Biblical passages and other ancient sources were translated by the author unless otherwise indicated. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NAB are taken from the New American Bible, Copyright 1970, 1986, 1991 by Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, Used by permission (Lockman.org). Ezra SIL Hebrew Unicode Font used under SIL Open Font License.
The cover of this book features the keystone of an arch inscribed with the Tetragrammaton. This unusual architectural feature appears in St. Pauls Chapel adjacent to Ground Zero in Manhattan. This Christian chapel with the Hebrew name of God survived the carnage of 9/11 without damage. Photo by Nehemia Gordon.
Cover design by Jrgen Heiss & S. Kim Glassman.
ISBN 978-0-9830981-1-9
Copyright 2013 by Nehemia Gordon, All Rights Reserved.
http://www.HilkiahPress.com
http://www.NehemiasWall.com
Table of Contents
In loving memory of my father
Rabbi Robert David Gordon
(19412011)
The Priestly Blessing
(Birkat Kohanim)
May Yehovah bless you and protect you.
May Yehovah shine His face towards you and be gracious to you.
May Yehovah lift His face towards you and give you peace.
Ye-va-re-che- cha Ye-ho- vah Ve-Yish-me- re -cha
Ya- er Ye-ho- vah Pa- nav E- le -cha Vi-chu- ne -ka
Yi- sa Ye-ho- vah Pa- nav E- le -cha Ve-Ya- sem Le- cha Sha- lom
Chapter 1:
The Thin Silent Voice
T he sun rose over the mountains, revealing a line of glowing red cliffs. I was at the top of Mount Sinai with hundreds of pilgrims from all over the world, but all I could think about was the woman who broke my heart two months earlier. She dropped the news on me a few days before I was scheduled to fly out to the United States for a two-month speaking tour. It felt like she pushed her fist through my rib cage and ripped my still-beating heart out of my chest. In a daze, I traveled through the great American West. I remember driving through the forests of Colorado on my way to a speaking venue. I was in one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen but felt so emotionally numb, I was unable to enjoy it. The low point came one night in some cheap motel as I stared up at the ceiling; I lay there paralyzed with pain, minutes before I needed to go out and speak to hundreds of people. Right at the last moment, God somehow gave me the strength to get hold of myself and do what I needed to do. I dont think anyone in the audience knew what I was going through, but as soon as I got back to my room, the agony returned.
Throughout that time in the United States, I had a deep sense that I needed to get out into the desert. I wanted to erase the memory of what happened the way Jim Carrey did in the movie
When I arrived back in Israel, I called up a friend and we took the bus down to Eilat. From there we crossed the border into Egypt and headed south to the Bedouin village of Nuweiba. I chose Nuweiba as the spot of my desert isolation because this is where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. I was ready to have a personal Exodus from pain at the very spot where my ancestors crossed over into freedom.
In Nuweiba, we slept in a straw hut on the coast of the Red Sea. We spent our days sprawled out on Bedouin couches on the beach, comforted by the sound of the waves lapping up on the shore only a few feet away. It was very relaxing but did nothing to lessen the immense emotional pain I was feeling. During that time on the beach, I sat there in the early morning hours and read my Bible. I read about the Israelites leaving Egypt in haste and fleeing through the desert. I read about God splitting the Red Sea and the Israelites walking across on dry land, leaving the house of bondage forever. I am always moved by reading these stories but in Nuweiba, they had a special power.
As I read the Biblical account of the Exodus, I looked back over my right shoulder at Pi-hahiroth , the Mouth of the Gorges, where the newly freed slaves rushed forth onto the sandy plain of Nuweiba. There the Israelites found themselves trapped between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. Across the sea, they could see the Land of Midian, where Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law when God spoke to him from the burning bush.
I had this yearning to go to Mount Sinai but realized this was impossible. Years earlier, I learned that the real Mount Sinai was in Saudi Arabia in a region known until this very day as Midian. I knew the Saudis would never let me visit the holy mountain. Then it occurred to me that although I could not visit the real Mount Sinai I might as well visit the traditional one. After all, God is everywhere and capable of touching our lives wherever we are.
Mount Sinai is known best as the place where God spoke the Ten Commandments to the entire nation of Israel. My desire to visit Mount Sinai had to do with something else that happened there to the prophet Elijah. The event took place during the reign of Ahab, a wicked king of Israel who married a Sidonian princess named Jezebel. Throughout the history of Israel, idolatry had always been a nagging problem but Jezebel took this to a completely new level. She was zealous for her Canaanite deities and used her power to persecute and kill the prophets of the one true God. Elijah alone stood up against Jezebels persecutions. After his famous showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, Elijah fled to Mount Sinai to escape Jezebels vengeance and to seek guidance from God. I dont have a fraction of Elijahs faith or faithfulness, but I felt like I needed to escape from the spirit of Jezebel and seek guidance.
I discussed the idea of visiting the mountain with my friend and then went to inquire of the Bedouin man who ran the beach encampment where we were staying. It was late in the morning, approaching noon, and the Bedouin was just waking up after a long night of smoking hashish. He rubbed his eyes and told me it would only be possible to go to Mount Sinai if we could find two more people to join us; it was a long drive and the taxi driver would only go with a minimum of four people. I headed back to the beach disappointed, but I knew that if I were meant to go to the mountain, it would happen.
