Chapter Seven - Down Among the Women

  IYAR – May

  2240 BC

  1764 AAC

  Na’amah

  * * * * * *

  It’s quiet. Peaceful.

  Noach and Shem have left to climb big mountain. They are seeking guidance about the war that has been raging between the tribes, going on fourteen years. Japheth and Shem reached some understanding during the First Fruits gathering, but really it is their children and grandchildren who are warring, led of course by Cham’s offspring, particularly his grandson the tyrant Nimrod.

  Cham’s son Kena’an, moving onto lands allotted to Shem’s offspring, and refusing to budge doesn’t help the situation. Although the curse appears not yet activated, it seems that our sons, bar Shem, have forgotten that Elohiym is very patient and everything happens in His time. Kena’an has aligned himself with the Raphaim and other hybrid giant clans, perhaps in defiance of the curse. To be slaves to both Shemite tribes and Japhethite tribes would be abhorrent to him. It’s been one hundred years since they started to build the Tower, fifty-seven since they finished, or were stopped I should say, and twenty-nine years since The Dispersion. But we’ll get to that in due course.

  After habikkurim, the wave offering of barley, we broke camp and returned to our compound east of the mountain at Lake Van where Noach has planted extensive vineyards. Japheth, his wife and entourage left for the long journey back to the Northern lands, but Sedeqetele has remained with us until her husband returns from seeking Elohiym on the mountain. She is as delighted by Emzara as I am. Since Emzara has adjusted to the pace and routine of our lives at Van she is a wonderful companion, curious and willing to learn. She is also an unusual little girl for her age in that as well as being a born storyteller, she has the capacity to listen and not be embarrassed by silence. A quality I appreciate at my age. Sometimes she bombards me with questions, but she recognises when it’s time to be quiet, to observe, to respect her elders.

  The little girl reminds me of Noach when he came to the Valley of Sanctuary in the Old World. She too sleepwalks, as though there is something she has forgotten, or must do. She also has nightmares that have her waking up crying or screaming. She will cling to me, damp with sweat, trembling, her breath shuddering, until she calms down and falls asleep. Sometimes she tells me her visions, and I share stories that she memorizes easily. During the day she is eager to help with chores and listen to the women talk. She has stopped talking about her past life in Babel and is not so obviously on high alert. Her nervous system has quietened down from the energy, drama and dangers of the bustling city.

  It’s a beautiful summers day, Sede, Emzara and I join Dinyah and the other bondservants at the women’s part of the lake, as they do the laundry. The lake is saltwater, a remnant from the flood, with a small island, Akdamar, where Noach goes to fish for the only species of fish found in the lake, the darekh. Noach says that the lake was one of the flood portals, an underwater geyser from the fountains of the deep, and now forms a basin that contains the lake and the fertile lower reaches. He also says there is an old city under the water, but I am not one for boats and I don’t care to see it.

  He created a filter through vetiver grass and a waterfall of different rocks that cleanse and filter the water into a series of rock-pools where we wash and bathe. Though the lake has wonderful healing properties and there is a small cove where we sometimes swim in the summer months. Noach also planted a screen of almond trees, which in spring create a cloud of pale pink and white against the turquoise of the lake, but now in early summer give way to a cool, green shade. Beyond them are orchards of apricots, sour cherries and plums, ripening fields of grain, wheat to be harvested in Sivan, olives and grapes and figs ready in Tammuz and Av. After the flood the soil was rich and Yahuah blessed us with bounteous yields. Our sheep and cattle quickly multiplied and the clay mud that settled in the plains was perfect for firing bricks and building comfortable dwellings that kept the heat and cold out. Winters seemed to get increasingly cold, but I have come to love the changing seasons that are part of this new world.

  Emzara is being taught how to beat the washing against the rocks; Sede leans forward conspiratorially, speaking in hushed tones,

  Mother you should know that it was not Cham and his seed, but my grandson, Qeynan, son of Arpakshad and his woman Rasu’eya; it is Qeynan who is responsible for the release of the Watcher’s teachings. Yes, from the line of Shem, Na’amah. Qeynan discovered tablets of the teachings deep in the ruins of an ancient, buried city. Arpakshad taught him writing; he transcribed the knowledge onto scrolls of vellum, and he shared this knowledge, not with Shem for fear he would inform Noach, but with his cousins.

  How long ago? I believe Noach has been aware for some time.

  In the thirtieth Jubilee, I don’t know exactly when Na’amah. Before negotiations began to divide the earth, before the birth of Peleg. All I know is that our children’s children are enamoured of the teachings and have romanticised the heroes of old. They wish to return to what they perceive as the magical times before the flood. They have taught themselves the omens of the sun, moon and stars, and all the signs in the heavens. They have sinned owing to it. They are not walking in The Way, but the path of destruction, parting from each other, envious of one another, and as we have seen the past decade or so, shedding each other’s blood.

  And the Tower? Did you ever see it?

  I saw it Mother, when it was near completion. Nimrod had all involved, from all the tribes. He has been dabbling in the dark arts since receiving the teachings. He has surrounded himself with magicians, witches and soothsayers; one called Zoroaster has great influence on him. The tower was built like the ziggurats of old, but made of fired bricks not stone, but I never saw one reach such great heights, it was like a stairway to heaven.

  I heard he was trying to reach El Elyon, to fight Him and overthrow heaven. It sounds so absurd, madness!

  Nimrod used such incitement to fool the people, that he had convinced could live lives of glory without Elohyim; that they would storm the gates of the heavens and overthrow Yah and live how they pleased. I think it was more about bringing the gods of the skies down to earth once more, a portal perhaps; a gateway for the old gods to come back to earth?

  The old gods? You mean the Fallen Ones? So, it was all about chicanery and sleight of hand, because they have all been imprisoned in the depths of Tartarus.

  Na’amah, I cannot verify this, but there has been talk that some giants survived the flood, in catacombs and tunnels deep in the earth, or in the sky cities that some of the Watcher false god pantheons created. Also, they say that a second incursion of angels may have interfered with the seed of mankind.

  Giants survived the flood. For a whole year, under the earth? More angels you say, that have been tempted by temporary power and glory, when they know the fate of the terrible Ones. How can that be?

  Sede shrugged her shoulders in resignation.

  There are things I can find no explanation for Na’amah. How glorious and powerful angels should choose to leave the eternal habitation of the heavens, which we in our advanced age, long for, I cannot fathom. Perhaps they are not marrying and contaminating their heavenly flesh with earthly women this time? But there have been giants born in the line of Japheth and in the line of Cham. They are purposely inter-marrying them and creating tribes of giants to act as their mighty men in battle and to build their citadels. Kena'an, as you know, is a giant. I believe that Nimrod has knowledge, gained from the writings of the Watchers that can cause abnormal growth both in the womb, and outside the womb.

  I do know that they have been using witchcraft to call in the spirits of the nephiliym, practicing idolatry and spiritual harlotry. They have released demons back into the land, and it seems that there are many people willing to invite unclean spirits into the temple of their bodies in exchange for riches and power. I have seen Nimrod, even before he became a murderous tyrant, and he is like one possessed by a spirit not his own. The sacrifice of infants has begun again …

  We are interrupted by Emzara and quickly stop our discussion. She has tired of women’s chores, and throws herself down beside us, puts her head in my lap and her thumb in her mouth. The women start to drape the clean washing over rocks and from tree branches to dry in the sun whilst they break for some food. Diynah joins us and unpacks the basket: with some sweet, plaited honey bread wrapped in cloth, still warm and soft as a down pillow; a terracotta jar of soft goats’ cheese; another of honey; and leftover lamb wrapped in flax – for the growing child. Emzara who loves animals has a practical approach to those animals that live to feed and clothe us. I still prefer only to eat meat at Shabbat when we often prepare a slow cooked stew before dusk, or roast chicken or fish in the times of celebration and remembrance, the moedim, the appointed times, that were given to Noach when we disembarked from the ark.

  We ate so much meat when we emerged from the ark into the strange barren world. A world of stinking mud and fat carrion birds feasting on the remains of sea creatures left behind from the subsided waters; and other older remains, what they were, animal or human, was no longer discernible. We needed the sustenance of the meat whilst we planted crops and foraged in a land just beginning to green up with herbs and weeds, that seemed familiar, similar but not the same as those in the old world. Now I would rather eat seasonal fruits, wild greens, slow cooked broths and eggs. My mind wanders again back to those days. Emzara as though reading my mind, presses me for a story as she chews on a lamb shank, her fingers and mouth greasy with fat, pulling the meat from the bone with her teeth like any healthy carnivore.

  Food, I declare, exuberantly.

  Today I will tell you the story of how we came to leave the ark and eat meat for the first time. We had been on the arc for exactly one hundred and ten days. It was the seventeenth day of the seventh month when the ark came to rest, or rather jolted us with an alarming, screeching, scraping sound. Yahuah guided the ark into a groove between the highest peaks of Mount Lubal on the Ararat ranges. Of course, we didn’t know that then, we didn’t know where we were, we could see the rock that held us but still nothing else. Only water and sky. We were both excited and frustrated. Grandfather Noach was as usual being enigmatic, unmoved by the new development.

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  Enigmatic? Emzara rolled the new word around her tongue and pursed her lips.

  Your grandfather …

  Great, great grandfather corrects Emzara.

  Yes, indeed motek, he is a puzzle, a mystery, a riddle to be solved. He is a holy man of Yah.

  Is that good? Being enigmatic? To be holy? How do you become holy? My father Nimrod, The Mighty Hunter says that Holy people are just pretenders …

  I cut her off.

  You have seen Noach when he returns from deep prayer, motek, and veils his face; you have seen the light that scorches to the very marrow of our bones…

  Yes Sivata he scares me; but not in the same way as when the soothsayers that live in the court of my father would be dragged out at his command, to decipher a dream or foretell the outcome of a battle: gibbering in strange tongues, with snakes around their necks, casting prophecies with bones and rattling their drums made of skulls.

  Emzara was up on her feet acting out the movements with the exaggerated facial expressions of the pagan priests in such a way that she had us all laughing.

  Let’s just say Emzara, that the stories you hear down among the women, are just for us, women’s ears only. So, we thank you for showing us such a vivid picture of the pretenders at court. Noach is not one of them, he may be a mystery, but he is not mean-spirited, nor thoughtless. We women share our stories, we learn them, we learn from them, and then we tell our daughters and so it goes on. Shall I continue with the story?

  Emzara grinned and nodded, pleased at her ability to make us laugh.

  Now Noach declared:

  “It will be some time still before we will see land or leave the ark. Let us remain calm and patient. We are at the halfway mark only. The water must recede. The land must dry. We will continue to tend to the animals and wait.”

  He spoke truth, but we were deflated. It was another seventy-four days before we saw other mountain peaks appear. The wait was excruciating.

  Excruciating? Another new word for the child.

  Agony. Unendurable, we could not bear it, and yet of course we did. It’s like a pregnant woman who has gone over her time. She is so, so uncomfortable, she is longing for her child, and yet, she is also anxious as birth is always accompanied by danger. We longed to be free from the confines of the ark, yet we were also nervous about what the receding waters would reveal. After another forty days Noach sent out a raven.

  Why a raven Sivata?

  A raven is a carrion bird. It will eat the remains of dead flesh.

  Emzara seemed to understand my meaning and was suitably chastened at the thought.

  The raven did not return, or rather it came back to the ark several times to rest and shelter but left again daily to feed and no longer accepted food from us. After the sixth day the raven came for its mate, cawing loudly, and then they left forever. On the seventh day Noach released a dove, which returned after a few days exhausted and weak. Another seven days and another dove that again returned but this time in its beak a small olive twig with three slim, dusty green leaves. We were excited but Noach was calm and resolute. Not yet. The first dove was again sent out, returned for her mate and they too left.

  “This means they have found trees to nest in, food to eat. It has not rained for some time. Surely Father the earth will be dried, and we can leave this mountain and start our lives?”

  Cham and Japheth, now his ally against Shem and Noach, were eager to start their lives again, as of course we all were. Noach sniffed the air like a hunting dog. The smell of stinking mud, the putrid smell of our old life rotting away: everything living, everything with breath, everything green trapped in debris, clay and slime as the flood waters sluiced away, descending back into the deep. The sounds that accompanied the smells were equally disturbing. The very foundations of the earth seemed to groan as they shifted, forming new landmasses, mountains and deep valleys. New seas and oceans formed, new lakes, indeed the new world was screaming as it was birthed and emerged again from the primordial mud. It was like the world was being born again and where it had once been one temperate landmass that rose out of the waters of the deep; it was now fragmented, harsher, wounded.

  We were held in the ark like it was a womb: waiting, waiting. As the earth settled into position the noises turned into a bubbling anthem of popping, burping, and trickling. A constant dripping that was pure torture. Some of the birds and flying insects left the ark, but Noach held his ground. It was another twenty-nine days before he removed part of the roof covering on the arc and we came out onto the expanded deck and surveyed the landscape.

  I confess it was both majestic and awful. It was so foreign, stark brown mountains, brown valleys, though in the distance we could see some patches of green. I felt like weeping. I did weep, but pretended to Noach that it was because I was feeling gratitude. Cham knew my pretence; I felt him put his hand to the small of my back and then take my hand in his like he had when he was a little boy. Cham started up again, to try to convince his father that we could surely now leave the ark. Noach took a stool from the living area and threw it over the edge. The stool slowly sank and disappeared into the still soft mud with a loud gulping sound. Nothing more needed to be said, we could not release the animals until the earth was completely dry.

  As we turned to go back inside, the ark suddenly lurched and tipped, sliding forward through the sucking mud, gradually at first, and then gathering momentum, tumbling and listing from side to side as it traversed the uneven terrain. We managed to hold onto the ropes that secured the giant drogues that were tied at intervals around the ark, and like they had in the worst of the early rainstorms, they served their function in stabilising the vessel until it reached a steady pace that was, almost, exhilarating.

  Chams started to whoop with delight and gradually we all relaxed somewhat, as we realised that Yahuah was taking us further down the mountain, even when we slid sideways or spun around backwards and then righted again. We travelled at least twelve thousand feet through a bow wave of watery mud, like a watery salute, stones thwacking against the sides, the animals maintaining a ruckus, until we came to a stop in a flatter, broader valley. We could see the main peak of Ararat belch viscous, black smoke and a few trickles of fiery red lava run down its side. What did this new world hold for us? This was our entrance and welcome to the place we named Mount Judi, The Place of Landing.

  It was another fifty-seven days before Noach declared that today was the day. Our priority was to release the animals. We had been confined on the ark exactly three hundred and seventy-one days. Some of the animals were now full grown, some had gone into hibernation for several months, but all were alive and well. We assembled at the ramp on the second floor at first light. Even the animals were alert with anticipation. The sun rose as Yahuah slowly lowered the ramp door; it barely made any sound. The sun poured into the animal level for the first time in over a year. The animals as before, when they entered the ark, were mostly patient and docile, others initially reluctant to leave the safety of their stalls. The domestic and sacrificial animals remained stoically in their pens softly lowing and enjoying the warmth of the sun. Oh, the joy of the creatures as they leapt and frolicked and ran. I still love to see cattle that have been wintered in stables on the first day of spring, that’s what it was like. Sweet relief. Pure joy.

  Then as though they were being led by invisible angelic beings, the animals made their way down the mountain. Some turned to look at us, as though mutely conveying their thanks. Others growled and bared their teeth as though to say – it’s different now, now we are enemies. They seemed to know exactly where they were to go. Creatures that we never saw again left us forever, unfaltering, crossing seas and continents to new lands as though a shepherd called to them, “This way, this is where you belong.”

  How?

  I anticipated Emzara’s question because I had asked it myself.

  Well, I can’t speak for all the creatures, some maybe flew or swam, but in the Old days when the Nephiliym were warring, with technology that could melt whole cities, they built underground citadels and tunnels. Some of them can still be found, some are now under water, and some of the tunnels were used by the animals to cross the length and breadth of the earth to the new habitations that Elohiym had prepared for them to thrive in.

  And what do you think was the first thing that Noach did when we stepped on dry land? I asked Emzara.

  She wrinkled her nose as she contemplated the question.

  Hhhmmm … Did he dance Sivata?

  Then she laughed at her own wit. Sedeqetele stifled a smile.

  Noach took his sons higher up the mountain where he spied the perfect large flat- topped rock. Using picks, they carved a channel in the rock to drain the blood of the first sacrifice to be made in this new world. He proceeded to sacrifice a kid goat, an ox and a lamb, one of each of the clean animals, sprinkled with frankincense and sweet spices; an ascending smoke sacrifice, holah, a holahcaust, everything burnt until nothing remained. Even then Cham could barely contain his irritation and what he deemed to be waste of good food. It was accepted by Yahuah as atonement for the guilt that the very earth carried, and a symbol from Noach that he, that we, were giving our all to Yah, trusting in Him to prosper us, and thanking Him for preserving and protecting us.

  When the offering was completely burnt up a soft rain began to fall, and the very first rainbow appeared in the sky. It was a wondrous and blessed sign to us all. The rainbow was the brightest I’ve ever seen, sparkling like jewels in the sky, and it lasted for hours. Whereas the bow pointing upwards was a symbol of war, the rainbow curved down towards the earth is a symbol of hope and life. We saw Noach praying and go into a trance as he communed with our Creator. He came down to us and bade us sit as he revealed the heart of Yahuah: a new, eternal and permanent covenant, a covenant to last to the end of time.

  Never again would the entire earth be flooded with water. Never again would Yah step in and intervene. No matter that sin and depravity would escalate, the earth would operate according to the natural laws that Yah had instituted. Man would have free will to act according to his own judgement. Yahuah would not violate man’s free will, even if sometimes evil would appear to prevail over good. Unless.

  Unless?

  Only through prayer would Yah step in supernaturally. Only prayer could supersede any natural law governing the creation. So it is that we see bad men prosper and prevail whilst good men and women suffer, come under the rule of cruel tyrants and enter into constant war and oppression.

  We were then given permission to eat meat. The harmonious order that had existed between animals and humans would no longer exist. Animals would begin to fear mankind and humans would fear many, many animals. Whereas in the Garden we had been given every green plant and seed baring fruit to eat, in this new world we would need the sustenance of meat, with the caveat that it’s blood must be drained, for the life of the flesh is in the blood. We were given the seven laws to give all mankind to the very end of time. We were prohibited from idolatry; murder; stealing; sexual immorality; blasphemy, consuming blood; and the just laws to govern society. Just as A’dam was instructed to go forth and fill the earth, so were we.

  That night as the sun set and the stars were bright in the sky with a sliver of a new moon; we feasted on meat. It was delicious and satisfying. We acknowledged that now animals would die for us, sustain us, and we were at one with them. The earth has suffered because of man’s depravity, everything is affected, the animals, the trees and plants: the whole of creation.

  Even dogs Sivata?

  No motek, not dogs, I joked,

  Dogs are a gift of hope to man, loyal friends who show us unconditional love. They are a gift along with many, many good things. All good things come from Elohiym, and with them, the hope of a coming millennium when all things, all creation will revert back to how it was in Eden; where the animals talk to us, where the lamb and the lion lay down together and the Light of Yahuah walks with us in the cool of the evening filling our hearts with shalom.