Transposition and Tabernacle

“More like the real thing.” 

 (Lord Digory, The Last Battle)

Almost two years ago the world shut down, a week before my younger son’s bar-mitzvah. A lot has happened during that time, and though my son has been nothing but gracious, accepting and understanding, my wife and I are still trying to commemorate the momentous occasion that God, in his goodness, has granted us. The latest of these attempts has been this past Shabbos where our son again read (part of) his bar-mitzvah portion (he’ll read the rest this Shabbos), this time actually inside the synagogue (as opposed to outside in the freezing cold as he did last year).

In this post I would like to share the (relevant parts of the) talk that I was to give at my son’s bar-mitzvah, parts of which I’ve already given in our synagogue. As context, the weekly Torah portions for this past Shabbos described how the Jews built the Tabernacle in the desert.

“And make for Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them.” (Exodus 25:8)

How can finite man build a sanctuary for the infinite God? What engineering or architectural schemes can be used for such a structure? What materials and designs are geared towards this purpose?

Of course, the Torah itself goes into great detail answering these questions, providing careful, exquisite detail of all aspects of the Tabernacle and its vessels. However, though the Torah is long on detail, it provides nothing in the way of explanation as to why the specific designs or vessels or materials are appropriate in providing a structure for God.

Biblical commentaries throughout the ages attempt to solve this riddle. Here I would like to expand on the approach of R’ Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin (Ha'amek Davar, Exodus 25:8), the famed head of the Yeshiva in Volozhin known as the Netziv. He explains that “All details of the Tabernacle are parallel to the details of the world that the Creator, may He be blessed, fashioned. God dwells in the world as a whole and He commanded that the Jews make a microcosm of the entire world in the Tabernacle and its vessels.”

This remark requires some analysis.

From one perspective the Netziv’s approach answers our above question. How can finite man build a home for the Infinite? By copying the design of a place where God is known to reside. We know that God resides in our world. Hence, if we build our Tabernacle to reflect our world, we can trust that God will inhabit the Tabernacle as well.

From another perspective, however, the explanation of the Netziv is questionable. What point is there in simply copying the world which we are already familiar with? Will one who sojourns to the Tabernacle be inspired simply by seeing a model of what he or she already knows? If God already resides in the world, what point is there in building a Tabernacle to reflect the world?

In The Last Battle the Narnian heroes enter nirvana, the afterlife, the World to Come and they are quite surprised by what they see:

“Those hills," said Lucy, "the nice woody ones and the blue ones behind - aren't they very like the Southern border of Narnia?"

"Like!" cried Edmund after a moment's silence. "Why, they're exactly like. Look, there's Mount Pire with his forked head, and there's the pass into Archenland and everything!"

"And yet they're not like," said Lucy. "They're different. They have more colours on them and they look further away than I remembered and they're more .. . more . . . oh, I don't know..."

"More like the real thing," said the Lord Digory softly.

The Lord Digory goes on to explain that the Narnia the children knew and loved “was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia”:

All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream.

This description of the real Narnia and its relationship to the old Narnia is a parable for Lewis’ concept of “Transposition.” In his aptly entitled essay, Lewis explains that transposition occurs when a richer system is to be represented by a poorer system, for example when we try to draw a three-dimensional scene on a two-dimensional piece of paper. We can try to give a feeling of the third dimension by drawing in an appropriate fashion. However, a being who has never experienced a third-dimension could never comprehend what the drawing is meant to represent.

So too with the real Narnia. The Narnia of the Chronicles was merely a shadow-world, an attempt at representing the true Narnia in two-dimensions or as mere shadows. In the true Narnia where every stone has meaning, and every blade of grass reflects the handiwork of God and no good is ever lost.

One can understand the purpose of the Tabernacle in a similar way.

When the Jews built the Tabernacle their goal was not to build a model of our world, rather they built the true world, the world as it is meant to be. One who visits the Tabernacle will experience this true world: they will see how each element and detail of the true world reflects the will of God. They will come to understand how those elements fit together in the service of God. They will see angels marking the path, and they will see that word of God comes forth calling out to man. Our world is the shadow-world, the dream, the attempt to take the real world and draw it on a piece of paper.

Furthermore, the Tabernacle is not the end of days. One reaches the true Narnia only after death, but one visits the Tabernacle and returns to the shadow-world. To what end?

The Tabernacle imbues the visitor with understanding and insight. After seeing the real world, the shadow-world makes sense. The parts of our world may be more clouded and less vibrant, but they still reflect the one God. The angels of God are still here but enveloped in mist, and the word of God still rings forth, but muted and more difficult to hear.

One visits the Tabernacle in hopes of a rendezvous with God. One returns from the visit with the realization that God was really here, in our world, the whole time.

The destruction of the Tabernacle and, later, the Temple, leaves us without means to experience the true world. Nevertheless, we can attempt to recreate that experience by studying the Tabernacles blueprints and learning the ritual that surrounds it. More importantly, we can work towards constantly making our world a better reflection of the true world. This is the mission of the Jewish People, a mission every Jew takes part in when they reach majority: “to perfect the world under the sovereignty of God,” to transform the world we inhabit into the world of the Tabernacle.

Till We Have Faces (Part 4)

In our last post we discussed how Orual transformed the three pillars of Glome society and thus made the gods beautiful. The three pillars she transformed were Glome’s government, economy, and the House of Ungit itself, and the efforts of transforming them paralleled the three tasks of Psyche. Unlike Psyche who performed her tasks with joy, Orual did them without knowing why and even without the knowledge that her efforts would bring beauty to the gods. Nonetheless, this was her destiny as pronounced by the god of the West Wind, “You also shall be Psyche.”

There is one final task of Psyche, however, that Orual sees in her vision to get beauty in a casket from the Queen of the Deadlands and bring it back to Ungit. Here Orual does not assist Psyche, she fights against her. Why?

Orual’s efforts can very much be cast, not as religious, but as Hellenizing. Her efforts were not to make the gods beautiful, but to civilize Glome. Certainly, had Orual been asked the purpose of her efforts she would have given that, or something similar, as her answer. How could it then be claimed that her efforts were for godly purposes?

Let’s pause for a moment to note that the Talmud addressed the very same question. 

The Talmud foretells that at the end of time the various nations will come before the Almighty to claim how righteous they were in the toil of God’s Torah. Rome will come first before God:

The Holy One, Blessed be He, says to them: With what did you occupy yourselves? They say before Him: Master of the Universe, we have established many marketplaces, we have built many bathhouses, and we have increased much silver and gold. And we did all of this only for the sake of the Jewish people, so that they would be free to engage in Torah study.

However, God doesn’t buy it:

Fools! Are you attempting to deceive Me? Everything that you did, you did for your own needs. You established marketplaces to place prostitutes in them; you built bathhouses for your own enjoyment; and as for the silver and gold that you claim to have increased, it is Mine.

Is Orual any different? She too did everything for herself, to keep herself busy and not pay attention to her true nature, and certainly not for the gods!

But there is hope for Orual just as there is hope for Ungit. If, due to Orual’s actions, Glome is prepared to recognize the beauty of the gods, everything she did will be redeemed. Orual will have accomplished the purpose of beautifying the gods and be beautified herself.

The Jews could have redeemed Rome. Had they not assimilated into Roman culture, fallen to divisiveness, but rather adhered to their own religion and engaged in Torah study. Rome’s assertion that they did everything for the Jewish people would have been proven de facto. But they didn’t…

Psyche is the parallel to the Jewish people in the Talmud’s vision. It is she who must be the bearer of truth and beauty. It is she, as the one chosen by the gods, who will inspire others and catalyze the beautification of the gods.

And Psyche succeeds. She is not influenced by the philosophy of the Greeks or the materialism of the everyday world. Through her dedication and single-mindedness, Psyche brings beauty to the gods, inspiring Orual, and, presumably, the rest of Glome. The true religion is to emerge, and the divine nature will be revealed to all.

Revisiting Till We Have Faces

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. I've been updating the Till We Have Faces posts to, hopefully, make them more readable. I have one more post (also in the works) on Till We Have Faces before returning to world of Narnia. 

Till We Have Faces (Part 3)

In our last post we posited that because Orual, "also shall be Psyche," she shares in Psyche's task of making the gods beautiful. This is supported by the fact that in her visions, Orual sees herself assisting Psyche in her tasks. 

How does Orual go about this not in visions, but in the physical world?

Orual makes the gods beautiful by beautifying the people and the society that worships them. She does this by transforming, perhaps revolutionizing, the three pillars of Glome society: its government and laws, its economy and learning, and the House of Ungit itself. 

Under King Trom the palace was, in the words of Orual, “sprawled with the slaves' babies and my father's bastards.” The king appreciated the male slave who would impregnate many females, as it led to more slaves. Thus, the castle was essentially chaos: there was no order and not even a sense of family. The king had his way and then it was left to everyone to fend for themselves. No wonder there were thieves, sluts, and blackmailers in the castle!

Unlike King Trom, a proper biblical monarch will guide his nation towards great spiritual stature. To ensure constant awareness of this mission the biblical king must keep with him at all times a Torah scroll. Furthermore, he is limited in number of wives, wealth, and number of horses (strength of army). The king must never think of himself as divine, as King Trom does, but instead he must reflect the divine. 

Orual succeeds in transforming the castle such that it reflects the divine. How does she accomplish this? She first hangs Batta the blackmailer and mafia kingpin amongst the slaves and servants of the castle. This is not only a just punishment, as Batta's manipulations certainly led to the death of others, but also serves as warning to everyone else. Second, Orual reduces the overall number of slaves. Some slaves she sells, others she frees. She plays matchmaker and marries them off and they become her most loyal subjects. In this way she established order and justice in the palace. 

With order established in the palace Orual could (without hypocrisy) reinvigorate Glome’s code of laws. The Queen revised and publicized the laws enabling everyone to discern right from wrong. The importance of this should not be overlooked. Moral people must follow a moral code, but murky, subjective, and unclear principles and laws leads to immorality. By bringing civil order to Glome, Queen Orual reflects the pious biblical monarchs who guided their people towards justice and righteousness. Thus, she makes the gods beautiful. 

The accomplishments of Orual in this sphere parallel Psyche’s task of separating seeds. Psyche too needs to transform chaos into order. She needs to discern one type of seed from another. Should the seeds have been planted as they the crops would be bastards, all mixed up, and the farmers who planted them would not know how to treat the mixture and help them grow. Psyche (with the help of the ants) brings order and clarity to the seeds.  

The economy of Glome under King Trom was agricultural, relying on growing crops, animal husbandry, and hunting. While the kingdom had silver mines they were chiefly used, according to Orual, as a punishment rather than as a source of income. Under Queen Orual the mines became both a source of prosperity and a means of turning productive slaves into productive freemen. Other ventures of the Queen also improved the Glome economy. She deepened the Shennit river, opening Glome to greater trade, she built a bridge and cisterns, and brought in good bulls and rams to improve the animal stock.

Glome’s economic improvement came hand-in-hand with educational changes. Orual has the Fox buy books and men start learning to read. The knowledge learned further catalyzes economic development and, as we will see below, brings direct changes to the House of Ungit. 

All of this work of Orual parallel’s Psyche’s second task, that of getting fleece from the golden rams. The fleece is, presumably, to be used by Ungit to make beautiful clothes. In Glome, the solid economic base spurred by Orual again beautifies Ungit. People have more to give to the gods, people are happier with the gods, and, with improved education, people can study the stories of the gods. By making Glome prosperous Orual again makes gods beautiful.

Finally, Orual beautifies the House of Ungit itself. In fact, perhaps her first decision as “queen” is to give the good farmland known as the Crumbles to the House of Ungit. This helps ensure Ungit's self-sufficiency. Orual also supports the elevation of Arnom to the office of the High Priest. Arnom, in turn, brings beauty and light to Ungit's house. He opens windows and lets in more light and generally makes the house cleaner and more becoming. Most revolutionary, Queen Orual helps the House of Ungit purchase a new Ungit, an idol of Aphrodite. This statue, in the eyes of Glome, was “wonderfully beautiful and lifelike,” and the marvel of pilgrims. Clearly, this made the gods beautiful in the eyes of the people.

What may have been an even more significant change in the House of Ungit was the attitude of the High Priest Arnom. How the friendship arose between Arnom and the Fox is not shared in TWHF. Nonetheless, Arnom is the only one in the entire book who uses the Fox’s actual name (though at that point in time he still as slave). The influence of the Fox on Arnom is transformational. Arnom is the first to read the new books purchased by the Fox. Further, Arnom learns from the Fox to speak of God as a philosopher.

The synthesis of paganism and Greek philosophy within Arnom and into the House of Ungit itself, results in the rise of a truer religion (as expanded upon by Dr. Ronda Chervin here). This, then, catalyzes the emergence of the real beauty of the gods.

This task of Orual parallels Psyche’s task of retrieving a cupful of the water of death. For Orual’s introduction of philosophy into Glome cannot, by itself, bring about a proper society. It must be tempered by belief in the gods and an objective moral code, or it too will lead to death.

The final task of Psyche is to retrieve beauty in a casket from the Queen of the Deadlands and bring it back to Ungit so that Ungit will become beautiful. This has no apparent parallel performed by Orual. Yet, it turns not only Ungit beautiful, but Orual as well. We’ll talk about how next time.

Till We Have Faces (Part 2)

In our previous post we introduced C.S. Lewis' "Till We Have Faces" (TWHF) and addressed the question of why a Christian man would see fit to retell the story of Cupid and Psyche. We also outline what we would expect to see from this Christianized version of the story and noted how, if we are correct, that it is due to those who persuaded Psyche to rebel against her lover, are in fact the ones who spur the manifestation of the true religion. 

So, let's see how well TWHF fulfills our expectations. 

We start with a quick review of Glome’s society pre-Queen Orual.

Glome is a small kingdom on the Shennit river ruled by a monarch (King Trom) who is of “divine blood.” The kingdom, like the other kingdoms surrounding it, is uncivilized when compared to Greece. It is an agricultural society with no books, art, or any sort of standard education. The people of Glome worship the goddess Ungit, a black stone “without head, hands, or face” who sits in the dark, bloody, inner recesses of her house. The worship of Ungit is sacrificial, usually birds and animals, and occasionally humans, and punctuated by regular pagan rituals. Ungit is served by a band of priests and a group of girls. The head priest has a bird’s mask which usually hangs from his neck, but which he wears on special occasions. The girls are heavily masked with makeup and apparently prostituted during ritual worship. The House of Ungit has its own land and army and may sometimes be at odds with the monarch.

Let's consider the loathsome mode of worship to the gods of Glome. Human sacrifice, prostitution, darkness, and the stench of blood. Who is Ungit that she is worshiped in this way?

Perhaps it will be helpful to compare the gods of Glome to the gods of another of Lewis’ pagan societies, Calormen. The main Calormen god, Tash, is four-armed and bird-faced (like the mask of the Glome High Priest). It too is served by human sacrifice, and it is said that the rulers of Calormen, the Tisrocs, descend directly from Tash.

However, as we have seen previously but much to the surprise of the Narnians, Tash is not a false god! Instead, he is Aslan’s opposite. Aslan is the force of holiness and good, Tash is the force of impurity and evil.

Identifying Ungit with Tash enables us to contrast the story of Glome with that of Calormen. With respect to Calormen we asked, “How can a society descend to the point of actually worshiping evil, which is Tash? Yet by posing evil as good Calormen did just that. In Glome we struggle with the opposite question. How can a society be raised from serving Tash/Ungit to serving Aslan? How can the religion of Glome become beautiful?

To explore this question, we should look at the different relationships people have with Tash and Ungit:

The rulers of both Calormen and Glome claim to descend from the gods. Thus, both exhibit much evil and unholiness just like their gods.

The common folk, on the other hand, likely treat the gods as the Glome general Bardia does, “I’m not impious. I wouldn't… [list of actions forbidden by the gods]... or do anything else that's unchancy and profane, even if the King himself were to bid me. And as for sacrifices, I've always done all that can be expected of a man on my pay. But for anything more — I think the less Bardia meddles with the gods, the less they'll meddle with Bardia.” One could imagine Arsheesh (though a much less noble man than Bardia) saying something similar.

Yet others can take comfort from the imperfections of the gods, like the woman who prays to the plain Ungit rather than the Greek statue of Ungit/Aphrodite. They see in the unshapeliness and grotesqueness of the gods something of themselves and relate to them through ugliness.

A precious few, however, rejoice in the gods and love them. Their vision completely pierces through the ugliness of the gods. For though the gods are not yet beautiful they can become so. Emeth and Psyche both loved the pagan gods. Emeth enters Alsan’s country and perceives that it had been Aslan he was worshiping all along. There was no opportunity to make Tash beautiful. Psyche sins against the gods despite her love for them and is tasked with making the beauty of the gods obvious to everyone.

Finally, there are those who see the ugliness of the gods and hate them. This is Orual. She does right to hate the gods in their current form. However, by rejecting the gods completely, and corrupting the vision of Psyche, she is also tasked with making the gods beautiful. As the god of the west wind declares Orual, "also shall be Psyche."

The tasks of Psyche herself are well-known, they are the stuff of myth and legend. In Lewis’ retelling she performs the tasks joyfully for she knows the happiness she will attain should she succeed 

Orual’s tasks are parallel but different. Against her will and without her knowledge she prepares Glome for the beauty of the gods.

Till We Have Faces (Part 1)

In preparation for my upcoming discussion with David Bates of Pints with Jack, I have been listening to a number of the Pints with Jack podcast episodes. Specifically, I have recently concluded their careful reading of “Till We Have Faces,” certainly one of the most difficult and intricate works in Lewis’ oeuvre. Besides a chapter-by-chapter analysis of Till We Have Faces (TWHF), the podcast features a couple of episodes with Andrew Lazo who provides insightful analysis to the book as a whole.

Though I have only read TWHF a few times (which is clearly not enough) I would like to write down some thoughts, all subject to future scrutiny.

TWHF has been highly praised by the likes of Andrew Lazo, Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, not to mention Lewis himself. Nevertheless, there is a lot about this book that bothered me. Two issues stand out. First, there is too much paganism in this tale for my taste. Lewis himself believed that paganism was the pathway to the true religion (Christianity in Lewis’ opinion), but I have my doubts. Nonetheless, the transition from paganism to Christianity by "making the gods beautiful" is certainly a major theme of TWHF, so we’ll have to go work with this assumption.

Second, I think Lewis is too hard on his main character, Queen Orual of Glome. Yes, she made some grave mistakes, ruined a few lives, and did her best to hide her true nature. Still, at the end of the day she truly was, “the most wise, just, valiant, fortunate and merciful of all the princes known in our parts of the world.” Perhaps more importantly, she was central in the quest to "make the gods beautiful" as we will see below. Thus, I humbly suggest, even before her deathbed repentance, Orual is much more of a positive character than a negative one.

For the next handful of posts on TWHF I will assume the reader is more or less familiar with the plot. If you're not, you can find summaries in all the usual places. Either way, our focus will be on Lewis' goal of writing TWHF as a retelling of the myth of Psyche and Cupid. I'll start in this post by trying to formulate my thoughts on why Lewis wanted to rewrite the story of Psyche and Cupid.  What spiritual insight could a Christian man like Lewis gain from this ancient myth? 

The overriding theme of TWHF is that of Love. In many ways, TWHF is straightforwardly the fairytale analogue of Lewis’ “The Four Loves.” The central character, Orual, Queen of Glome, interrupts and generally corrupts, each of the loves described in the latter work. She completely disrupts the Eros love between Psyche and the god of the West Wind. She is completely overbearing in her Friendship loves with Bardia and the Fox, and she is overpoweringly possessive in her affection for her half-sister Psyche. In fact, pointing to where and how Orual turns love into a demon or otherwise attempts to get in love’s way is relatively simple.

The harder part of TWHF is to figure out what else is going on. To do so, let's quickly review the myth of Cupid and Psyche. In the myth, the human Psyche betrays the trust of her husband, the god Cupid, and is left wretched and miserable. After much wandering and misery, she falls into the hands of Venus, who is jealous of Psyche's beauty. Psyche is given a series of almost impossible tasks ending with the task to bring to Venus (the goddess of love) the beauty of the Queen of the Dead. 

We expect TWHF to tell the same story yet modified in a way that has meaning for the religious persona. How can Lewis accomplish this goal? 

Clearly in only one way. Psyche’s tasks to bring beauty to the pagan goddess must result in transforming pagan gods and pagan worship into Christian trinitarianism and Christian worship. This makes sense for Lewis was a pretty big fan of paganism and viewed Christianity as a means of curing its ills. Thus, in Lewis' myth, the success of Psyche will result in Christianity growing out of paganism. Furthermore, the attainment of the true religion will redeem paganism, retroactively casting paganism not as a dark folly of man, but as a step towards Christianity. 

Why can paganism give birth to the true religion? Because (1) pagan belief proffers a morality that differentiates right from wrong, and (2) paganism decrees that deeds matter. While perhaps ugly when still in their pagan chaff, these are seeds that can grow into the true religion. Proof that this is the primary goal of TWHF, and that the true religion redeems paganism, is practically explicit in TWHF. The following observation is put in the mouth of the (dead) Fox, “The Divine Nature can change the past. Nothing is yet in its true form.”

With this in mind, we can outline of what we expect from TWHF. We should start in a pagan world, the characters in the story worship pagan gods. The worship is, even perhaps to them, horrifying and revolting. However, the characters and their worship can be redeemed, they can be made beautiful despite their present ugliness. The question is how and by whom? 

The plot of the story should then follow the myth: there must be romance between a pagan god and the beautiful human, Psyche. Psyche should betray the god due to the persuasion of a sister. Psyche should then be punished by the gods with the tasks of making the gods beautiful, meaning, setting the stage for Christianity.

There is, however, a problem inherent in this retelling. In the original myth Psyche’s punishment is her redemption and aims to make Venus, who is jealous of Psyche's beauty, beautiful. But there is no real gain to anyone else. In Lewis’ retelling of the myth quite a bit more is at stake. Should Psyche succeed in making the gods beautiful the true religion can be actualized. This will change the future for all of humanity forever, and also beautify the past. However, this opportunity arises only if Psyche betrays the god. Had she not, perhaps she simply would have remained the rest of her life as the wife of the god the true religion would not have been born.

This ultimate purpose justifies Psyche’s disloyalty and the actions of those who convince her to perpetrate her unfaithfulness. Is this possible? Could Psyche's reliance on Orual to doubt her husband truly have been the appropriate response?  Let’s consider this as we go on.

Torah from Narnia on the (Virtual) Road

I recently received invitations to be on two wonderful podcasts which may be of interest to everyone: 

First, I would like to thank R' Drew Kaplan for having me on his Jewish Drinking Podcast. R' Drew's podcast explores Jewish halakhic, historic, and theological issues surrounding wines and spirits with an impressive array of guests. R' Drew and I spoke about an article I wrote for Tradition a few years back entitled, "Grape Juice: the Solution to Prohibition" (found here). The podcast will likely go live sometime in May or June. 

Second, I'm looking forward to speaking with David Bates from Pints with Jack. David, with his co-hosts Matt Bush and Andrew Lazo, do an amazing job exploring and analyzing the works of C.S. Lewis, especially in bringing the theological to the practical. I've been listening to a number of their episodes and will likely make some comments soon. Unfortunately, they don't spend much time on the Chronicles of Narnia, but maybe they can be convinced to go "further up and further in." David also does a great job finding insightful guests and I'll be part of their "Ecumenical Lewis" series in April. I don't think they've had too many Jewish guests in the past so hopefully this will be enlightening for all of us.