When a fugitive said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead
said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?”
When he said, “No,” they said to him, “Say shibboleth.” And he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not
pronounce it right. Then they seized him
and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. And there fell at that time 42,000
Ephraimites. [The Bible, Judges 12:
5-6]
When I read the above
extract as the preface to an essay on the importance of right pronunciation, my
first response was a laugh. As a teacher
of English language and literature, I was struck by the deep irony as well as
dark humour in the Biblical episode.
Language became a tool for identifying the enemy. And the word used for the identification test
is “shibboleth” which means ‘a password, phrase, custom, or usage that reliably
distinguishes the members of one group or class from another.’ The author of the Book of Judges revealed a
profound sense of black humour by slitting 42,000 throats with the word ‘shibboleth.’ The choice of the word makes the massacre
profoundly absurd.
The Jews had reasons to
cultivate such sense of profound absurdity. Their
god, Yahweh, was fond of playing the cat-and-mice game with them. Right from the time he teased their first
ancestors with the forbidden apple up to the creation of Israel under the aegis
of the United Nations Organisation, Yahweh loved to play the nauseatingly
endless series of condemnation-redemption game.
He would let his chosen race eat the forbidden apple first. Then he would send them a leader [the Judges,
for example] to redeem them from their sins. The vicious cycle of sin and redemption. That was
Yahweh’s favourite game. One of
Shakespeare’s characters put it succinctly, “As flies to wanton boys, so
are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.”
In one of my favourite
classical movies, The Fiddler on the
Roof, the protagonist who is a Jew asks Yahweh, “For once, why don’t you
choose some other race as your beloved?” [Quoted from memory]
Yahweh listened to his
prayer, it seems. He handed over his
mantle to America eventually. Having
given the Jews their Promised Land in Israel, America decided who the sinners in
the world were and how the redemption would be carried out. First the Communists and then the Muslims
became the Chosen Race of America. Those
who could not pronounce the American shibboleths had their throats slit at
countless fords.
As America is getting visibly
tired of playing Yahweh, China and India are emerging to fill the potential vacuum.
There won’t be a world
without Yahweh and his cat-and-mice games.
Not even in our personal lives. Godmen
and other such missionary incarnations (many of whom are women today) become the wanton boys (and tomboys) in our lives. There is no escape!
And the cycle of power and plunder goes on. We are, but mere play things to "Gods" and powerful people. It is the way with the world ever since evolution came into being and we evolved
ReplyDeleteYes, no change. Even Shakespeare found it the same.
DeleteAm never disappointed by your blog, never once have I gone without adding value to my mind :) This one here, every line can be taken off and create a separate post for it ..
ReplyDeleteI must thank my last two years for it; they taught me lessons that I could never have imagined. The teachers were a Godman and his women.
DeleteA powerful commentary on the state of things today. Highlights the absurdity as well as the morbidity of playing 'Gods' - unfortunately the 'playthings' are the ones who suffer.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever wondered why people still go on believing in gods and religions even when they have been made mere playthings all along? I have sought an answer to this for long and got it too. People are blind and choose to stay blind out of helplessness and inability.
DeleteShared the article.Of course it is great,no doubts about that.
ReplyDeleteUh,just out of curiosity,I have been observing a lot of articles on religion these days.Obviously,it is a very substantial topic to talk about,a very necessary thing it is to talk about but the propensity to talk about it has definitely increased.Why is it that?
And......are communists a race?
When you see lives being ruined by a certain force which is perceived generally as benign or even sacred, what do you do but question it in ways available to you? I'm doing that. That's the answer to your curiosity.
DeleteRace is a concept which has no clear definition even in subjects which study it. Communists are not a race. But they were treated almost as such by the US. At least as an enemy with one face whether the face belonged to the erstwhile USSR or present Latin America.