Alex Mitchell - The 13th Tablet

‘You want to pull out that stone?’ asked Jack.

‘Yes.’

‘I’ll run to the van and get a crowbar,’ he ran back through the synagogue.

The old man continued clearing the stone’s mortar.

‘Can you tell me what you dreamed of, Eli?’ asked Mina.

‘I dreamed that the Ari came to me. He was pointing at the inscription affixed to the facade, outside.’

‘I didn’t pay much attention to it. What does it say?’

Jack had returned with the crowbar. Eli stood up to let him do his work and continued his conversation with Mina.

‘It says the original synagogue dates back to the 14th century but that it was damaged in an earthquake in 1759 and then destroyed in 1837 after a much stronger earthquake. The building was restored and rebuilt in parts a few years later thanks to a donation by Rabbi Yitzhak Guetta of Trieste. The inscription on the facade refers to this Italian rabbi. Recently, a team of surveyors started a restoration project here and one of the specialists showed me which parts of the building pre-date the two earthquakes. This stone I am trying to loosen is the only original stone from the Ari’s room. I just thought that maybe someone stumbled on documents among the rubble and respectfully put them back behind the new wall when it was reconstructed.

‘We’ll know soon enough,’ said Jack.

With a strong pull he managed to prise the stone out of the wall. Eli and Mina joined Jack on their hands and knees. Eli brought a candle a little closer to the empty space and pulled out a bundle of papers wrapped in an oil skin. The old man was trembling all over and kept repeating, ‘It’s a Chanukah miracle, it’s a Chanukah miracle.’

Eli was so excited he immediately proceeded to translate the text written in a mixture of Aramaic and Hebrew to his two avid listeners. Mina jotted as much as she could from his live translation in her own notebook.

‘ Safed, 2 Kheshvan 5332. ’ Eli thought for a while and said ‘I may be wrong, but that would approximately be October 1571.’

‘I will recount here faithfully the events that occurred during the last week, so that these extraordinary events do not come to pass into oblivion.

‘The opening words of the text clearly identify it as a chronicle.’ Eli said, ‘I have to skip a few lines; the document is illegible.’

‘…months ago, I was putting some order in the archives of our synagogue when I came across a bundle of papers which seemed much older than the documents I usually deal with. As I opened the bundle, the typical musty smell of old paper momentarily took me aback. I delicately prised open the papers and to my astonishment realised it was a lengthy letter written by the eccentric traveller, Benjamin of Tudela three centuries ago, to Morderchai of Safed. I could not understand what these letters were doing there. I felt much enthusiasm at the discovery of such a correspondence. It has always been my dream to travel to faraway lands, and I looked forward to reading some of Tudela’s accounts, from his own hand. After the usual civilities, and business issues, the tone of the letter became very enigmatic. And, when I got to Tudela’s description of an ancient and spellbinding tablet kept in the Jerusalem Temple that had survived the coming of the Romans I immediately brought the whole bundle of papers to my master.

Eli stopped and said, ‘This is extraordinary. A tablet…in the Temple in Jerusalem! If it survived the Romans, he means that the tablet was still there after the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. This next part is illegible.’

‘…that night. There was our beloved Ari, my holy master Rabbi Chaim Vital, myself and…’

‘That’s strange,’ Eli said, ‘A name has been crossed out. I’ll continue.’

‘[XXX], who we all thought had lost his mind, was sitting on a chair at the back of the room as he always did. On the main table, my master had spread out for all to see the remains of Tudela’s letter. After a while seven other rabbis came to join the session. There was…’

‘Illegible’ said Eli, sighing with frustration.

‘…in his letter to this Mordechai, Benjamin of Tudela entrusts his friend with a secret. In the archives of a synagogue in Nineveh, he read about an enigmatic clay tablet that had been sent from Nineveh to Yerushalayim and hidden… in the Kodesh Hakodashim.’

Eli murmured, ‘that’s the name for the holy of holies, the most sacred part of the temple in Jerusalem.’

‘As soon as my master uttered these words, the room seemed to bustle with energy. All the rabbis started talking at once. Our beloved Ari stood up…’

‘I can’t read any of the following. Let me jump to the next paragraph,’ said Eli.

‘…all eyes focused on his radiance, as he seldom speaks and his words inspire our every thought. He said ‘Thank you Chaim. Rabbi Benjamin’s letter describes a tablet written in the old language of the Sumerians, from a time preceding the destruction of the first temple. The Babylonian King’s advisers recorded odd discoveries while trying to read omens of floods and earthquakes. According to this letter, the tablet is a Babylonian rendering of Noah’s Mabul.’

‘Mabul means a flood or a river, but here it means the deluge,’ Eli explained.

‘It enables its possessor, if he can decipher its inner knowledge, to observe nature’s secrets, and prepare for the next…’ Eli stopped for a moment and said, ‘I’m not sure how to translate the next phrase, but “Godly changes of nature” is about as close as I can get.’

Eli stopped for a moment and said, ‘I'm not sure how to translate the next phrase, but “Godly changes of nature” is about as close as I can get.’

‘…Godly changes of nature. We were all in shock. I shuddered, as I half-envisioned the mystical consequences of our beloved Rabbi’s last words: ‘The next Godly changes.’

My holy master was the first to speak. He turned to our beloved Ari and said, ‘Master, I have also read the letter, and do not doubt its veracity nor Benjamin of Tudela’s assessment. Yet I wonder about three things. First, where is the tablet at present, if it survived the Roman destruction? Two, I am troubled by the idea that there could be more Mabuls to come. Finally, even if we were able to predict when the next Mabuls were to occur, and this is a problem in itself, as it would involve divining practices, which are forbidden to us, who are we to disturb His Holy Will?’ My master had unravelled everyone’s thoughts in the methodical fashion he had learned from his own master.’

‘Here’s another damaged passage I can’t decipher,’ said Eli.

‘…we can be sure that if we are all seated in this room tonight, The Holy One Blessed be He… saved the tablet from the Romans, so that we would find it at the right moment in time. Everyone agreed with the speaker.

My holy master reminded us all of King David’s psalm: “Like rivers they raised, O HASHEM, like rivers they raised their voice, like rivers they shall raise their destructiveness”. ‘This means that the tablet can only refer to other Mabuls not The Mabul, as The Holy One Blessed be He had promised Noah that The Mabul would never happen again’.

Then, Rabbi Tammim…’

‘I don’t know of this rabbi,’ said Eli

‘…who was tapping his foot impatiently as was his habit, cried out that just as Noah was saved because he was the only just man of his time, no-one should interfere with His Holy Will. When these Mabuls would happen the survivors would, once again be the only just ones. He paused, and then hammered out each word: The Holy One Blessed be He is Gevurah Shebechesed…’

‘In Kabbalah,’ said Eli, ‘there are ten revelations of the Creator’s will. They are called Sephirot in Hebrew. What we have here is a combination of two revelations: strength and kindness or gevurah bechesed . He’s saying that God acts with the firmness and benevolence of a father who can see further than his children.’