THE GOSPEL OF JUDITH ISCARYOT - ACT III

Scene Three - THE NEW SEDER ORDER
Part B

AT THE CIRCLE OF THE PARSHANS.

ESAU: I protest. This is a dirty trick. I have not prepared for this, that he has arranged for him a house beforehand, whereas I had to sacrifice my choicest warriors to gain any positions.

PARSHAN: Each party may try to buy houses in the Old City, or to try to capture positions in battle. But remember that captured positions must be returned in the morning, when order is restored, and that buying houses in the Old City is very difficult. Much of the flocks must be sold to procure the means for buying a house, and the availability is very scarce. It is true that most of the residents are tired to death of all the slaughtering and would be happy to sell off and leave, but the armed gangs(ters) do not allow them to sell to a competing gang.

ESAU: Bloody gangsters.

JACOB: Bloody gangsters.

ISAAC: Who needs them?

ESAU: What do we need them for?

JACOB: We don't need them.

ESAU: For are we not brothers?

JACOB: So what do we do now?

ISAAC: Proceed with the Seder Order.

ESAU: be'Seder (O.K.)

JACOB: be'Seder.

ESAU: And what do we do now?

ISAAC: Re'hatz, Karpas , Ya'hatz and Magid, and then we shall pour the second glass and the youngest will ask the Qoosh'yot.

ESAU: Is all that really necessary? Why don't we just proceed together to the meal?

JACOB: Come on, give some respect to the old man. This is what he is used to back from grandfather's house.

(Isaac washes his hand without blessing. Then he dips the Karpas herbs in salt water and blesses).

ISAAC: Blessed art Thou, YHVH our God, Sovereign of the universe, who creates the fruit of the earth.

(Isaac eats less than the size of an olive and passes it to the others. Then he breaks the middle Matsa in two, hides the half for Afikoman, and raises the Matsot and the bowl.)

ISAAC: Ha' lahma an'ya di akhalu avhatana be'ar'ah de'Mitsrayim. Kol dikhphin yete ve'yo'khal, kol ditsrikh yete ve'yifsah. Ha'shata hakha. La'shana ha'ba'ah be'ar'ah de'yisrael. Ha'shata avde, la'shana ha'ba'ah benei horin.

(Isaac lays down the Matsot and the bowl, and rises to pour the second glass with his trembling hand. He lifts up his blind eyes to the other side of the table, where Yoseph-Yitz hak rises to sing the Qoosh'yot.

YOSEPH-YITZHAK (singing):

How does this Seder-order differ from all other Seder-orders; as from all Rasan constraints?

That all other Seders, refer only to our escape, from the Mitsrayim-straits,

While in this Seder , like Purim, it's the "on the contrary", that we celebrate.

How does this Seder-night differ from all other Seder-nights; as from other dreamlike nights?

That in all other nights, we allow our chances to go bye,

But tonight we shall try, to let our whole souls to fly high.

What sets this night apart, from all the other nights, from all the other nights?

That in all other nights, we feed only on the dregs, on dregs of paradise,

But this very night, but this very night, and this very night,

But this very night, and this very night, and this very night,

And this very night.....

PARSHAN: Get out of that strait you got caught in.

YOSEPH-YITZHAK (regains himself and continues to sing the verse):

That in all other nights, we feed only on the dregs, on dregs of paradise,

But tonight we shall dine on the fruits, that we find on the Tree of Life.

How does this Seder-night, differ from all other Seder-nights, as from any old Seder-order?

That in all the old orders, we dip in the male waters,

But this Seder-night we'll let our feminine waters rise.

LEAH: The whole passage is opaque. Don't we have well-spelled Halakha and clear rulings about everything we were commanded to do: testimonies, statues and ordinances? So why all of a sudden this whole obscure cosmology? What a mess of emotions that there seems no way out of.

ESAU: I say it's just the other way round! At last we got something new in all those ancient Halakhot . It's just a shame if we do not get on with it all the way. For two thousand years we have been repeating those same old verses, just like parrots, and no salvation came out of it. At last the boy had put a question that is to the point, and you made him shut up his mouth. And now he has some quaint formulations of an obscure and hoary mythology. It began well, with innovations, with passions, so let us continue to innovate. We need a new Seder, A New World Order - Let's have it Now!

JACOB: And meanwhile: can someone please explain to me what are those "Dregs of paradise"? or "male waters" and "feminine waters"? I have not found them in the Poskim nor in the Shulhan Arukh.

(Yoseph-Yitzhak tries to say something, but the words get stuck in his mouth.)

ISAAC: Slaves were we to Par'oh in Mitsrayim and the Lord YHVH our God brought us out from there with a mighty hand and outstretched arm. If the Holy One, Blessed be He, had not brought out fathers out of Mitsrayim, then we and our children and our children's children would still be enslaved to Par'oh in Egypt.

ESAU: And maybe he has not brought them out at all, because we are still oppressed, and father is tied tight to the ancient versions, and talks about "Par'oh in Egypt" instead of the Rasans, and you, my dear brother, are tied to that antiquated table, the Shulhan Arukh, which has no answers to the questions of Here and Now.

PARSHAN: And I thought that you are so impetuous because you were in a hurry to get to the dumplings soup. Just watch it that the dumplings would not get stuck in your throat from that rush, just as the words got stuck in the boy's throat. As you requested, tonight we shall adopt a new Seder order.

The issue of Egypt- Mitsrayim is, as already said, the issue of straits. This is the constriction. Words cannot be uttered, and food gets stuck, the senses are inhibited. This is the rule of the Rasans-constrainers all right. And Phara'oh - this name is of the same letters as "haOreph" - the nape; it is turning one's back to the other, which is the source of all human misfortune.

And now, when we have poured the second cup, we have started, in fact, with the second act of the Seder, or Order, of the Tree of Life, and we are now ascending to the world of Yetsirah, the world of yetsarim , of urges. This is the place to feel the oppression of Mitsrayim as well as the coming out of the straits and the parting of the Red Sea, and how the male and the female fluids want to unite without prohibitions and constraints. Yes, constraints and prohibitions issue from the very foundation of the family. There are things that, as people say, "are kept under the table". But if we would call our urges to be liberated - then we shall no doubt rub our legs and send our hands beneath the table, and perhaps even fulfil the commandment of "Korekh" - of joining and rolling in - by attaching our bodies and rolling under the table.

For this is the moment to remind and remember, that this Seder is also a rite of initiation, Hanukkah, and a Purim feast - a feast of sending out gift-portions and of turning matters over. So let us turn the tables over and convey our portions to each other over the table, portions of Mann - from female to male and from male to female. Like the children' game of spinning the bottle. Let the lights determine for us who should convey to whom, and who should receive from whom.

(Each one presses in his/her circle on the light button which represents the person they want to convey something to. And then the twelve lights of the circle at the head of the table, by Isaac, light up. Then the twelve lights of both circles to the right and to the left of that circle turn on, and most of the lights of Isaac's circle turn off. Then all the lights turn in the circles next to the two circles that shone, whereas in them most lights turn off. All this continues as if the table was a roulette table in which two sets of lights circulate in different speeds: the one clock-wise and the other anti­clock-wise, where each of the light-circles is turned on and off after its neighbor. The same process is also reproduced in a smaller scale in the circle opposite each one of the players, though in these circles the light which that player pressed on remains lighted. So when the roulette stops, two light circles are all alight. Those sitting by them are the two actors in this round. In the first round the light-roulette stops to point at Jacob and Rachel.

JACOB: Oh, my God! I am lucky.

(He stretches out his lance to the bowl of H aroset {the mixture of ground nuts, fruits, spices and wine, used to sweeten the bitter herbs eaten on Passover night; symbolic of the mortar used to fashion bricks in Egypt}, which, if not for its sweet taste and scent, resembles excrement. He dips the fork at its tip with the H aroset till it is covered by it and lifts it to Rachel's mouth).

JACOB: My dear, dear Rachel. How many years have I carried the pain of your love. Back from the years you played with the little shepherd girls of Haran. How my body yearns for you. Why can Esau be the husband to three wives, and I have to remain a straight monogamist/a monogamist square?

(Rachel - her mouth full of Haroset, blushes and does not answer. Also Leah's face reddens. The Parshan sets the light-roulette again in motion, which stops this time to mark Yoseph-Yitz hak and Basmat.)

YOSEPH-YITZHAK: The fragrance of your perfume is spinning my head. It throws me into the stories of the Arabian nights. What is the perfume you wear?

(Basmat does not answer, only winks at him, and feeds him back a portion of the Maror {bitter herbs} with a tiny bit of Haroset on top. He gets choked and his eyes fill with tears. The roulette resumes its spinning, and when it stops, it is the turn of Jacob and Esau.)

ESAU: So brother, you are jealous of me, are you? Jealous of my three wives? Perhaps you would like to rob them, just as you robbed me then of my birthright? I can sense yet in my mouth the taste of the blood spilled by my warriors in the last act, when you tricked me again. So you better taste it too!

(Esau retains a little wine in his goblet, then he grabs his lance at its tip and huddles the goblet side at Jacob's face spilling the wine over his face and mouth. Jacob tastes and grimaces in disgust.)

JACOB: I would not raise the issue of blood, if I were you. I do not think that their blood-libels do much honor to your descendants. You, who claimed for centuries that we use the blood of Christian children for the Passover ritual - you go every Sunday to your churches and boast of eating the flesh of the Messiah and drinking his blood.

PARSHAN: Perhaps it is better that this painful matter cropped up in the early stage. Perhaps even he who brings up the Christian Child upon our operating table now - will know later, when we move from the World of Yetsirah-Formation to the World of Bri'ah-­Creation, how to give birth to the miraculous child, whom we all aspire for. Then will our operating table transform to a delivery table.

ESAU: I have not told him yet all that I intended! I have yet many more grudges about him!

PARSHAN: Then you will have to bear out until luck marks your turn again, this is the game.

(The roulette spins again, then the lights point at Mah alat and Isaac.)

MAHALAT (in outburst): At last I have the opportunity to tell it all to you without needing to be careful, as always, to give you respect. You know damn well that this whole country, with Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount, should have all been the inheritance of my father Ishmael, and to us, all his descendants, after him. He was the firstborn, not you. Here is where the robbery started. Not from my husband, who also came out discriminated against. This is really the rule in this family: first robbing, then pretending to be saints. Take this, you blind old man. Eat it and choke on it.

(She makes a sandwich of two matzoth with much Hazeret {horseradish} between. Isaac chews - and laughs. Also Rebecca, who sits near him, giggles.)

ISAAC: (reciting in the traditional chant) " Aval Sara ishtekha yoledet ben ve'kara'ata et shemo Yitsh ak, vehakimoti et briti ito librit olam u'lzar'o ah arav." ("But sarah your wife is bearing a child, and you will call his name Yitzhak, and I shall establish my covenant with him for an eternal covenant for his descendants"). There was never a promise of this land to that wild man, even though I have had great admiration to him, and envied his immense physical strength.

MAH ALAT: Immense physical strength. Is that it? So you have put him down to build you houses and work in the fields of this land, while you were the boss. We have heard about all that.

PARSHAN: Mahalat, your time is up. You have to wait for your next turn.

(He spins the wheel, which points again at Jacob and Esau).

JACOB: It's good that I can answer you now, Esau. You complain about discrimination? You had eight kings before there was a king to the Children of Israel, and then when at last we had again a worthy royal house, there rose an Edomite, a commoner, Herod, who had to exterminate it! And he did it with your murderous efficiency! Your Edomite king simply murdered all the remnants of the House of Hashmonai, including his own beloved wife.

ESAU: Just, wait a moment. How many kings and queens did the House of Hashmonai raise? Exactly eight. Like I had. So simply one round is over, and my turn has come again. And now - see how almost the whole world chose me and my religion. It was I who sold to the world the legacy of the sons of Terah, through Rome.

JACOB: This is precisely what you did. You have passed on the legacy of idolatry, you son-of-Terah. As if I did not eat enough shit there in Haran. So you came and stole my one God, and with him some other nice Jewish boy, and made out of them Terafim, idols of a "holy family", like in those far gone days. Don't you ever forget for a moment that your God is a Jew! Take from this Haroset, and enjoy it.

(He feeds Esau with an oversized portion of H aroset. Esau coughs. The Parshan spins the wheel. This time it is the turn of Esau's wife Judith and Dinah.

JUDITH: So here is the genteel lady with bashful eyes, that a whole city was destroyed because she had the urge to mess with some son-of-Hamor {donkey}.

(Judith holds the lance in its top part and nears the goblet to Dinah and then jerks her hand and spills the wine over Dinah's face. Dinah hangs her eyes still lower. Esau is looking at Dinah with unconcealed passion.)

ESAU (bursting in out of turn): You have framed us with your screwed up morals. With all your guilt feelings. We were the native people, with clear feelings and hot passions. What have you done to us!?

JACOB: Wait a minute. Whose Messiah is virgin? Who upheld the institution of monkish abstinence? Us?? A Jew can never perform a religious duty to the people unless he has married and knew a woman. David lusted for women. Solomon built himself a harem. That's Judaism all right. And only I see the promised land from afar and cannot come in.

(The Parshan tries to calm down the mounting passions and re-establish the rules of the game, but does not succeed. Leah jumps at Jacob with clenched fists screaming: "You ingrate traitor". Jacob throws himself at Rachel, down on his knees, clutching her long skirt, Esau hugs Dinah, and Yoseph-Yitzhak flirts awkwardly with Judith, Esau's wife. Rebecca and Isaac exchange signals of a truly monogamous couple, who know each the secrets of the other and need no words. They both giggle.)

ESAU (his hand still hugging Dinah's breast): Confess, my brother, that you envy me. Look, you are all drooling at the mouth. More than you lust for Rachel, you lust for your own daughter. Let it all stay in the family, right?

(Jacob readies to jump at Esau, but the roaring laughter of Isaac and Rebecca surprises them. The two sons stand facing each other like warring cocks - whereas the old parents continue to laugh onto tears. The Parshan takes advantage of the opportunity, to spin the wheels again. They stop between Rebecca and Jacob.)

JACOB: Mother, what is happening with you two? The honor of the family is insulted, and you are laughing? Does this make you happy?

REBECCA: We got reminded of someone who lusted for his daughter, for his sister and for his mother - and knew how to obtain them. Yes, I am talking about your father.

JACOB: Mother! How can you talk like that??

REBECCA: How old was I, do you think, when I arrived at Be'er Sheba to meet you father? Three years old! And he was then a forty years old childless bachelor. What do you think he did with me until I reached puberty? He reared and brought me up. I was like his only child, but he did not refrain from raising me in his mother's tent. So already as an infant - I was somewhat of a mother-substitute for him. And who do you think, played with me children's games, my dear son, who amused me when I needed friends? Your father, who was to me also like my only brother. You think you know what it means to abstain and work for years for the sake of the woman you love? Ask your father! There was none there to stop him but himself. But it paid a hundredfold, all this abstinence. Because when the time came, and we made love at last - we could laugh and make merry. I was for him mother and sister and woman - all in one body. Do you remember Yitzhak (Isaac) how we laughed (Tsahak) there, at Abimelekh's court?

JACOB: So my brother Esau, with his three wives, is acting between them what father used to act with you, the one?

REBECCA: This is how it looks to me.

JACOB: And does it look to you all right, how he multiplies women?

REBECCA: This seems to be what he needs. Not every one is as lucky, or as wise, as your father, who knew how to find the satisfaction to all his different urges in one woman.

JACOB: Mother, you who understands so well the man's heart, you who understood father and understand that which I inherited from him and you understand even Esau. Please tell me, mother. Will it be all right if I add another wife upon my wife Le'ah?

REBECCA: This is already a matter you have to resolve with yourself, and with Le'ah your wife. What I am trying to explain to you is that first you need integrity in yourself. You need to become a whole person. Only then can you come to peace with the world. Come to have peace with your brother, for example. For years there was envy between you. He envied you - because I have preferred you to him. Perhaps that's why he holds a grudge against you, and possibly that is why he tries to get the love he did not get from me not just through one wife but also through another woman who would serve him as a mother and still another one who would serve him perhaps as a sister or as a daughter. Perhaps you should discuss with him the envy you have towards him. Perhaps this will facilitate your both overcoming your Yetsarim (urges), and to be free for common Yetsirah (endeavor)? Common Bri'ah (creation)?

(Jacob is still in an offensive stance when he starts talking to Esau, but his posture softens during his speech, and by the time he finishes he returns to sit at his place.)

JACOB: Of course I am envious. I envy you for your many wives and for your skillful hands and for your genteelness. I envy the red and animal beauty which surrounds you. Apparently I am not a whole person without you. Do you think it was just by chance that it was Herod the Edomite, of all people, who managed to build the Temple in the greatest magnificence, as his Hashmonite predecessors knew not how? For even Solomon, the wisest of all men, did not manage to build the Temple without the help of Hiram. They had the culture and the appropriate technical ability. What use is the wonderful teachings which I have theoretically, if I do not have your hands to practice? If only we knew how to integrate the abilities of the two of us - then we could rule the whole world!

PARSHAN: Oh, now it is beginning to happen. For Jerusalem­-Yerushalayim is an inheritance-Yerusha for twain. But who are these twain? Jacob and Esau? Or Isaac and Ishmael? Or all four of them? For it was about four sons which the Torah spoke. In any case, I can sense the budding of cooperation, so that we can soon complete the second act of the Seder-order, and turn to drink the second cup in order to raise to the World of Yetsirah the urges­-Yetsarim which we have uncovered and there form-Yatser for them becoming vessels.

(The wine pitcher is passed from hand to hand, and the wine is poured in the goblets. Everyone raises their lances, so that the goblets are raised to their face level, and give blessings:)

ISAAC: Blessed be Thou, creator of the fruit of the vine. Let Thy will be to pass us safely from the Yetser to the Yetsirah. Amen.

(Everybody drinks from the goblets, then places the lances back on the table. The lances light again, only this time it is the very top section, the trident, that fills with lights, looking like a crown.)

PARSHAN: And now, ladies and gentlemen, we should examine whether we are already prepared to find a Messiah who is common to all of us, or at least to try to. Have we so far learnt something about the characteristics of this Messiah?

JACOB: Well, we were just debating whether he has to be recluse and celibate, or married, or polygamous.

ESAU: And I believe we have already found before that there is no point for him to ascend to the Temple Mount through the might of his troops. That it is better to reach an agreement with the others.

JUDITH: What do you mean when you say "Messiah"? To an improved idol­ model fabricated by the Terah family?

DINAH: No. Certainly not to an idol - but a human being. Only more perfected. One who has already resolved all the shit that we have just heaped upon the table.

PARSHAN: We are twelve mates around this table, which means: more than a Minyan, ten, of potential messiahs. In order to effect a whole redemption - the world will no doubt need a fairly large number of messiahs, who should be able to cooperate with each other. Therefore you will have now an opportunity to examine - with the help of this gaming table - whether you can serve as messiahs for each other.

This time, the rules of the game will be these: each candidate will, in his or her turn, lay the head over the nearest circle on the table, with the forehead touching the center of the circle. This way he or she will be bowing - mashi'ah - oneself in front of the others, and will list his/her most cherished treasures which (s)he is ready to sacrifice for the common weal, if elected to be the one to go up to the Temple Mount. The others are invited to lay their lances over the back of his/her head. This is not required. But if you bear any grudge against this person - please do so. The first one to lay the lance on the neck of that messianic-candidate - will be the next candidate to test, and will risk his neck as well. Esau, you are the builder of this table. Therefore you should be the first.

(Esau bows to lay his forehead within the circle. One of the twelve lights which surround the circle is lit up.)

ESAU: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, I am ready and prepared for the work of the Messiah...

(Jacob rushes to put his lance on the neck, barely holding himself from doing it forcefully. Near the brow of Esau another light turns on - the one indicating Jacob's place.)

ESAU (continuing as if he does not sense the lance which lies threateningly over his neck): I promise to share with you, my brothers, children-of-the-faith-of-Abraham, all the yofi (beauty) of Yefet (Jepheth), and to sacrifice thereby my seniority. To bestow upon you from the fine craftsmanship of my children, who knew how to fashion every graven image and likeness of whatever for the worship of the Lord, and not in its stead.

(Upon the Northern face of the black box, hanging over the table, there appears the picture of the silver altar, from the chapel of the Crucified Christ in the Holy Sepulcher church. On the altar, the work of a Florentine artist of the 16th century, is an illustration of the Sufferings of Jesus on the Cross. Mahalat adds her lance to Jacob's lance, already threatening Esau's neck, and in Esau's circle of lights also the light corresponding to Mahalat's position is now blinking.

PARSHAN: Your turn now, Jacob.

(Esau raises his head, a bit dazed, and Jacob bows down and lowers his head until his forehead touches his lights-circle. The lights in Esau's circle remain as they were, whereas in Jacob's circle there lights the light corresponding to him, and the light corresponding to Esau is blinking.)

JACOB: With the help of haShem , I shall give to all of you the knowledge of the dwellers in the tents of Shem, the wisdom of the pundits of the Book, the intelligence that the People of the Book have gained through diligence with the Torah for thousands of years.

(On the Eastern screen of the cube hovering over the model of Jerusalem there appears a picture of "The Temple Scroll", as exhibited in the Shrine of the Book in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.)

JACOB: Unwillingly, I had to become a wanderer from land to land, but I have learnt to make good business contacts, and by now the whole world is my home...

(Mahalat raises her lance over his neck. The light for Mahalat in Jacob's circle blinks.)

JACOB: I shall share with you the skill of integrating within whichever society, and shall teach you how to promote business and ideas everywhere.

(Also Esau and Basmat bring their lances upon Jacob's neck. In the circles of Jacob and of Esau lights also Basmat's light and continues to blink.

JACOB (continuing): From me, you will learn how to find grace and good sense, and the highest returns on investment.

PARSHAN: Mahalat, what sayth thou?

(Mahalat is wrapped in a grey kerchief/shawl, in the manner of orthodox Moslem women, and when her forehead touches the table - her neck is covered. In her lights­circle her light turns on - whereas the lights of Jacob and Esau are blinking.)

MAHALAT: B'ism Allah, a-rahaman wa-rah im. The Ishmaelites will give to the world from their patience, from the blessed forbearance, whereas Islam will give the humility and feminine submissiveness as the foundation for human culture.

(Rachel, in hesitation, lays her lance on Mahalat's kerchief-covered neck. A total stupefaction/shock feels the room - so far Rachel has set without uttering a word, chaste and proper. In Mahalat's light circle is added the light that corresponds to Rachel's position.)

MAHALAT (continuing): The Moslems will yield their hold over the Holy City, and will help all others to enter the allies of the Old City, to safely reach the Temple Mount and ascend into it.

(On the Southern screen of the black box appears the picture of the Temple Mount, hovering over a maze of winding allies leading to it.)

MAHALAT: We shall be the guided to the Holy City of Jerusalem.

(Esau and Jacob join their lances simultaneously to Rachel's. The corresponding lights turn on.

Mah alat stretches her hands backwards, and removes the lances from her neck, and in her circle of lights the lights of Esau and Jacob turn off. Rachel takes advantage of the opportunity, and moves to the prostrate position.)

RACHEL: The Woman will bring to the Messiahship her sex-appeal, and all that which is born from it: namely - all of you. All that is born of woman.

(Above the sitters - at the bottom of the cube - there appears the picture of a delivery room, and three people dressed in white are receiving the baby. The baby's head is mostly already outside while its body is still in the birth canal.)

RACHEL: Who is better for meshiha (messiah, female form) than a mother, who anyhow meshiha {lowers} herself towards her children? I am ready to sacrifice the feminine self-sacrifice. Let the men obey us! We gave them birth. You have been going on and on about having multiple wives. Why has no one spoken for having multiple husbands?

(All the men around the table - from Isaac to Yoseph­-Yitzhak - extend their lances towards her. The lights corresponding to Isaac, the Parshan, Esau, Jacob and Yoseph-Yitzh ak light up in Rachel's circle.)

PARSHAN: All right, all right. We have seen the kinds of bags that each Messiah would carry along, and the kinds of objections that he or she will raise. We have seen - but we have not heard yet. Now, among the many features of this Seder table, there are also musical capabilities. We can translate the conversations between us to sounds. Perhaps even, with a little common effort - into harmony. We have already used the keys to indicate a number of location, but each such key is also a key for a musical note, and the twelve semi-tone notes add up to a whole octave. So let us listen to the system of relationships between us, and try to create a harmony out of the dissonance.

(The Parshan lifts up his lance, which has been lying upon Rachel's neck, and presses with its tip upon a key in Rachel's circle, where the lights of the five men who banded upon her are still blinking, alongside her own light. A steady base-note is heard, sounding much like a flute playing like heart-beats, and alongside it there sound intermittently five other notes, apparently of the same type of instrument, in different pitches. The result is mostly almost unbearable, but every now and then there appear some harmonious sound combinations. The Parshan presses the key once more, and the sounds disappear.)

PARSHAN: We have learnt already to converse and to prostrate, it is now time to learn to reach equanimity. This is the only way to produce a real and harmonious band. But before we turn to a common creation - look at yourselves! Yes, look at yourselves - but in a way which builds accords. Let each one select a partner, and look deep into the other's eyes.

(turning to Jacob, who has advanced towards Esau and is now looking in his assumed brother's eyes.)

PARSHAN: Jacob, what do you see?

JACOB: The nearer I get to him, the more I see myself in his eyes. And.. just a minute, if I really concentrate - I manage to see him too, inside my eyes inside his eyes in my eyes. Wow. This is pretty difficult and confusing.

PARSHAN: This is it. Once you have understood it - you have understood the principal of equalization or equanimity-hishtavut . The first exercise is to find the self in the eyes of the other. The one who succeeds, will rise from the World of Yetsirah - of Forms; to the World of Bri'ah - of Creation and of Health. In the World of Bri'ah it is possible to feel the pain of the other, as well as to feel the happiness of one another. You should know that deep deep inside, in the dark space beyond the Ishon - the pupil of the eye/I - in the very heart of the Neshama - the immortal soul - there dwells the Ye hida. There, we are all identical. There, we are all One. And whoever knows to identify his/her Yehida - will know the Yehida of every person, and will be able to adopt the appropriate note.

ISAAC: And you, who yearns so much for polygamy, remember that the real solution is in fidelity to the one, to the Yehida. The Yeh ida of my soul is completely identical with the Ye hida of my wife's soul, or of your souls, my sons, or of the souls of each of our family or of any one of humankind, wherever. Only who is in touch with the Yehida can be a true Messiah.

(The Parshan again touches Rachel's circle. The blinking lights move and arrange themselves in a different order. Now the musical tones sound, and they are pleasant and harmonious.)

PARSHAN: In order to achieve complete harmony among the different bags which we each carry - a lot of practice will be required. It is enough for now that we have realized that we can adapt our­selves to the beat and to the tune.

ESAU: So what do we do now? I am already definitely hungry.

REBECCA: That's all right, son. It's dinner time. And if you feel that you still want to exercise the musical harmony between you, we can always sing the Seder songs at the dinner table.

BASMAT: Until we become as if of one head.

JUDITH: But how shall we eat? We have no plates and no eating utensils, apart from these giant forks, as long as the table!

REBECCA: (smiling) Think of the identical Ye hida. Think of yourself as an identical entity with the one opposite you.

(Rebecca takes the giant fork, fills it with salad, and feeds Rachel who is sitting opposite her across the table. Soon each one is feeding the one opposite, as she did. The atmosphere around warms and the room fills with laughter.

Isaac and the Parshan start to sing, while singing, the Parshan passes some of the food to Yoseph-Yitzhak at the end of his fork. The latter eats and joins the singing. The table supplies them with musical accompaniment in three voices, and on the circles of the three of them there light the notes as they are sound, as if the table were an audio-visual electronic multi­-organ.)

ISAAC, PARSHAN and YOSEPH-YITZHAK (singing):

This night is both Pass-over and Purim,

A night that's really made for Berurim .

Tonight we'll raise the four goblets,

To formulate new orders for the world.

(The women follow and also start to sing, to the tune of Had Gadia {"The One Lamb"} - the traditional Seder song:)

RACHEL (feeding Rebecca):

Our old father Terah sold idols in the streets

And thereby gave us implements, without intending it,

To reach One God, the Only One Lord.

BASMAT (stretching the fork to Dinah):

And then came little Abraham and broke the idols down,

And he made new rules, to aid all humankind:

There's One God, only One Lord.

MAHALAT (feeding Le'ah):

Then there came Yitzhak, and there came Yishma'el,

And passed on his inheritance to Islam and to Israel.

There's One God, only One Lord.

JUDITH (passing the fork over to the Parshan):

Then came Esau and Jacob fighting who's the boss,

And from them issued the tribes and also the cross.

Claiming a trinity, of which the Only God is composed.

DINAH: (passing her fork over to Bosmat):

And the four sons, and their trinity of creeds,

Have been fighting and winning, each one in his turn

Even though God is One, is the only Lord.

LE'AH (heaping her fork for Mahalat):

At length the Rasans came along, and denied all gods,

And thereby united all our concepts which were at odds.

So the family of Old Man Terah now returns to a supreme Lord.

PARSHAN: Very well. We have dined and made merry, and have learnt to laugh with each other, and in the laughter of each other, so now we are prepared to drink the third cup, which will pass us over further, to the World of Bri'ah, a world of telepathic connections, where each one may feel the brother, in pleasure and in pain. There we shall become one, whose every feature is unique. There we shall see the redeemer - each in his brother's eye. And then will come the time to play the final act of "The Temple Mount is in our hands"...

(They all pour wine into the goblets. Isaac blesses the Creator over it. Yoseph-Yitzhak - that is Haki - tastes of the wine in his cup, and is seized by spasm.)

HAKI (screaming): This is not imagination. It is true! It is blood I am tasting here, not wine!

(He passes the goblet to the Parshan).

PARSHAN (tasting): Yes, blood was spilt. But not here. Not in this room, where understanding has just been reached. A Jewish soul hurt, a Judith... No, not our Judith here, you are all right! (to Haki) run and check out what is happening with your Judith.

(Haki drops the cup, which spills to the floor, and also his chair falls to the floor in a big bang, as he rushes to the door. All the others, still with cups in their hands, follow him with their looks. The lights are turning off, but in the background the singing of "One Dear Lamb" is still heard.)