Safed. I could not understand what these letters were doing there. I felt much enthusiasm at the discovery of such a correspondence. It has always been my dream to travel to faraway lands, and I looked forward to reading some of Tudela’s accounts, from his own hand. After the usual civilities, and business issues, the tone of the letter became very enigmatic. And, when I got to Tudela’s description of an ancient and spellbinding tablet kept in the Jerusalem Temple that had survived the coming of the Romans I immediately brought the whole bundle of papers to my master.
Eli stopped and said, ‘This is extraordinary. A tablet…in the Temple in Jerusalem! If it survived the Romans, he means that the tablet was still there after the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. This next part is illegible.’
‘…that night. There was our beloved Ari, my holy master Rabbi Chaim Vital, myself and…’
‘That’s strange,’ Eli said, ‘A name has been crossed out. I’ll continue.’
‘[XXX], who we all thought had lost his mind, was sitting on a chair at the back of the room as he always did. On the main table, my master had spread out for all to see the remains of Tudela’s letter. After a while seven other rabbis came to join the session. There was…’
‘Illegible’ said Eli, sighing with frustration.
‘…in his letter to this Mordechai, Benjamin of Tudela entrusts his friend with a secret. In the archives of a synagogue in Nineveh, he read about an enigmatic clay tablet that had been sent from Nineveh to Yerushalayim and hidden… in the Kodesh Hakodashim.’
Eli murmured, ‘that’s the name for the holy of holies, the most sacred part of the temple in Jerusalem.’
‘As soon as my master uttered these words, the room seemed to bustle with energy. All the rabbis started talking at once. Our beloved Ari stood up…’
‘I can’t read any of the following. Let me jump to the next paragraph,’ said Eli.
‘…all eyes focused on his radiance, as he seldom speaks and his words inspire our every thought. He said ‘Thank you Chaim. Rabbi Benjamin’s letter describes a tablet written in the old language of the Sumerians, from a time preceding the destruction of the first temple. The Babylonian King’s advisers recorded odd discoveries while trying to read omens of floods and earthquakes. According to this letter, the tablet is a Babylonian rendering of Noah’s Mabul.’
‘Mabul means a flood or a river, but here it means the deluge,’ Eli explained.
‘It enables its possessor, if he can decipher its inner knowledge, to observe nature’s secrets, and prepare for the next…’ Eli stopped for a moment and said, ‘I’m not sure how to translate the next phrase, but “Godly changes of nature” is about as close as I can get.’
Eli stopped for a moment and said, ‘I'm not sure how to translate the next phrase, but “Godly changes of nature” is about as close as I can get.’
‘…Godly changes of nature. We were all in shock. I shuddered, as I half-envisioned the mystical consequences of our beloved Rabbi’s last words: ‘The next Godly changes.’
My holy master was the first to speak. He turned to our beloved Ari and said, ‘Master, I have also read the letter, and do not doubt its veracity nor Benjamin of Tudela’s assessment. Yet I wonder about three things. First, where is the tablet at present, if it survived the Roman destruction? Two, I am troubled by the idea that there could be more Mabuls to come. Finally, even if we were able to predict when the next Mabuls were to occur, and this is a problem in itself, as it would involve divining practices, which are forbidden to us, who are we to disturb His Holy Will?’ My master had unravelled everyone’s thoughts in the methodical fashion he had learned from his own master.’
‘Here’s another damaged passage I can’t decipher,’ said Eli.
‘…we can be sure that if we are all seated in this room tonight, The Holy One Blessed be He… saved the tablet from the Romans, so that we would find it at the right moment in time. Everyone agreed with the speaker.
My holy master reminded us all of King David’s psalm: “Like rivers they raised, O HASHEM, like rivers they raised their voice, like rivers they shall raise their destructiveness”. ‘This means that the tablet can only refer to other Mabuls not The Mabul, as The Holy One Blessed be He had promised Noah that The Mabul would never happen again’.
Then, Rabbi Tammim…’
‘I don’t know of this rabbi,’ said Eli
‘…who was tapping his foot impatiently as was his habit, cried out that just as Noah was saved because he was the only just man of his time, no-one should interfere with His Holy Will. When these Mabuls would happen the survivors would, once again be the only just ones. He paused, and then hammered out each word: The Holy One Blessed be He is Gevurah Shebechesed…’
‘In Kabbalah,’ said Eli, ‘there are ten revelations of the Creator’s will. They are called
‘He purified humanity in forty days, with strength and kindness’ concluded Tammim.
My holy master asked Tammim ‘No-one doubts His Strength and Kindness, nor his divine Plan, Tammim, but what of those who will not survive, the men, women and children who will die in the process?’
Rabbi Tammin did not answer. My master pursued his argument, ‘as Avraham bargained with The Holy One, Blessed be He for every soul in Sodom, not merely the just ones, but the fallen ones too, it is our sacred duty to choose to save ALL life, good as well as evil.’
I thought of the discussions we had had with my holy master only weeks before on Ramban’s commentaries on miracles and free will. We were all part of The Holy One, Blessed be He’s, plan. All was written from all time, and Nature is both illusion and one form of reality. There was no contradiction between our having free will and being the instruments of His Holy Will. Had I wanted to answer to Rabbi Tammim, I would have reminded him that The Holy One, Blessed be He, was justice. I had also noticed that when Rabbi Tammim spoke…’
‘A name is crossed out again’ said Eli, ‘I think it is the same person. Clearly he must have done something very wicked for his name to have been obliterated in this way.’
‘[XXX] stirred. He had not spoken a word for more than a year, since the time he had, in youthful exuberance, and against all the forewarnings of our master, tried to unravel the Zohar’s teachings. He was no longer glassy-eyed. It was as if the conversation he was witnessing had brought back his soul from the depth of madness to the tip of his tongue. He did not speak. Had I only known what would come to pass, I would have tried
