The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

A Tyrant in Noose


Philo, Questions and Answers on Genesis, translated Marcus:

57. (Gen. xix. 37) Why did the elder (daughter) on bearing a son call him
Moab, proclaiming aloud what ought to have been concealed, (namely) "he is
from my father"?

The literal meaning is (an occasion of) exultation and glorification for
those who think rightly. For she did not cease (talking) and remain quiet
as if (it were) a reproach but prided herself in thought as if on a great
achievement, and with delight said, "I have a deserved honour, which the
father, who is the mind in me, sowed. And having been sown, he did not
disintegrate and pass away but having been born perfect, he was found
worthy of birth and nurture." And what should be the irreprehensible and
irreproachable progeny of the mind and counsel if not good and excellent
counsel. Wherefore (the child) who was born was a male.

Genesis xix. 36-37:

36 Thus the two daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.
37 And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab; the same is the
father of Moab unto this day.

Now please note that "Moab" is m'av, from the father. Thus Moab carries
the name of the father in the son produced from an incestuous union. Of
course this has been repeatedly re/marked.

Therefore there is the father and the son whose sister is his mother; the
genes strangle and turn to salt. Now out of this union MOAB, the Mother Of
All Bombs, appears, the Mother who is the also the Son of the Father, in
order that the Father complete His work, which become the work of the Son.

Such is the work and the noose of the work that tightens on zero, on null,
on total annihilation, MOAB; thus the Absolute appears even within this
family circle, that of the tyrant itself.

Genesis xix. 30-35:

30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and abode in the mountain, and his two
daughters with him; for he feared to abide in Zoar: and he abode in a
cave, he and his two daughters.
31 And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there
is not a man in the earth to come unto us after the way of all of the
earth:
32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that
we may keep alive seed from our father.
33 And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn
came and lay with her father; and he knew now when she lay down, nor when
she arose.
34 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the
younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father; let us make him drink
wine this night also; and come thou, and lie with him, that we may keep
alive seed from out father.
35 And they made their father drink wine that night also; and the younger
arose, and lay with him; and he knew not when he lay down, nor when she
arose.

Rashi: ...whereas in reference to Moab it (Scripture) only forbade waging
war against them but permitted them (the Israelites) to vex them.

(Rosenbaum/Silbermann translation.)


===

It's easier said than done."

... and if you don't believe it, try proving that it's easier done than
said, and you'll see that "it's easier said that `it's easier done than
said' than it is done", which really proves that "it's easier said than
done".