Monday, June 27, 2005

The Words of the Prophets are Written on the Subway Walls

From ripped-up street posters at Kikar Zaltzberger ("Beit Elisheva‘"):
[the traffic circle intersection where El‘azar Hamoda‘i and Koveshey Qatamon streets turn into each other while crossing Hhizqiyahu Hamelekh, in the Valley of the Aboriginal Ghosts, Jerusalem]


עוד ארבעים יום
וגוש קטיף נהפכת

בעוון גזל

שובו שובו מדרכיכם הרעים ולמה תמותו בית ישראל — יחזקאל ל"ג י"א
ולא תקיא הארץ אתכם בטמאכם אותה — ויקרא י"ח כ"ח



מחללי השם
הסירו טלפיכם
מעיר האבות

ולא תקיא הארץ אתכם בטמאכם אותה



מתפנים מההתנחלויות
למען נחדל
מעושק ידינו


Or in other words...


Forty More Days
And Gush Katif Shall Be Overturned
*
Because of the Sin of Robbery

Turn away, turn away from your evil ways, for why should you die, House of Israel? — Ezekiel 33:11
So that the Land will not vomit you out for your defiling of it. — Leviticus 18:28



Desecrators of God's Name
Remove Your Hooves
from the City of the Ancestors

So that the Land will not vomit you out for your defiling of it.



We Are Vacating Ourselves From the Settlements
In Order to Stop
the Oppression Done by Our Hands



* = a reference to the Prophet Yonah's declaration against the city of Nineveih. Interestingly enough, in the story of Yona on the ship, when he convinces the sailors to throw him overboard, they ask God to forgive them, saying (Yona 1:14):
"Please, God, let us not perish for this man's life, and do not hold us accountable for [spilling] innocent blood..."
The expression they use for "innocent blood" — dam naqi — is spelled with an extra silent alef at the end of naqi, as if it were a form of the verb lehaqi’ "to vomit" found in the quote above about the Land vomiting out those who defile it. So you could easily read the verse drashicly as if the sailors were saying, "Please don't hold us accountable for causing Yona's death by throwing him off the ship; we don't really want to do it, we can barely stand to do it; even the thought of killing someone makes us sick inside..."

6 Comments:

Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

Not that i've heard... i think the "we" referenced in the poster is meant to refer to the Jewish People, or the Israeli Nation, or some similar collective national 'we'.

6/28/2005 9:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would love to be the person who crafted those. Such Judaism! Such in your faceness! Such standing up for religious values! Even if you don't agree with the politics, the words of the Nevi'im are so powerful - just look at them!
-Alan

I see a yeshaya reference there too, I think. Can you identify the sources for all the phrases in the posters?

6/29/2005 12:04 AM  
Blogger Reuven Chaim Klein said...

Maybe these settlers/suburbanites in Gush Katiff should get the hint...

6/29/2005 1:25 AM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

Alan:

I know, the phrases sound familiar, but i haven't been able to place them. I searched on Snunit and Mechon Mamre but i couldn't find any instance of the exact phrase ‘osheq yadeinu.

7/01/2005 6:30 AM  
Blogger Reuven Chaim Klein said...

try it without the vav in oshek and/or without the second yud yadeinu.

7/05/2005 1:04 AM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

עשק ידינו is from Ne‘ila on Yom Kippur

9/26/2006 11:46 AM  

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