Joshua: Chapter 5

From whence do you draw sustenance?

Feed from the earth

feed from the sky

a time to say goodbye

and reroot

[For full chapter, click here

This chapter continues the theme of transition, but here we have exited the liminal space, and the change has become "complete" (t'm) (5:8) and definitive.

First, the crossing is complete, and its impact immediate: The passage into the Land through the dried river bed "melts" the hearts of the Canaanites." It is as though the the waters displaced by Israel enters into the very bodies of the inhabitants.  Rahab's prediction becomes fact: "no man has spirit to stand against them."

Even as Israel approaches contact with the people that dwell "to the west" of the river, the chapter goes out to create a complete separation. Joshua is commanded to circumcise all the sons of Israel. This creates a break not only between the children of Israel and the Canaanites, but between the generation of Israel that enters the Land, and those that came before them: "For all the males  that came forth from Egypt ... died in the wilderness by the way... All the people that came out were circumcised, but all the people who born in the wilderness along the way as they came forth from Egypt were not circumcised... For the children of Israel walked in the wilderness for forty years, until all the nation of the men of war that left Egypt was utterly gone (t'm)... and [God] raised their children in their stead, and those did Joshua circumcise" (5: 4-7).  Again and again it is emphasized that there has been an absolute break from Egypt. Those who have entered the land were born on the "way", in the liminal space of the wilderness. 

The break between generations is emphasized by the keeping of the Passover, a re-doing of the exodus by the new generation that has entered the Land. The holiday of redemption becomes a celebration of entering rather than of leave taking. This transitional Passover allows the final break is from the liminal space of the desert itself. No longer will Israel be fed from the Moses' manna. The end of Passover also marks the end of the miraculous bread from the sky; the end of the not-quite-real existence of wilderness wandering . From now on , Israel will be fed from the Land itself. 

  . 

The chapter ends by emphasizing the absolute break between Moses and Joshua, as Joshua sees the "Captain of the Hosts of God" in a vision that echoes Moses' revelation at the burning bush.  Like Moses, Joshua is told to "remove his shoes from his feet, for the land that you stand on is holy" (5:15). But the very similarity highlights the magnitude of the change: where Moses had a revelation that was "face to face", Joshua meets only an angel. The end of the manna is also the end of direct contact with God.]

Joshua 4: In writing

Feel your feet

sink the sand

into a small round space

Feel your weight

against the roaring weight

of the wall behind

Anchored in sand

like a ship drifting 

against the current

Feel the water

seep between your toes

sweep the floor from beneath you

Disintegrating grains

 water fills the void

left by your passing

Joshua: Chapter 4

Recreation. 

Take the inside out,

bring the ourside in

Stable in the swirl

foot sunk in sand--

then disconnect at let the water back in.

[For full chapter, click here

This chapter followes seemlessly from the last: it is the actualization of the plans and commands.  If the previous chapter ends with the announcment that "all the nation passed through the Jordan," this chapter begins at the moment after "and it was, when all the nation passed through the Jordan." If in the previous chapter, God promised Joshua that "I will begin to magnify you in the eyes of this nation, and they will know that as I was with Moses I will be with you" (3: 7),  in this chapter it has become a fact: "on that day God magnified Joshua in the eyes of all of Israel, and they feared him as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life" (4:14).

Continued is the theme of transition, here embodied in the Jordan River, the literal passage between before and after, inside and outside, As in the case of Rahab and her window, there is something sacred about the liminal space, and about the right of passage. The men that Joashua "prepared" before the passage must go back and take stones from the bedrock of the river, by the very feet of the preists. These stones are to be set up in the first "resting place" that Israel finds within the Land (again, an allusion to Moses and his experience at the "resting place" [malon] on his way to Egypt], continuing the presence of the passage. These are to be "speaking stones", arousing testemony. And even as teh Jordan is moved into the Land, the outer edge is moved into the Jordan, as twelve stones are set up within the river, to permenantly link the before and after. Thus, the desert experience is linked into teh transitional space of the river, and the river is moved into the "resting place" at Gilgal.  

Holding the passage open are the feet of the preists, rooted within the watery mud, causing the river to pile up on one side, and dry up on the other. "As soon as the soles of the preists' feet were lifted to the dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, running between its banks as before" (4:18). The transition from Moses to Joshua, from desert to the Land, revolves around literal movement: around learning to walk in a new way.]

Joshua 3: In Writing

At the edge

your toe traces the line

between water and mud

Blue above, waters below.

In the distance the yellow ripening

of sumer  wheat

. 

Step and watch 

the waters gather. The earth emerge

mud and glistening,

As it sprawled out

on the second day.

See the wall of waves

brood above you

the drying trickle

eging its way to the salt sea

Joshua: Chapter 3

The moment of crossing 

Waters gathered

Waters dried

[For full chapter, click here

"This day I will begin to magnify you in the eyes of Israel, and they will know that as I was with Moses, I will be with you" (3: 7) God declares to Joshua, as the nation prepares to cross the Jordan river into the Land. Indeed, the crossing of the river is set up as a prallel to the three of Moses' greats acts. The "three days" (3:2) days of waiting echoe the lead up to the revelation at Sinai. The splitting of the Jordan is set up as a recreation of the Splitting of the Sea. And the choice of "twelve men, a man for each tribe" (3:2) alludes the the  initial senidng forth of the spies.

Throughout, the chapter focuses on the act of crossing (a'v'r), and the liminal edges between one state at the next, the literal "edges" of the river.

This crossing that Moses could not make marks the transformation of the people of Israel from wandering nomads into a settled nation (goy). TCutting off the last vestiges of connection to Moses and the encampment he had so carefully set up, what hapens next, No longer do  the "pillar of fire" and cloud show the way. A new "path" (derekh) must be found, and this chapter picks up on the key words of the opening chapter--teh nation as a whole must learn to walk with Joshua.

The Ark of Covenant moves into prominence. Rather than being carried in the middle, as it was in teh desert, it leads the way, a physical marker that God's presence will accmpany Israel in this passing. "a living God is amongst you" (3: 10). 

The closingof the chapter, with the waters piling up on one side, while drying on the others, is a graphic presentation of this moment of transformation.] 

Joshua 2: In Writing

Within the wall

back to the city

belly to the mountain

porous and pulsing, 

I encircle.

Come within me

hide in my embrace

as I lower you down my hair

that final thread

red blood of morning

leading down from the dark womb

Three days and three nights

and over the hilld

look back at the oval suspended above you

the pale faced pinned against the sky

the walls you cling to

crumbling around her

Joshua: Chapter 2

What keeps watch at the doorway, between? 

Are you penetrable,  knowable? 

Shut the door,  yet open the window

Give me a sign.

[For full chapter, click here
This chapter continues the focus on theme of transition, which here is given a tangible embodiment.
 We begin with the transition between Moses to Joshua. Joshua acts as Moses,  sending out spies. Yet this time, in a successful reiteration, Joshua sends only  two--a recreation of the successful spies, Caleb and himself. The other ten spies are forgotten.
We move on to the transition between the Encampment and the Land.  The spies are to scout out "Jericho, and the land", looking both at the countryside and the city. They stop at the liminal space between the two--the house of Rahab, who lives within the city wall itself, straddling the separation. Rahab becomes the key to the spies success in Jericho, straddling metaphorically between Israel and the inhabitants of the land. It is she who gives the spies their information. And saving  their lives, she demands to be saved in turn. Her literal liminality indeed becomes the key to salvation: she saves the spies by lowering them by rope out her window, and is saved in turn by hanging a "red thread" in her window. This thread, tikvat (lit. 'extension' 'hope') hut ha-shani, signals a way forward, and opening for hope.
Rahab not only lives in a liminal space--she herself is a liminal space, an entrance waiting to be penetrated. The language of the chapter is unremittingly sexual.  Rahab is described as a zonah (which means both innkeeper and whore). The spies "come to her" (repeatedly) and "lie there" in her home; she is told the spies have come to "plow" the land; and she repeatedly speaks of "knowing" (the carnal daat) and "not-knowing."  Indeed, there are many echoes of the Sodom story, with its threat of sexual violence. Rahab's advice to the spies to flee "to the mountain" echoes the angels' advice to Lot to "flee to the mountain" (hahara nasu).
Yet it is Rahab and her family who actually play the part of Lot, saved from the destroyed city. In  saving the spies--"sending them forth", as Joshua had "sent" them --Rahab metaphorically opens herself and the city up as conquest. In exchange, she is granted a protection that echoes Israel's protection in Egypt during the plague  of the firstborn. By marking the limen, she is set aside].

Joshua 1: In writing

Hold me tight

as I hold on to you

seeing you in 

the palm of my hand

the sole of my feet

I fit my foot to your footstep

disappearing over the plane

winding up the mountain.

Can I be you—

You, whose loss is path I cannot trace

I search for your face

that saw face to face

while I see reflections 

in the murmuring waters

separating between us

you carried between rushing reeds

you carried over the deeps

as I wait at the bottom

listening to a distant roar

till you appear

face a beacon

blinding.

as the distant mountaintop

how can you be quenched and dark

how can I rise

and take what you never got

barred at the river.

Do not leave me

as I get up to leave you.

Joshua: Chapter 1

How do you rise when down? 
How do you learn to walk? 
Hold me please!

[For full chapter, click here

"And it was after the death of Moses, servant of God"--these words open the new section of the Bible, and are definitive of the new era. Again and again, the chapter emphasizes that "Joshua, minister of Moses" draws from the remnants of his master. The land will be given "as I spoke to Moses"; God will be with him, as He was "with Moses"; the people will obey him, as they "obeyed Moses." He seems to have no presence or will of his own. This sense of diminished potential is reflected in the grammatical structure of the chapter, which is dominated by negative ( lo) rather than positive forms. The word rak--only--is repeated throughout.

Yet within this crushing ambiance of loss, God exhorts Joshua to "rise". He must learn to walk, to move beyond the stasis of drawing from Moses. His relationship to the land will be defined by where "the sole of [his] foot falls." His wisdom will come through movement, "in every way he walks." Only then will his "path succeed."  God's exhortation is dominated by the leitworts "walking" (l'kh) and "path" (derekh}. And indeed, Joshua moves on to order the Children of Israel to prepare to move.  

Learning to walk is not easy. Again and again, God promises not to let go--"I will not loosen My hold, and will not leave you." On his part, Joshua must--as Moses exhorted him back in Deuteronomy--"Be strong and have courage." ]

New Year, New Section of Bibliodraw. Hello to the Prophets / Neviim

As many of you know, I had a bit of a crises when I finished Deuteronomy--and with it the first section of Bibliodraw. The Pentatuch, hamisha humshei Torah, are a unit in and of themselves, with unifying patterns, cross reference, and a continuing narrative.
After completing Deuteronomy, I tried to continue immediately with the Book of Joshua. I couldn't. The move from the stunning poetry  and complex narratology of Deuteronomy to the simple, bloody story of  Joshua was jarring.

I could barely get myself to pick up a pen. My mind and heart were still caught up in the first section of Bibliodraw: the links between the books, the development of the narrative, the development of the imagery.
I decided to take a break, and focus on integrating what I had so far.
In the meantime, Bibliodraw was featured in two important exhibitions--one in the Senate Gallery in Ben Gurion University, the other currently up in the Mishkan Museum of Art in Ein Harod. This gave some closure. Add to that a baby, a move, and a new job, and I feel it is time to move on.
With much exhortations from my brother Oriel, I have finally decided to pick up the gauntlet.
For this book, I have decided to use black marker. The monochromatic palette will create a  visual link to Deuteronomy, emphasizing that the Book of Joshua picks up exactly where it ends off. This is the sequel.
the simplicity of the marker does not allow too much fine detail, which i think is appropriate for the simple language and narrative of this book
Bibliodraw Part II, here we come.
Oriel, this one is for you!