
Yes of course. But it does not make me a prostitute. I could slap your face for even using such a word.
You do have to be careful with the linguistics around here, Faye.
I am very confused.
Go ahead. Tell him.
A prostitute is someone who works specifically for money. I don’t do anything for money. This was a lesson from my beautiful husband. I don’t work for anyone and I don’t do anything I don’t want to do. It just seems ironic that things that I enjoy doing are very valuable to other people. And if we, my beautiful husband and I, become materially wealthy as a result, who is to complain?
I don’t think I can explain this.
She is saying that she was who she was when she met us. And while we were happily trying to figure out how to exploit her, she was enjoying trying to figure out how to exploit us. But according to the law and everything I know to be true about human beings, there’s a difference between someone who is doing what they would do in a natural situation and another who goes out of their way to please someone simply for the money. She is who she is and she does what she does and she would do it for free if we didn’t have money.
And you’re not wild with rage? For as long as I’ve known you, you get upset when the wind blows. And this is all okay with you?
What do you want from me? I’m compromising. I took your advice. I compromised. I agreed to shut my mouth and I got a house in sanctuary. I agreed to be kind when you wanted to come and sell me your woman. And when she said who she was and what she wanted to do, who am I to stop her?
So you just don’t care? She’s a murderer!
I’m a vegan. Everyone else can speak for themselves. I don’t think you can call me a murderer. I don’t think you could call a vegan a murderer. I don’t think vegan sit around thinking about murdering other people. Actually, that’s the crazy thing about being a vegan in the Torah business. It’s next to impossible to get anyone to compromise unless they go full vegan. Then they become people again.
Wait a minute. I’m not going to let you have this one. I don’t think that’s it. Objectification. That’s what all of this is. The government objectifies us. They say we are soldiers. And we have this young girl and we say that she is an object.
Not just us. Everyone sees her as an object.
That’s exactly my point. The persecution of women has got to stop. Maybe you guys are mildly enlightened but we have got to spread the gospel. It is simply unfair to tie a woman to promises as a young lady knowing full well that there is no way she can keep any oath.
And sex.
Right. The revolution starts here. I for one I’m not interested in being taken out of Egypt only to be set back into slavery by the Egyptians among us. I say we weed out the bad and make sure to protect the good.
Darling, you don’t need to. In fact that’s exactly what you don’t want to do. The last thing we need is more reason to murder each other. All we need is to get people to agree to be responsible for themselves. Step by step and day by day. If people will agree to be responsible for themselves as much as they can, it means they have to stay as far away from the government as possible because the government’s job is to think for other people. Whether we agree with that or not, that is the role of a lawmaker.
All right then. Is anyone else hungry? Let me go cook something for you guys. I’ve been working on a vegan pastry dough so light and crumbly that your whole body will smile from the taste of it.
It must be nice to be this rich, Hillel.
What can I say? We do what we do.
4
I can’t believe that wasn’t Moses.
For sure. The guy they got was way close.
I thought the fake beard was the best part.
Yeah, you could see it was a fake beard. Did everyone not see that?
Just the vegans, I’m afraid. It’s always like this. Only the vegans can see the difference.
Why don’t they just tell everyone that he died a while ago?
It’s an image based government. They make pictures for each other. I’m sure that was Eva all along. They just look at something and break it down into an object that they can exploit or not. If they can’t exploit it, they destroy it or play with it until it becomes compliant. That’s what these people do. It’s how they are raised. It’s how they think.
I don’t know. It’s funny what all of this is doing to me. I’ve never felt like this before.
What’s the matter, Phaedrus? Are you sick?
No. I’ve just started rethinking all of this. When Joshua’s group started taking over and reopened the Torah, I took it as a matter of course. Of course all governments do this. Of course this is the way it is. And you’re right. I’m guilty as hell for not fighting for the truth to be told about how we actually got along and how self-sufficient we were in the desert. I turned it into a joke. I don’t know why I did this. I objectified it all and said it’s about money. All this craziness is going to be good for business and it was. But now I don’t know. Now I don’t feel so good.
Interesting. I’m not completely convinced I’m happy with this moment here. Up until now, you’ve been doing things that have been very influential in my life and in Abiah’s. I certainly didn’t ask her to be a prostitute but you knew her as one. Or at least who she was in terms of character. Why did you do all this? If you are truly not convinced of your rights to do these things or that you are right by doing it, why?
Ribs.
They got you with the ribs?
Actually, it was the fried quail.
I see.
It’s amazing. They take the meat and they dip it in a batter and then they roll it in stale bread crumbs and then they put it deep in oil and it comes out amazing and delicious and you eat it with herbs and spices and fresh lime. Oh, it’s amazing.
I see. But you quit.
Yes. No. Yes. I see your point. No. I was vegan. We were vegan. But then all this happened and it all kind of changed. Everyone I met told me I was a fool not to be eating meat. It was a simple deal. I lived like they lived or they wouldn’t talk to me.
I understand. And now?
And now I truly understand maybe for the first time in my life. You always tell us that it’s about meat and the meat business and what meat does to us. And I have always been your friend but truthfully, I always held it in my heart that maybe you were just personally crazy and that everyone else was normal. But it wasn’t that. It wasn’t that you were so special or had any powers. You just saw clearly because you didn’t have a lot of fat making you slow and stupid.
You really do sound like me. I guess that’s the end of my brand. If people acting like me and talking like me happens every time people go vegan, I guess I can’t make any money off of it after all. Oh well. Better luck next time on that.
5
Come on, I’m tired of having my brain broken already.
No, listen, I get it. I really get it. The Torah is going to be given when they finish writing these words here at the end of it. You can’t of course be giving someone something that is in the middle of being written. That’s unfair to the guy writing it. Technically, that would be you.
Cheers.
So it’s about future. They are saying it will happen in the future.
But it can’t. It’s a lie. First of all, the guy is already dead. Second of all, the only real information is not news to any of us because Joshua has been running the place since they decided to reopen the book. Maybe they were talking about the real book. The one that ended with the metaphorical question asked to the children of Israel. You do understand that there are problems associated with eating meat. And then there are certain types of meat which must be seen as repugnant. But then one of your friends fall and there it is to be seen right in front of you with your very eyes. Meat. Starvation. Fear. To live like carnivores even though carnivores we are not. And to have the power because there are those who know what’s happening and simply speak for emotional reactions and cheers instead of discussing business.
You’re right. Not just to do business but to play a game. To be completely detached. Well, this is a little bit more than I bargained for. It’s all escape. The people who kill each other for power in the government are using this as their escape. They don’t want to work. They just want to stand around and be important and have people fear them and talk. They just want to talk.
Prostitutes.
You’re right. We are all going to die from this. And even if we physically don’t die, even if we manage to live through these wars and fall out of bed one night, we have surely killed our spiritual selves.
This is exactly the same thing I’ve been thinking. Compromise by compromise by compromise, I’ve given up more than I could afford. Now I am cash rich but completely impoverished in my soul.
And they say the worst form of poverty is debt.
That is an old saying. They have been saying that for a long time. Sometimes people smarter than us say things and it’s good that we write them down.
I just think it’s a good idea writing the good stuff down. At least we have a memory of it.
What are we going to do?
Check the sundial? Where’s the shadow?
Well noticed. I shall fetch the apparatus and we shall smoke on this a bit.
6
Let me take a wild guess. You didn’t write that.
Congratulations. You graduate. You are a true connoisseur of the Torah. No. That was one of Joshua’s guys who theoretically has good handwriting. A bit bullish in the language, isn’t it?
It’s true. We used to have subtlety. They were word choices. We were thinking. Now we don’t think anymore. We’re just a bunch of belligerent alcoholics. Just stupid low rent alcoholics.
You know, I never thought of this before. Moses was royalty.
No. Not with us. With us he was with God.
No. That’s not it. Before that. Before everything. He was a son of the Royal House. Sure he was a scholar and an engineer and he had the water architecture of all of Egypt under his fingertips. He was royal. Royal blood from the Royal family.
More like the pet Jew. Nobody believed that he would ever become Pharaoh.
Nobody was worried about him but Pharaoh. He was smarter than Pharaoh. Or, the two of them simply decided that they couldn’t live in the same house and the deal was to take 600,000 Jews with him and that would be it. Everything else is propaganda to us.
I understand.
That’s what this is about. You can argue that if you have an army with you, you can just take what you need. If you’re strong enough, there are no rules to restrain you. There’s no morality and there’s no group. We are pure carnivore and it’s every one for themselves. But of course this doesn’t work. In this model, every single group of human beings eventually succumbs to self-suicide. They will fight until there’s only one winner and at that time, there’s only one guy left.
And that’s the pharaoh. That’s the royalty. I got you. We live like we live because our nut job believes that God is on his side.
That’s the argument and he’s sticking to it. Or rather he stuck to it. But he is dead now and we have this new book writer pretending they are Moses and writing a Torah. It should have been two books but it isn’t. They should not have written in our book. Our book ended with freedom of choice. This is everything I know about and the rest is up to you. And it was the truth for the next 40 years in the desert. Except that they can’t see this. They can’t see this even though they know it’s the truth.
Who is they?
Moses was royalty. Eva is not royalty. The stonemason is not royalty. No one here is royalty anymore.
Not really. Joshua is our king.
Yeah, kind of. But listen. Royalty usually takes a while to get built up. We’re talking about the guys who built the pyramids. We’re talking about that lesson in life about who runs the show. Well the thing is, when you get nations to submit to giving you their wealth and then you agree that you are free to spend at your whim the wealth of Nations, we end up with a certain level of gentility.
Oh right. I think I see what you mean. Joshua is no gentleman.
Exactly. Moses was a gentleman. He thought he had a chin but not really.
We had a lot to do with that. Burning bush.
Right. And us. But the point is that he was royalty. He was just a foolish little boy whose title entitled him to complete freedom. Royalty are the people who just talk to us and things happen. That’s the difference. It’s one thing to have an empty shirt with no character as a boss but it’s another when you have a boss who wants to go to war.
So what you’re saying is that you enjoyed it when we were royal?
I think that during those gloriously wonderful years in the desert when we grew our own food and made our own civilization that it did help a lot of us to know that our host, the guy up on the hill, gave us this feeling because he was in fact royal. He kind of made all of us a little royal. Maybe that’s what Shabbos is about. We each declare ourselves master of our own territories, namely, our own bodies. Amen and frankly, I need the day off.
So there you go. You’ve got this whole thing figured out and no newspaper to write for to let people know.
Not exactly.
At this moment, a short walk to a different house has a man and a woman in full passion. They make love as if their connection to their animal heritage is complete. They are two become one deeply in this moment and their pleasure was so intense that neither wanted to stop. But yet they do. Or at least he does.
Well done. You said you could be trusted and indeed you could.
I told you I was a real man and now you know it.
I hear you. And such a high ranking member.
That is why I love you as much as I do.
Yes, that and that I am innocent child. Good for you. By the way, you do understand that there’s a chink in the armor. You’ve heard that, haven’t you?
I don’t understand you. What are you talking about?
General, please. We know with whom you take your meetings.
I am not free to discuss matters of state outside of the office.
I’m not asking you to discuss anything. I’m only telling you that you do not have 100% of the hearts and minds.
Stop talking nonsense. We know all of our enemies and we are stronger than every one of them. And after we finish, we will have all of these other armies all the unified under a one flag.
Right. Pretty ambitious. I’m just telling you that it’s coming back a negative. The market doesn’t like it and there’s going to be a fall and then it’s going to get worse. This is not about necromancers or soothsayers. This is the science bureau. This is the vegan trust. There is no simulation where this model does anything but break from its own weight. It doesn’t work.
Say, you are pretty well spoken. Who put you up to this?
Finally, we all understand each other. General, listen to me carefully. This thing you are doing is not going to work. You know it and we know it. And you know that these people running the show are not nor have they ever truly been students of Moses. Not for wisdom not for anything. He’s a hot head and he’s mad from power. What are we going to do about it?
7
We are in what was a large fashionable apothecary only a short time ago. Where once was boutique lighting and charming displays of the potions available, now there were only empty shelves, dusty from lack of attention.
Abiah is persuasive.
Abiah is persuasive.
We get a song.
Boy oh boy.
Can’t wait to hear it. Are there going to be musicians?
I guess there could be musicians. Do you think there should be musicians?
Maybe. Can I tell you a secret? I had a really weird dream.
Tell me your dream and I will analyze it for you.
I dreamed into the future. It was one king after another. One army after another. The whole world nothing but murder. No light anywhere. Just the constant bickering for resources and the endless endless endless physical cruelties practiced one on another. And then suddenly I saw this great palace built by builders we know nothing of in our day. Perfect ornate buildings of giant proportion. And there I saw a lot a king but a queen.
A queen?! Do queens get to do something?
Ask Abiah.
I’m just doing what I want.
See?
Whatever. You’re the one getting torn down now. How does it feel?
Do you mean to ask me how it felt when I watched this happen to you and then juxtaposed that against how I feel now or better, how are you must feel watching me have to go through this. Something like that, right?
The last thing in the world I want is to be important. This moment is not about me. But just as your hand was always there to lift me out, here’s mine. Whatever you need, you’re with us.
It’s so humbling. It’s just what we do for each other. It’s not particularly crazy and there was a time where every family understood these secrets and pass them down through the generations. Now I am illegal because it is wrong to help people feel better when they are in pain. The new government prefers people to always be in pain. They believe that pain is the only thing that truly sets you free.
Well, that’s not me. It’s not Abiah really either at least between her ears. She has a word for it. She says she’s Democratic. I like that.
Now listen, I don’t just stay at people’s houses. I earn my keep. I have an idea for your garden. I think we could definitely upgrade the landscaping. I think we could make this place sing. By the way, do you like pomegranates? A lot of men like pomegranates. Do you think we should grow some pomegranates? I vote we grow pomegranates.
I understand there are quite a few things we need to let grow. So shall we let things grow and let us enjoy our harvests and all the work along the way.
That’s nice. By the way, what happened with that queen?
Well, here’s where the dream got a little strange. It turns out that the queen was not a woman at all but just a very scary man who fancied himself more of a woman in most ways.
Craziness!
But that wasn’t even the whole thing. It was her coronation or his coronation or whatever. And they were putting the crown on his head but then way upon the parapet, high on the battlements, there was this fella and he had this musical instrument that was making this for huge noise, louder than the loudest trumpet could ever blow.
Wow. And what music did he play?
God save the queen.
Did you just dream all that? I mean, did you really see all of those pictures so clearly?
It was like I stood there and saw it happen. Royalty. Royalty was supposed to make everybody feel better. When we agreed that we had royalty it really meant that we were royalty. That’s what we’re doing now. The Stone Mason is acting like he’s royal even though he’s not.
What would it be like if we had a queen rather than a king?
I suppose she would have to be a right savage. She’d have to be equally as murderous as a man.
This is getting confusing to me. We have these ideas that seem to be crystallizing as axioms. To be royal means to have the right to kill. To be royal means you are above the law. Why exactly do we have a class of people above the law? Why exactly do we have anybody separating themselves from the rest of us?
I believe their line of thought is that they are the decision makers. We are sort of the rabble. They sit on the hill and have an overview and they like to stir the drink a little bit and make us move for them. Basically they are management and we are labor. They say that they’re separation, economically or socially or whatever, is necessary because they are doing intellectual work rather than physical work.
That might exactly be the problem. This demand to separate themselves from the physical world means that they forget how to live in a world with physical people. And this would be especially true if we’re talking about making war with everyone and keeping everybody as crazy as possible. There’s going to be quite a bit of blood along the way I fear. And separating the leaders from the smell of war or the fear of their own death by being there pretty much means we are damned to having war forever.
The Torah says that the original sin is that the woman betrayed both man and God.
Well, I guess we might just have to have some Queens in there. Who knows. Maybe they’ll screw things up so badly, we might even try peace for a change.
You know what? I’m really happy you’re my friend.
Thank you. You know what? I’m really happy You’re my friend and that whatever this is lasts at least a little while.
We have a lot.
A lot?
A lot.
Hallelujah. Free at last. Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty. I am free at last.
