Appealing to the Temple of Tash

You Have Appealed to Tash, and in the Temple of Tash you shall be healed...

 

The archvillain in "The Horse and His Boy," is Prince Rabadash, the eldest son of the Tisroc of Calormen. As detailed in the story Rabadash attacks Archenland in a dishonorable attempt to capture his lust, Queen Susan. The attempt fails and Rabadash is captured. Despite the (in my mind, misguided) attempts of King Lune at kindness, Rabadash is directly punished by Aslan and transformed into a donkey. Aslan also provides an antidote. Rabadash must appear at the Temple of Tash in Tashbaan at the great Autumn Feast at which time he would then resume his human form in front of all of Tashbaan. Furthermore, should he ever travel more than 10 miles away from the Temple, he would return to his donkey form permanently. 

A priori, this antidote (at least the first part) is the opposite of what we might think. Should the healing come from the Temple of Tash, one might conclude that Tash has the power to heal and that Tash can overpower the curse of Aslan. And, truth be told, many in crowd probably saw that. Despite Aslan's show of power, we do not see any sign of mass abandonment of Tash in favor of conversion to the religion of Aslan. I think the reason is clear. The Calormenes (including Rabadash himself) acknowledged that Aslan has power, but he is the, "enemy of the gods." Sometimes Aslan can win the battle, as he did with Rabadash perhaps due to Rabadash's not living up to Tash's expectation, but he will not win the war. 

The Narnians presumably assumed that Tash was a fake god, some figment of the Calormenes. To them, Aslan's pronouncement was to demonstrate that he is the true God and as punishment for following a false god, Rabadash is now tethered to the false god forever. Furthermore, everyone will see the folly of Rabadash's way in a public demonstration of Aslan's power. Perhaps the Narnian's were expecting Calormenes to see this truth. But it was not to be, because the Calormenes had a different notion of spiritual truths, enabling them to interpret events in the first way, not the second. 

In actuality, Tash is real, but he is evil - he enables and perhaps even powers evil. From a Christian perspective he rebelled against God and has convinced part of humanity to join in his rebellion. Aslan's punishment demonstrates that while Tash can have his localized victories, he is no match for the true God. 

Conventional Jewish thought perceives differently. Tash, or Satan, is also a servant of God. His job is to entice humans to sin, to be the evil inclination - a necessary role should humans have free will. Aslan's punishment is meant to emphasize this point. Even the evil inclination can be mobilized for good. The Talmud tells us that without the evil inclination people would not marry and have children and, in fact, Rabadash started his on his "mad enterprise" out of "love" for a woman. Ahoshta realizes that the Narnians may actually appreciate this. The Narnians understand that the evil inclination can be used for good! The problem wasn't Rabadash's desire to marry Susan, but that he did not deserve to marry Susan. That his view of marriage was barbaric, and that he would not teach his children "gentilesse and courtesy." Rabadash is thus tied to the Temple of Tash so he can learn how to use his passion in the service of the true God.

The Day of Judgement begins tomorrow evening. The words of our Sages, and even our liturgy, speak of confusing or quieting the heavenly prosecutor in his attempts to prove our guilt. But how can we hope to do so? Perhaps the answer is along the above lines: by using the character traits that the prosecutor, the evil inclination, actually wants us to use, unbridled passion, zealotry, even envy, for good. Passion to know God and follow His ways, zealotry for His word, and envy as motivation to improve oneself. 

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, sweet, New Year!

Shasta and Calormen Society

I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but it dawned on me that while there are parallels between Shasta's origin story to that of Moses, there are also some complete opposites. Of course, both Shasta and Moses are raised, not only in foreign households, but in a country to are the sworn enemy of God's people. However, while Moses is from a presumably common family and is raised by royalty, Shasta is of royalty raised by a commoner. Nevertheless, both become leaders of their people. 

I also think it interesting that neither Aravis nor Shasta when in Archenland portray anything positive of Calormen society. Even Shasta should have something having grown up with the proverbs and apophthegems of Calormen which, as we've discussed seem to have some value, but Aravis is clearly a master storyteller, but we no longer hear that of her either. It's almost as if Lewis wanted all of Calormen society erased. 

But I don't think that's really what we want. Any culture that can survive for any significant period must demonstrate positive character traits, even if it is just bravery in war, or loyalty to their (maybe evil) cause. Converts and escapees can bring those character traits to constructive societies who can use them for good. I'm not quite why Lewis doesn't do that here.