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The Law of Love or Doom
The broken dike, the levee washed away,
The good fields flooded and the cattle drowned,
Estranged and treacherous all the faithful ground,
And nothing left but floating disarray
Of tree and home uprooted, - was this the day
Man dropped upon his shadow without a sound
And died, having laboured well and having found
His burden heavier than a quilt of clay?
No, no. I saw him when the sun had set
In water, leaning on his single oar
Above his garden faintly glimmering yet
There bulked the plough, here washed the updrifted weeds
And scull across his roof and make for shore,
With twisted face and pocket full of seeds. (1)
We have been chosen to love YHWH or else.
We have witnessed a great deal of scholarly speculation on the meaning of the sacred Tetragrammaton, YHWH: "It is He", "To be", "I am who I am", and so on. Since YHWH was too sacred for utterance, the Masorites alluded to it with three vowels (a, o, a), meaning adonai (lord). The Students of Hebrew at the Revival of Letters mistakenly thought the vowels belonged to the name, Iehova(h), or Jehovah; but the original term is Yahwe(h).
Semitic peoples used the term Shaddai prior to the Exodus, if not the bullish El, for the name of their deity. Professor William Faxwell Albright discussed the heretofore "fallacious" attempts to explain the term, YHWH, in his popular book, From the Stone Age to Christianity.
"The name, which occurs as a place name or tribal name in a list of settlements in southern Palestine from the thirteenth century (B.C.E.), can only be derived from the verbal stem HWY, ' to fall, become, come into existence'.... Yahwe, spelled YHWH, would be the later indicative form. As in, "Yahwe sebaot" (He Who Causes The Hosts (of Israel?) To Come Into Existence", and "Yahwe shalom" (He Who Causes Peace to Exist."
Wherefore we might think of YHWH as The Creative Power, The Potency, The Causeless Cause, The Omnipotent Creator, The Supreme Being, and so on. Any attempt to define YHWH with attributes, even by means of a particular name, would delimit the limitless, define the indefinite, and therefore desecrate The Unknown, the One, The Ultimate deity. Whereas the "Existentialists" are concerned with individual existence and put it before Being, perhaps allowing individuals communal beingness in a "Category of One", those who prefer Being as Such put Being before existence, and hold that beingness is a predicate of every existent.
Many religious consider the Occult Predicate of All Existence as The Divine Person. Yet intellectual savants at the core of popular religions, true to their iconoclastic nature, consider the personal qualities attributed to Being including humanoid personality itself as the attributes of an anthropomorphic projection whereby human beings, by way of metaphor, make gods in their own ego-image for public convenience.
Since Being is the Universal stripped of It's predicates, or what can be said of It, the infinitely variable X is sometimes considered in its negative aspect, as Nothing. Of course there is a subtle and crucial difference between Being and Nothing. We have this occult interpretation of Exodus XVII.7, in regards to the thirsty grumblers at Massah - Moses struck a rock, from which water proceeded to flow: "And concerning this, the children of Israel wish to know in their minds, like as it is written: is the Tratragrammaton in the midst of us, or the 'Negatively Existent One?'
Such philosophical discussions seem to challenge the very existence of God. But that is not at issue for the intellectual elect, especially those whom are irrationally illuminated. Consider Ayatolla Sahabi's statement to Ali Hashemi in regards to the impossibility for finding a 'sufficient' cause for any effect, let alone a 'First Cause' and a God:
"For twelve hundred years mullahs have been writing proofs for the existence of God. Believe me, I've taught theology for a long time - none of them is a real proof. The only real proof can come through illumination. You're an intelligent young man - don't waste your life as a slave to superstition."
"But you pray, you fast, you're famous for your piety."
"When I discovered that there was no rational proof of the existence of God I tried to stop praying. I became ill; I couldn't eat and couldn't keep my balance. Then I discovered another way to believe. I pray, and you should pray. Most important, you should require the people around you to pray. Do you think that the people around you would leave anything in its proper place if they knew there was no life after this life? One puff and all order in society would blow away like a house of straw. You're a good boy and intelligent. You've studied erfan and have enough strength to hear what I have just told you. Now go before other people and arrive." (2)
Human beings are of course self-conscious, reasoning social creatures whose survival depends on the emulation of one another, particularly the best examples. A popular personal example of the highest good or God is far more likely to have practical consequences in this world than disembodied abstractions. As Alfarabi said, "Foremost among all these (four) sciences (for the acheivement of supreme happiness) is that which gives an account of the beings as they are perceived by the intellect with certain demonstrations. The others merely take those same beings and employ persuasion about them or represent them with images so as to facilitate the instruction of the multitudes of nations and the citizens of cities."
In any case, the tribal deity of the Hebrews and the Israelites was not the later abstraction of Jewish intellectuals, but was a He, sometimes as arbitrary, ambivalent, and ambiguous as any tribal leader, meting out mercy here and murder there, placing everyone in a sort of double-bind of damned if you do and damned if you don't, so may God have mercy on our souls, if not here then Hereafter. The Hebrew deity was not altogether arbitrary in the irrational sense, for the Divine Arbiter represented the sense of Justice every sane person must feel if he or she is a social creature - no less a god than Zeus said anyone who does not have a sense of justice should be put to death (Plato's Protagoras). There shall be hell to pay in cases of injustice - the entire community might have to pay that bill.
"Thou shalt love YHWH or else!" Or else what?
Or else, just when everything is going rather well, all hell shall break loose.
Observe how Miyanoshita cracked in two
And slid into the valley; he that stood
Grinning with terror in the bamboo wood
Saw the earth heave and thrust its bowels through
The hill, and his own kitchen slide from view,
Spilling the warm bowl of his humble food
Into the lap of horror; mark how lewd
This cluttered gulf,- 'twas here his paddy grew.
Dread and dismay have not encompassed him;
The calm sun sets; unhurried and aloof
Into the riven village falls the rain;
Days pass; the ashes cool; he builds again
His paper house upon oblivion's brim,
And plants the purple iris in its roof. (1)
For those who prefer the ancient prophets, we have this from Revelations:
The traders who had made a fortune out of her will be standing at a safe distance from fear of her agony, mourning and weeping. They will be saying:
'Mourn, mourn for this great city;
for all the linen and purple and scarlet that you wore,
for all your finery of gold and jewels and pearls,
your riches are all destroyed within a single hour.'
All the captains and seafaring men, sailors and those who make a living from the sea will be keeping at a safe distance, watching the smoke as she burns, crying out, 'Has there ever been a city as great as this!' They will throw dust on their heads and say, with tears and groans:
'Mourn, mourn for this great city
whose lavish living has made a fortune
for every owner of a seafaring ship;
ruined within an hour.'
'Now heaven, celebrate her downfall, and all you saints, apostles and prophets: God has given a judgement for you against her.'
Then a powerful angel picked up a boulder like a great millstone, and as he hurled it into the sea, he said, 'That is how the great city of Babylon is going to be hurled down, never to be seen again.'
Never again in you, Babylon,
will be heard the song of harpists and minstrels,
the music of flute and trumpet;
never again will craftsmen of every skill be found
or the sound of the mill be heard;
never again will shine the light of the lamp,
never again will be heard
the voices of the bridegroom and the bride.
Your traders were the princes of the earth,
all the nations were under your spell.
In her you will find the blood of prophets and saints, and all the blood that was every shed on earth.
The Elements that we depend on for our very lives shall work the death of us. Too much of a good thing is an evil. The Air shall blow our lives away. Fire shall scorch the land and turn our gardens into deserts. Water shall cleanse the Earth of our sins and our selves. Earth shall quake and spew forth molten lava to our instant ruin. The proper order of the Elements, which are in reality somehow intimately related, might be arranged as Air, Fire, Water, Earth (AFWE). Those who believe something may not come from Nothing, and who worship Fire, may prefer FAWE. Nevertheless, every relative good shall be destroyed and society shall disintegrate with it. Wherefore we are commanded, first of all, to bind ourselves to YHWH, and our integrity will be restored.
If we do not love the Universal, if we cleave instead to the distinguished particulars of individual existence, we shall be crushed along with our idols. At least then we shall be closest to YHWH, hence we might be raised up from dust until we become dust again, for the Creator is merciful to prostrated creatures.
We must not doubt the absolute power of X, the ineffable Universal Lord. Religion worships Power while Politics distributes it. "And the Lord cried out aloud saying: My Power, my Power, thou hast foraken me. And when he had so said, he was taken up." (Apocryphal Gospel of Peter)
Thus we find the leading principle of ancient religious politics expressed in the form of an offer we cannot afford to refuse - a contract with the Supreme General. In consideration for being universally feared and loved for evil and good provisions, the Supreme Being shall provide land upon which the lovers may flourish, together of course with all the appurtenances and goods their hearts may desire. But if the Covenant is broken, whether by a few or by many, the iron hand of the Law shall spell out their doom.
Men of all persuasions are still learning the hard way after thousands of years - fortunately YHWH has been merciful if not forgiving.
The Law feared and hated must be loved for one's own good. Love arises from fear in hopes that a lawful, loving, cooperative response will be more successful than a grasping, competitive, hateful one. Empirical evidence supports the proposition that hate engenders hate, and that the best weapon of all is Love. So universal Love is declared the best course for mankind. Love has become so popular that many people, forgetting that Love has its origin in the Law and the fear of punishment for breaking it, are no longer aware that Love is the acquired habit of observing Law. Some even believe Love can replace the Law before everyone has donned the habit of obedience.
The politically astute Supreme General, in an appendix to the contract, stipulates that everyone should love each other as they love the Commander-in-Chief. It follows that they shall fear each other too; the god-fearing, righteous people who execute the Law will be feared most. Evil must be contested in the ranks. Evil must be hated and punished; good must be loved and rewarded.
Again, the greatest good, given the disastrous alternatives, is to love the Supreme General and to obey His commandments without question. That is the deal, the offer we had better not refuse: take it or leave it. Yes, we can leave it if we will, thus is the individual will, the original sin, free to sin.
The Law might seem awfully harsh, but it is necessary if we would have order prevail instead of anarchic chaos or infinite nothingness. Before all and first of all, there is a Power higher than any individual or group, so it behooves us to submit to it. Anyone who does not obey has his free will; he may believe he is a god; and he is a sort of god spelled backwards.
Again, those who love G-d, having been created in the image of G-d, should love one another as well. After all, the Law, being universal, necessarily applies to its distinctive particulars, that the One may be realized as the Concrete Universal - as it abstractly is, in Heaven, so shall it concretely be on Earth. Alas, since the power of individuals is relative and dispersed, it is nearly impossible to make everyone love each other. Still, they are enjoined to do so in no uncertain terms. Failing that, yet another disaster will visit them and vultures shall hover overhead:
Him not the golden fang of furious heaven,
Nor whirling Aeolus on his awful wheel,
Nor foggy specter ramming the swift keel,
Nor flood, nor earthquake, nor the red tongue even
Of fire, disaster's dog - him, him bereaven
Of all save the heart's knocking, and to feel
The air on his face; not the great heel
Of headless Force into the dust has driven.
These sunken cities, tier on tier, bespeak
How ever from the ashes with proud beak
And shining feathers did the phoenix rise,
And sail, and send the vultures from the skies ...
That in the end retunred; for Man was weak
Before the unkindness in his brother's eyes.(1)
There is an escape clause, at least in China: if people fail to positively love each other, they might still enjoy the benefits of society if they do not hate one another. Therefore, instead of doing unto others waht we would have done unto us, we might escape the hounds of hell if we don't do unto others what we would not have done to ourselves. Maybe.
One sort of hatred must by all means be avoided: Groundless Hatred. That is, the hatred of brother against brother, of kin against kin, of kind against kind. The Chosen People lost their Temple, the very Seat of YHWH and their Nation, to the Romans because of Groundless Hatred. And now their religious or political center may not be regained and endure for very long - only after the Messiah appears and the Temple is rebuilt shall Zion be perfected.
The Principle of Leadership must be employed on Earth. Power must be applied to get anything done. Power can be abusively employed; that is, contrary to the contract. The use of the power of X against X is blasphemy. Of course The Leading Principle itself is not the sole property of any one man or group of men; but some persons may represent it more than others in the various offices of power.
The prohibition against Groundless Hatred must be extended to all mankind, meaning that men should not hate each other without just cause; for instance: men should not hate others because of their color or anything else they cannot help. Of course, Hitler was one of the many bad examples of the abuse of power. His Father-principle was a travesty of the Leadership Principle. His case reinforces the theory that the Universal must be loved and feared before all or else all hell will break loose.
Therefore the Universal is to be loved as the Law. Love on Earth is the expression of the highest law. It appears that any absolute distinction between Love and Law is dangerously false, as was proven by the example of Luther and others who learned the hard way that there is no Love on Earth without Law to secure it.
The Law of Love or Else is adhered to by true prophets. Professor Albright discussed the etymological meaning of the biblical term for 'prophet', rooted in the word nabi, meaning "calling", someone who is called to a divine mission. But he observes that the word in context also signifies the predictive ability of the person called, an ability that is derived from the prophets' unswerving faith in the Covenant. The Covenant has many points in common with the form of treaties common in Syria and Anatolia around the 14th century (B.C.E.).
"The dominant pattern of prophecy, as found in the earliest rhapsodist ('writing') Prophets of the eighth century, is firm belief in the validity of the covenant between God and His people, according to whose terms Israel would be severely punished for its sins, both moral and cultic, but would ultimately be 'restored' because of the mercy or grace of God (hesel) which exceeded the formal terms of the Covenant and thus made it more binding than it otherwise would have been."
We observe in that "which exceeded the formal terms" an early notion of Discretionary Justice. We find the same sort of justice in the formal pardon (not necessarily forgiveness) of later kings or presidents, in contrast to the Retributive Justice of the Talion Principle (an eye for an eye), and Rehabilitative Justice. In the United States, the Constitutional clause for presidential pardon is the only proviso that places the president above the law or next to God, so to speak. If he does not abide by the Heavenly Mandate, the people may get rid of him and his government. But what if they continually disobey the commandments themselves, and repeatedly raise their false representatives to the highest offices? In the final analysis, the patience of YHWH will wear thin and there shall be no further excess for humankind.
Here lies, and none to mourn him but the sea,
That falls incessant on the empty shore,
Most various Man, cut down to spring no more;
Before his prime, even in his infancy
Cut down, and all the clamour that was he,
Silenced; and all the riveted pride he wore
A rusted iron column whose tall core
The rains have tunnelled like an aspen tree.
Man, doughty Man, what power has brought you low,
That heaven itself in arms could not persuade
To lay aside the lever and the spade
And be a dust among the dusts that blow?
Whence, whence the broadside? whose the heavy blade? ...
Strive not to speak, poor scattered mouth; I know. (1)
(1) Edna St. Vincent Millay's Epitaph for the Race of Man
(2) Roy Mottahedevi, The Mantle of the Prophet, Religion and Politics in Iran (1985)
