"It means you have taken the first step," I said. "But let me tell you, the situation isn't hopeless after that. The same platform for freedom also applies to the political sphere. The unfortunate reality is that society has become stuck in a rut. We've become content with living 'small' and 'poor' lives in kind of mythological existence as if there were no alternatives. This smallness is affecting our politics and economics, our lack of peace in the world, and its destroying our future."

      "Israel is destroying our future," Indira interrupted. "Zionism is a trap of poverty, emptiness, desolation, in humanist terms. That's how Mary defines Zion."

      "Oh, it is easy to blame others," I interjected. "The Zion of emptiness and desolation has become a universal phenomenon. It's within our smallness in thinking. I speak from experience. Ross, Heather, Sylvia and I, even Fred to some degree have been stuck in the rut of smallness in thinking for a dozen years. The whole world has become that way, even politically. And let me shock you, the root for us getting out of our trap is located in Israel, in what the name Israel really represents."

      Indira shook her head in disbelief.

      "First, let me tell you how the war in Yugoslavia was ended," I said to her. "Do you remember the war in 1991 between the Serbs, the Croatians, and the Bosnians. Croatia declared its independence to get out of communism. A war resulted. The war became a horrible mess. All three factions of Yugoslavia were fighting each other. Right at the blackest days in that war when it seemed that the killing would never stop, some friends of a friend of Fred intervened and convinced at lest two of the factions that they were set up to fight each other for imperial objectives. The people that intervened managed to get people of those two factions to see themselves as human beings first and foremost, and to recognize that it wasn't in their interest to fight one-another. Consequently they stopped fighting each other and banded together to counter the real enemy in the region, the imperial faction. That's how they won. The war ended in less than a month. That friend of Fred whose people had intervened in that feud with a sense of humanity had told Fred at the time when it all seemed hopeless that the war has getting worse by the day for everyone concerned, that it would all be over in a month. When Fred was told that this would happen, he couldn't believe that such a 'miracle' as he saw it was possible. But it wasn't a miracle. It was a process reflecting a principle, and so it happened. The war was over in less than a month. This can happen again, Indira."

      "And key for that lies in Israel?" she said, looking astonished.

      "The key lies in the name, Israel," I corrected her. "I lies in what the name represents. It lies in getting back to the truth that we are all human beings together. The name Israel is associated with a profound discovery of this truth. Going back to very ancient times we find ample evidence in biblical history that the truth rarely stood in high regard, especially in Hebrew history. We are told that Jacob, the person whose name was later changed to Israel, had cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright by deceiving his father in a conspiracy cooked up by his mother. The situation had apparently became so hot that Jacob had to flee for his life as his brother threatened to kill him for the perpetrated treachery. Consequently Jacob fled to his mother's brother, Laban, where he served for Laban's two daughters that became his wives. But while living there he was deceived and cheated. He didn't receive the girl for his wife that he had bargained for, but found that he had married her sister instead. Consequently he had to work for Laban for another bunch of years for the girl of his dreams. But even then, when it was all done, and many years later when he sought to return home, the treacheries continued. Jacob then cheated Laban, his benefactor of many years, by setting up a fraud for dividing the flock before left. The fraudulent scheme gave him the best flocks and left little for Laban. It was done by trickery. Thus the roots of treachery evidently ran deep in that family. Also the train of treachery that Jacob had been riding on had continued on with his children. Jacob had twelve children with his two wives. But Israel, as Jacob was later called, had loved his son Joseph more than all his other sons. Consequently the brothers hated Joseph and in time conspired to kill him. Ah, but then one of the brothers conspired against the conspiracy, aiming to prevent the killing. In the unfolding process of multiple deceptions Joseph's life was actually saved, but he was sold as a slave instead, whereby he came to Egypt. Now, in order for the brothers to hide their crime from their father they took Joseph's coat that they had stripped from him, dipped it in blood and rent it, and told their father that Joseph had been devoured by an evil beast. The truth evidently wasn't worth much in those days, just as we find this today. Against this kind of treachery in the family background the multiple perversions that were implemented of the Mosaic code later on, for political objectives, was evidently seen as but a small step, perhaps even the normal thing to do for the sake of expediency. However, something had happened to Joseph amidst all of that, which should have changed the entire trend, but which has been conveniently forgotten. Nevertheless, what happened there is key to the survival and the advance of civilization. It reflects a spiritual development within the thinking of Jacob that culminated suddenly into a profound paradigm shift to a higher level perception of our universal humanity. It was this paradigm shift within of a dawning principle that earned him the name Israel. The principle was brought to light shortly after Jacob's last treachery of cheating Laban in dividing the flocks and then fleeing hastily with his wives and his children in the middle of the night. The paradigm shift happened while he was on his way returning home. He found himself suddenly in an agonizing struggle. He was literally forced to consider the fundamental question of what a human being is. He was told that his brother Esau that had earlier threatened to kill him for him stealing his birthright was now on his way with 200 men to intercept him and block his way back. It put Jacob into a frightening bind. He couldn't escape by running away. He had no place to run to. He couldn't go back to Laban whom he had cheated. This bridge had been burnt. Neither could he go forward. The way home was now blocked by Esau. Having run out of options he remained where he was and struggled with his impasse all the night through. This desperate occasion might have been the first in his life in which he found himself forced to search for a profound answer that was rooted in the principle of Truth. He might have been asking himself again and again: What is a human being? What is civilization? What are the principles of civilization? We don't know the details, but we are told that when the morning dawned and his quest for discovery was finally won, an angel blessed him there and gave him this new name, Israel. The new name signified that a whole new era was dawning. And that was indeed true. Later that day, when the transformed Jacob, now named Israel, finally met his brother face to face, they both met each other with kisses and an embrace in which he was able to say to his brother, I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God."

Next Page

|| - page index - || - chapter index - || - Exit - ||

Stories about  Sex from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche