The Source

The Source
By James Michener

The architecture of the 900 page story is comprised with a current day story at the Tell, an archeological dig in Israel, where artifacts and maps are introduced with a brief interpretation that are then woven into a story in humanity that may have taken place at that period of time. He begins with the family of Ur living in a cave and a story on how a wife urges her husband to farm as it brings about a more stable life style with a higher degree of predictability in feeding their own. In their trial and error attempts at farming, using primitive scientific method, she draws errant conclusion that lead to rituals. As the chapters progress, moving time forward in quantum leaps chapter by chapter, Michener maintains the lineage of the family Ur and their desire to simply figure out the laws of the universe or in other words reality. The rituals turn in to religions and the mystery of faith, which eventually gains a name Yahweh, or God. With that name, man humanized god, which caused them to drift away from God or in other words reality, and render themselves dependent on interpreters of the mysteries of faith, or in other words not yet explained phenomena of our universe, God.

Before the Jews got the ultimate Roman boot from what was finally called Palestine, many laws were written to interpret Moses’ original Torah. Jewish priests congregated and spent days ad nausium codifying day to day life with every attempt to build a fence around their faith in God. Circumcisions, cleanliness, health, marriage, and diet were some of the areas discussed in this book. Many of the laws would not pass the test of today’s American justice system. What you learned was that the Jews take a degree of pleasure making life hard on themselves. They did this because of their feeling that strict obedience would be required to maintain a connection with God as opposed to the land, This inspired inappropriate rituals at times. Michener leaves the impression that Jews prompted their own exodus and built laws in anticipation of creating the mortar to hold them together as a people as they were cast to the wind.

In the course of the discovery of how things work Michener draws a parallel theme of the conquests of what we now know as Israel by the Egyptians, Babylonians, Romans, Muslims, Crusaders, Mamelukes, Turks, and the English. Yes believe it or not, the Jews fought against the Arabs and their English allies in 1948. I learn once again where our current Middle East problems lay at the hands of the colonists of the 19th century. So in the end Israel is established through war. What is interesting in looking once again at the moral justification of Israel, Michener enlightens the reader on the deterioration of the landscape of the Fertile Crescent as the result of a thousand years of war, and the nomadic way of life of the Arabs in conjunction of failed suzerainty of the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Where the Michener lets argument break down in the case for Israel is first that the people that cultivated the fertile crescent, were not at any time in history a 100 % Jewish population. Secondly the Laws that held Jews together in Diaspora are the exact laws that would slow progress in a State of Israel.


My reaction speaks to mis represented knowledge: This book is a historic novel based on a fictitious archeological dig in Israel where each level of the dig is the portal to a story of the people of the times on that land. Michener takes a novelist licenses to write what he wants, bending history such that he who is reading for pure entertainment wouldn’t notice. The author’s message clearly has a bias towards Judaism, which I suspect is derived from the current State of Israel in 1964 at the time he penned the book. The history novel begins with the question posed by early man on “how the universe works” That question is answered by characters in the story using logical discovery in cause and effect, with misguided conclusions. These misguided conclusions were largely contrived my unsubstantiated leaps of faith, which is the scientific way of saying the experiment was flawed. In not challenging the flaws of experiment, rituals in support of misguided interpretations of reality were adopted by the people. The rituals became codified laws, which gave birth to religions. This sounds like critique on all brands of religion taken by Michener for being the insightful ones with the knowledge to connect to God. Separate from the book but somewhat analogous to the book I would also include scientific academia for often times manipulating the levers of the power of knowledge to establish their own place of authority to their own selfish material gains and at the expense of truth. It seems where truth meets reality (god) is in practical application of knowledge. Institutional knowledge, on either side of the mystic fence, should always be put to the test of practicality.

In an attempt to leverage a collection of historic evidence thorough interpretation, there is a consistent deviation from this portal of Makor, Israel where the author leaps to other parts of the world to elaborate on the plight of the Jews in their time of Diaspora. Michener barely scratches the surface of the Christianity and Islam in Makor, which leaves the reader disappointed as he yearns for the whole truth, both from a theological and philosophical standpoint. He also does a tremendous job tarnishing the Western World’s Crusades, where the Crusaders slashed and slaughtered even their own people. They did this in their bloodthirsty ignorance in understanding of not only the Middle East but also all the people they met on their journeys to the Promised Land. Michener also spends a couple of chapters raising the ghosts of the Spanish Inquisition and the continued persecution of Jews through Lutheran regions as well. While this is history and a novel rendition, I find no use for the diversion other than to feel a little more sorry for the Jews as he builds his moral justification argument. He briefly covers the Mamalukes and then Ottoman dominion over people for centuries who let the land deteriorate to ruins and further make the case for the superior Jewish husbandry of the land as their moral right.

While one cannot argue with history, Michener attempts to craft a story to make a case for the moral argument for the State of Israel as the only people who put the land to good use. Yet within the moral argument there are contradictions. The basic assumption is that Judaism is a religion of laws making the assumption that the masses cannot find God on their own and more so is God not found in the land. Hence to dictate the conscience of a people on simple day-to-day moral decisions like who to marry, the decisions in Israel are delegated to the rabbis where husbandry to the land is left array at times in pursuit of their God. The amoral justification for the existence of Israel is much like that of almost every other nation on earth, which is military conquest. While Michener does go into detail on many sieges waged against the Jews and then the Jews’ 1948 reclaim of their land, there is no argument made in the book that military conquest should stand on that merit alone. The irony in this unfortunate equation is found in the last paragraph of the book, which is found in a single word within fourteen line sentence describing the last word with is rationale for the use of that word, hence the fourteen lines of the book ends with the word uttered by a rabbi in his final moment of his own execution is “one”.

In the final chapter the main character recognizes the irony and has to grapple with a solution. He recognizes that for Israel to succeed it must be an amalgamation of Muslim, Christians, and Jews, living in harmony. The book written in 1964, does not have the benefit of a 46-year time span, post publication to learn that apparently there is too much polarization for this notion of One to happen. There is as well too much unrest in the Muslim world as they war with each other on Israel’s boarders for them to feel their boarders are safe. So domestically and internationally the test for Israel continues. In epilogue; to a Jew “the test” is what their faith is all about. There is not the benefit in the examination as to the test question; if separation of church and state could unit all the people. Nor does Michener discuss the penchant for Muslims to push Jews into the sea. What we do have now unfortunately is a group of world leaders as equally inept in this regard as those of 1919, acquiescing to a boarder between Palestinians and Jews and a wall, much like we Americans advocate on our southwest boarder. This is an indictment of Israel, but also a question mark on mankind as a whole as we have failed to focus on that one word. We are all One sharing the same universe, call it God if you want.

Bibliography

P 79 Men had not yet discovered that the forces of the world could be propitiated by conscious acts of subservience; many times in the two hundred thousand years the cave had been deserted when food supplies in the region diminished

P 113 Once men took the cultivation of their fields seriously the worship of such goddess was in evitable. In principle it was a gentile religion, paralleling man’s most profound experience, regeneration through the mystery of sex.

P 260 She saw that Makor was merely a frontier settlement concerned with thing that could be felt and touched, such as walls, olive presses, the dye vats, and it was only logical that the town should insist upon holding on to its practical gods like Baal; but she had faith that in Jerusalem ideas were more important than things- the relationship of god to man, justice, the nature of worship-and she was convinced that in Jerusalem there must many who thought as she did.

P 273 But in the Autumn of 1964, in the month of Bul- when the rain clouds make their first tentative appearance over the Carmel and farmers gather wood for their fires – a descendant of the great family Ur stumbled upon the long forgotten tunnel, and shortly it was excavated with photographs of notable work becoming common throughout the world. Engineers hailed it as a masterpiece of construction, “one of the first great surveying feats”, and in a n age that appreciated science many words were written on th timeless message which the unknown engineer of Makor had sent the world; a French philosopher claimed that this “mute genius of the Makor water system speaks to modern man more cogently than those who wrote the Psalms, for he exemplified in work that portion of the divine spirit which has always prized acts as much as words. His tunnel is a psalm in fact, the son of those who accomplish God’s work.”

P298 Jewish priest to Gomer “ In chains and yokes shall you march to Babylon. It is the destiny of Israel to perish from the land that is has known, that it may find its god once more.

P 331 But since any deity must be referred to in some manner the custom had grown up of calling YHWH by the arbitrary Hebrew word Adonai, which would later be translated into other languages as Lord.

P341 “The Greeks and the English”, Eliav reflected “They are the ones who took games seriously. Gave us an ideal of sportsmanship. And not only in games. Your fight an Englishman in war or politics, fight him fairly, and when the war’s over you shake hands, I wish we Jews and Arabs learned that kind of discipline.”

P 347 It seemed to him the Melissa was speaking of the trivial manipulation of society – if the Jews behaved, a boy like Benjamin might one day be governor – while Jehubel was being drivin to consider the ultimate relationship of the chosen people with YHWH…..Two hundred years from this night, not far from this very spot, Hellenism still searching would discover a more pliable religion arising in Galilee, and that union of philosophical Greek and Christian Jew would provide the spark which would ignite the world

P 354 It is ironic that I should be imprisoned in this temple, but if it is true that each man in his life builds his own prison, and inhabits it in the way crawling fish inhabit shells along the beach at Caesarea, then I have built for myself an exquisite jail, exactly suited to the kind of man I have always wanted to be.

P 367 Throughout Jerusalem the deout began to cheer, and I think there might have been a riot except that Herod’s African and German mercenaries descended upon the mob and arrested the two priests ….The two priests and three boys who chopped down the eagle were burned alive before the temple gates. … Herod informed Augusts, so that Rome need not fear. Herod would kill a million Jews, if it were necessary, to keep Caesar Augustus placated.

P 427 But Yigal mastered his excitement. He could not be attracted permanently to any religion that had abandoned Judaism, heading for new directions which he could not foresee, so he left the meeting with Ptolemais and returned to Makor. For some few days the words of Paul disturbed him, and for a while he thought of discussing them with Rab Nssman, but he did not do so; and as we have seen eight years later in 67 C.E he was caught up in th struggles against Rome and was himself crucified not far from Nazareth – at about the time Paul was being beheaded for somewhat similar reasons.

P 433 the legalist Akiba – and thes two self made men conspired to save Judaism; for they assembled the law whereby Jews could live now that the external forces of their religion, the Temple of Jerusalem was no more. Fore once all Jews had lived either in Galilee or the south, but now only a small percentage dod so, for the Romans had driven the majority to Spain, Egypt, to Babylonia, to Arabia and to countries not yet named. How scattered they were, powerless, yet always bound to Israel by the work of Rab Naamanand and Akiba .

P 436 “Swastika.” And in this manner the notable design, common throughout Asia, became virtually the symbol of the Galilean synagogue, for all visiting rabbis who saw the effective frieze wanted swastikas for their buildings too..

P 460 “It was therefore each student’s responsibility to ascertain God’s intentions, and so to help them in the task Rabbi Asher proposed certain drills” “If our desire is to uncover God’s wishes, we must develop minds that can penetrate shadows, for the mists produced by living obscure the truth and you cannot discern it unless you sharpen your wits.”

P 483 “ But the old law that kept this sin permanently upon your soul is abrogated.” He saw the young man did not understand this word, but he was inspired and hurried on. “The harsh old law is no more and in its place has come the new law of love and redemption. If this night you tell me that you are willing to join Christ, your sin will vanish forever.”

P 490 Jews, heartened by news of rebellions in Kefar, Nahum and Tverya…there was fighting and a Byzantine soldier was killed; but Father Eusebius, still hoping to avoid war, maintained control over his troops.

P 494 …since he was now firmly bound to the basilica as he had been to th synagogue, for when a man builds a place of worship he walls himself inside.

P 495 The difference between Christian law and Jewish would be this: to enforce their law Jews, who would never be in supreme control, would be limited to public opinion including such punishments as ostracism, but the Christians, to enforce theirs would be free, since the would enjoy supreme power, to use strangulation, burning and the expatripation of entire provinces.

P 512 but in making this attempt he had insisted upon the orthodox opinion that Christ had two separate natures, human and completely divine; but this doctrine was not acceptable to the ordinary people of Makor.

P 513Mark, and the debate was no more trivial than how it had been then: it was an effort to build a base from which Christianity could conquer the world. If one considered Jesus to be all man, His divinity was rendered meaningless, while the Miracle Mary as the Mother of God vanished; on the other hand, if one argued that he was all God, the signifance of human redemption was diminished and the crucifixion could be interpreted merely as a device adopted by God to prove a point.

P 530 “Those of you who worship Muhammad must know that he is dead like any man, but those of you who worship God know that He lives forever” And it was this community of God that had given Arabs like Abd Umar the power to go forward.

P535 Cold Abd Umar announced “ At the moment this man said, ‘I accept Islam’ he became one of us, and is it is forbidden for any of your to speak to him against the faith he has chosen. Who else accepts the Prophet?”

P 548 So at the instigation of the Christians a curious agreement had been worked out” the Christians would rule the world but the Jews would finance it.

P 564 Gunter raise his thin face and looked with a certain calm content into Volkmar’s eyes and said “ What we needed in addition to our faith in God was armed soldiers and knights like you to lead them.

P 566 They were hurt when I had to tell tem Saladin wasn’t even one tenth per cent Arab.

P 594 As the pilgrims headed toward Nazereth the count explained to his son, “ The secret of wealth is to have many people working, but in the old days we did not understand this, so we slaughtered all who lived on the land because they were a different religion.

P 617 The Jew moved closer, wiped his hands and said “ You believe that God is three, that in the body of Jesus He took Human form, and that in such form God can be worshiped. We don’t.”…and it seemed strange to him that the Christians could share a church with Muslims, whom they were fighting to the death, but could not possibly do so with Jews, from whom Christianity had sprung.

P 653 but with the ascendancy of Thomas de Troquemade as Inquisitor-General of Spain and his elevation of the Inquisition to a position independent of the Pope and emperor, the policing powers of the body had degenerated into a kind of panic and terror.

P 677 His tormentors that day had little thought for the law of Moses, nor for anything else except the hearty hose-play of the Middle Ages, preserved in Germany long after it vanished elsewhere; for after a perfunctory sermon which reminded the Jews of the merciful quality of the Church, they were herded to the northern side of the cathedral, where a most robust statue more famous than either that of the Church or the Synagogue at the entrance had been set into the stone wall. It was the notorious Sow of Gretz.

P 685 “possibly, because Judaism was a hard, tough old religion that didn’t give an individual enough free play. It could never have appealed to the world at large. The bright, quixotic religion of Christianity was ideally suited for such a proselytizing need”…” I would have thought, Cullinane suggested, “that religious problem is always “How can man come to know God”?”

P 711 Yet even as he had compiled this part of the letter, he had confessed to himself tha any scholar who analyzed his precedents would become aware that step by step, from Spain to Turkey, a chain of distinguished rabbis had been moving slowly and perhaps unconsciously away from a strict interpretation of the Torah and Talmud. Encouraged by the liberalist like Maimonides a group of liberal rabbis began to evolve a tradition of their own.

P 712 With this courtly letter the battle was joined. It never became a personal brawl between Eliezer and Abulafia; the other rabbis and the good sense of the two participants prevented that. But it did become a fundamental confrontation between the two dynamic forces of Judaism in that age: Ashkenazi legality versus Shepardi mysticism; or put another way conservative versus liberal

P 718 “The myustic perceives with his heart what his mind knows to be true…but cannot prove,” Abulafia began. “And we know that’s prior to creation God must have been immanent in all things. Without God there could be nothing. But if a merciful God is all things and is responsible for all things, how can we experience events like the burning of Jews at Podi?”

P 731 There Tabari had been the lone Arab in classes dominated by Greeks, Bulgars, and Persians, and had learned with what contempt the Turkish rulers held all Arabs, those least and lowliest of the empire.

P 741 Cullinane had learned not to expect Catholic Ireland and Catholic Spain to share common views, and he doubted that Muslim Turkey and Muslim Syria ever would, either. For religion was not a solid basis upon which to construct either a nation or congeries of nations, and he would see the distant time when Pan-Arabism, not religion would unite. … he caught himself wondering whether the new state of Israel had been wise to commit herself so completely to one faith, no matter how deeply rooted in the local that faith might be.

P 758 “AT Peqiin I discovered how to handle the Bedouins. First you offer to but their friendship. And if you fail, you take a gun and fight them.

P 763 For Cullinane the problem of the Jews moral right to Israel was simple. It was a question of custodianship. When Herod was king, the Galilee held a population of more than a half a million; in Byzantine times more than a million. But at the end of Arab, Crusader, and Turkish rule the same land supported less than sixty thousand.

P 765 Where ever the Bedouin took his camels and his goats he destroyed good land to create his own desert.

P 809 “ Its on all our heads” Bar-El replied simple. “Your mother’s and my uncle’s. You English have done everything possible to destroy Palestine. When you leave… in a few minutes…you’ll turn all the installations over to the Arabs wont you? Arms, food, everything.”

P 815 If you want a monument to English venality in Israel, look to the 261 steps in Safad.

P 820 “That coast.” She interrupted with disgust. “ That didn’t come from Israel and we don’t want it here. That fur hat. That blackness. That gloom. All from the ghetto…. But Ilana, having done the thing refused to move. “where is such a custom in Talmud? “ she cried. “In medevil Poland they used to shave the heads of brides so that the Gentile noblemen wouldn’t demand to sleep with them on the wedding night. To make them ugly”

P 879 And Vered, speaking softly as one whos has just discoveredher portion of truth, however Meager, said “ Dio I remember? Eliav, it seems to me we Jews spend our lives remembering, and I’ve suddenly discovered that I’m sick and tired of living in a land of remembrance.

P 885 American: “ Now Vered and I must leave…for the best home the Jews of the world have ever had.”