The 13th Tablet

‘Funny you should ask that. Most Christian authors in Antiquity felt the same way, as if the flood was their very own and only made sense within their religious framework. St Jerome believed that the Greek flood was a local flood and not the primordial flood described in the Bible.’

‘I like that. You’re comparing me to a saint.’

‘Yeah, that’s wishful thinking. I’m pretty sure you’re no saint. I managed to do some reading on this subject last week, so let me tell you all about it while it is still fresh in my memory. No interruptions?’

Jack pretended to zip his mouth. She put on a serious air and explained, ‘There’s a Chinese Book called the Shujing, which was probably written around 700 B.C.E. It describes Emperor Da Yu controlling the flood waters that reached to the Heavens. Other parts of Asia have flood myths too. In Vietnam, the Sre people believe a horrific flood came from the sea and covered the earth, destroying everything. Of all humanity only a young man and his sister survived. They floated in a drum, and as the waters abated, they were left high and dry on the top of Mount Yang-La. In India, the flood story begins with terrible winds and rain which last a hundred years. Closer to home, the Native American Hopi explain that the swelling of the primordial river brought about the flood after everyone had become evil and gone mad during the ‘first world’: young men would make love to old women, old men with young girls, people killing each other, people becoming sick, etc. Then comes the flood. In South America, the Aztecs believed that humanity was devastated by a flood during the Fourth sun. All survivors were transformed into monkeys.’

‘Amazing. What about other continents? Africa, for example?’

‘In Africa, Bantus believe that a genie called Nzondo first provoked a terrible flood, at the origin of river Zair, and then disappeared. Should I go on Jack?’

‘OK. But if everyone has a primordial flood story, obviously some global physical disaster must have that triggered it? Was it a destructive comet?’

‘Maybe it is the mythical expression of the end of the Ice Age and the coming of global warming.’

‘I see what you mean… the amount of melted ice must have caused tremendous floods all over the planet.’

‘Who knows? The Sumerians, Hebrews and the Native Americans saw the flood as a punishment for human wickedness, but for others, it marks the unavoidable end of a Golden Age and the passage to darker times.’

‘Thank you Professor.’

‘You’re welcome, young man. What I don’t understand is what Oberon told me before he… he…’

It was no use, she burst into tears again. Jack stopped the car on the side road. He unbuckled his seat belt, turned towards her and stroked her hair as he spoke to her in a deep and soothing voice.

‘Hey. You’ll be alright. Just focus on one thing — you’re still alive. You beat him.’

He gave her a tissue to dab her lip, which had started bleeding again.

‘Mina, what were you saying before? What didn’t you understand?’

She breathed in deeply and said ‘Why a Chinese text would mention the existence of five tablets from Mesopotamia.’

He thought about it for a moment, ‘It beats me. We should ask a specialist when we are back to the US.’

As they drove higher in the foothills, Jack slowed down considerably, because the rain had transformed into sleet, and visibility was much worse than at the outset of their trip. Including their half-hour stop, they had already added an hour and a half to the route.

‘We should be getting quite close to Safed now,’ Jack said eventually. ‘I hope the sky will clear. I’ve visited the north a few years ago with a friend. I’m sure that from the top of this hill you can see the Golan Heights to the East and Mount Hermon to the North — you know people ski there, but it would probably be cheaper for Israelis to fly to Switzerland.’

‘I didn’t know about Mount Hermon. Around here, what you can see for sure is Mount Meron, the burial place of Shimon Bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar, the mystical book of the Jews.’

‘The what? I thought their sacred book was the Bible? The Torah?’

‘The Zohar is a mystical book and central to the study of Kabbalah. It is said that people who aren’t trained long enough in the study of the Torah and try to read and understand the Zohar, will lose their mind in the process. It’s a dangerous book.’

‘Come on, Mina. We’re grown ups. That’s a bedtime story.’

‘I’m not joking. This is what I’ve read. I don’t know much about Kabbalah but it seems that this saintly man, Bar Yochai, was fleeing the Romans in the 1st century C.E. He hid himself in a cave. He eventually emerged enlightened and wrote this magical book. Well, that’s the story anyway. Some scholars think Bar Yochai was a bit like Homer with the Iliad and the Odyssey; you know, a sort of mythical writer ascribed to a book that is actually multi-layered and written over a long period of time by many authors.’

‘I’m sorry, I’ve heard this magical stuff all over the planet; India, South America and even back home with the Mormons and their golden plates. I simply don’t buy it.’

‘Well, you’d better buy it fast because we’re almost in Safed, kingdom of Kabbalah. And it isn’t popstar Kabbalah either. It’s the real deal.’

After twenty more minutes of driving, they finally saw Safed’s hill. As they approached, they were gradually entranced by the calm atmosphere of this ‘magic’ mountain. How better to describe a place which rises almost 3,000 feet above sea level, surrounded by forests and the purest of air, so conducive to meditation and clear thinking? By this time, the entire city was covered in a white mantle of snow. Mina thought of the kabbalists’ belief that the Schechina or the Manifest Presence of God rested above the city. With so little water in the Promised Land, this vision of purity must have felt to some like a divine presence. After all, did not certain sages believe that the Messiah would appear first in Safed before travelling to Jerusalem?

Chapter 17

December 9th, 2004. Safed

While Mina waited in the van on Jerusalem Street, Jack picked up the stone tablet from the Merkazi Central Hotel and cancelled Mina’s reservation. He walked back to the van with the package, which Mina tore open. She breathed a long sigh of relief when she found the stone tablet, unscathed. Jack drove them through the Old Town. Mina expressed surprise at the large number of art galleries they were passing on the way and Jack explained that Safed had been at the forefront of contemporary Israeli and Jewish art for many years. The Old Town was not only home to some of the oldest of the seventy synagogues scattered around Safed but it was also famous for its so- called Artist’s Colony. New galleries appeared like mushrooms throughout the cobbled streets. Jack parked the van outside a small internet cafe.

As they walked into the cafe, Mina to Jack, ‘I remember reading about a nice guest house not too far from here, Bar-El. We could stay there.’

‘Frankly, I think we should get the hell out of here.’

‘Come on Jack. I have nothing to fear with you by my side.’

‘Mina, we’ve got the tablet, we’re safe. But Wheatley will find out today or tomorrow that you’re still alive and that you have the tablet. We should be on the other side of the planet right now.’

‘Give me two days to complete my research on Safed and then we can leave. I haven’t been through hell and back to return home empty-handed.’

‘I don’t like this. But if you must, here are my conditions: no sightseeing and we need to be as discreet as possible.’ Mina batted her eyelashes in agreement and smiled sweetly at him.

‘Women! I don’t know why I fall for this.’

‘You can’t help it. And anyway, there is no reason why Oberon would stick around if the tablet isn’t here any